Saving Seafood

‘Salt of the Sea’ documents challenges for fishermen

October 17, 2018 — The Dock-U-Mentaries Film Series continues on Friday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m., with “The Salt of the Sea.”

When the desire to make a living from the sea intersects with politics and corruption, commercial fishermen are driven to their limits and beyond. “Salt of the Sea” is the story of commercial groundfishing in New England — its history, regulations and colorful characters who refuse to give up on their dreams.

Long independent, fishermen have been plying the Atlantic coastal waters for centuries. “Poor scientific research leading to unfair catch limits, overzealous law enforcement practices and a federal agency that is missing millions of dollars in fishermen’s fines are the backdrop for understanding the frustrations of these fishermen,” the center said in a news release.

The award-winning film by Third Wave Films was an official selection at the Hamptons Take 2 Film Festival and the Long Island Film Festival.

Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month at 7 p.m. in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, 33 William St. in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Warren again calls for Rafael’s permits to stay in New Bedford

October 17, 2018 — Elizabeth Warren repeated a call she voiced last year by sending another letter to NOAA regarding Carlos Rafael’s federal fishing permits.

The Massachusetts senator addressed her two-page letter to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, acting NOAA Administrator Benjamin Friedman and assistant Administrator for Fisheries Chris Oliver and asked that NOAA keep the 42 permits the agency is targeting in its civil action in New Bedford.

“These permits cover a significant portion of the ground fish industry and have an economic footprint that goes far beyond fish landings,” the letter reads.

Warren sent a letter to NOAA last October, too, echoing the same sentiment.

NOAA filed a superseding civil action last month. In it NOAA sought to revoke the operator permits of 17 of Rafael’s captains. It also listed more than $3 million in fines. The move built on a civil action first filed in January where NOAA targeted Rafael’s permits.

Warren said in the letter that the permits support many innocent third-party businesses such as fish auctions, seafood processors, gear suppliers, ice providers, welders, engine mechanics and restaurants.

“The Port of New Bedford is vital to the economic health of the region and the federal government has a duty and responsibility to not cause significant economic harm to this community,” her letter read. “Removing these permits from New Bedford would do lasting damage to families and businesses that have already suffered greatly through no fault of their own. I urge you all to do everything that is necessary to ensure that does not happen.”

Even before NOAA’s civil action, politicians and organizations have argued for the final destination of the permits. Mayor Jon Mitchell and the City Council have individually sent letters to NOAA asking that Rafael’s permits remain in New Bedford. Last week, Councilor-at-Large Brian Gomes brought a written motion on the topic to the Council Chambers.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker looks to modernize fishing fleet, fix education funding

October 17, 2018 — Gov. Charlie Baker visited The Standard-Times on Tuesday, three weeks before the Nov. 6 election. He said if he wins a second four-year term, he hopes to change the way charter and low-income schools are funded and invest in new technology for the fishing fleet.

Baker leads Democratic challenger Jay Gonzalez by a substantial margin in the polls, taking 68 percent of likely voters in a WBUR poll in late September and 66 percent in a UMass Lowell-Boston Globe poll this month. Some voters are still undecided, leaving Gonzalez polling in the 20s.

On fishing, Baker said he wants to work with vocational schools on opportunities in the industry, modernize technology used by the fishing fleet, and put state money into public infrastructure used by fish processors — such as state piers — that could increase the state’s processing capacity.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Hearings set on future of New England shrimp fishery

October 16, 2018 — Interstate fishing managers are holding a pair of public hearings about the future of the New England shrimp fishery, which continues to look bleak.

The shrimp fishery has been shut down since 2013 and the shrimp have been largely unavailable to the public. A new analysis of the shrimp stock says they remain depleted and threatened by warming waters.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is hosting the hearings on Nov. 5 in Augusta, Maine, and Nov. 6 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. An arm of the commission is set to vote on whether to reopen the fishery late in the month.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The State

With right whales at risk of extinction, regulators consider drastic action that could affect lobstermen

October 16, 2018 — With North Atlantic right whales increasingly at risk of extinction, federal regulators are considering drastic protection measures that could have sweeping consequences for the region’s lucrative lobster industry.

The species is in dangerous decline, with a record 17 right whale deaths and no recorded births last year, and entanglements in fishing gear are believed to be the leading cause of premature deaths. Three have died in US waters this year, including one 35-foot-long whale found Sunday about 100 miles east of Nantucket, federal officials said.

In an effort to protect the dwindling species, regulators last week hosted a series of often emotional meetings with fishermen, environmental advocates, and other federal and state officials about what to do.

The goal is to find a way to protect the whales while limiting the impact on lobstermen, who have hundreds of thousands of fishing lines that extend from their traps on the seafloor to their buoys on the surface of the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Researchers Find Bright Sides to Some Invasive Species

October 16, 2o18 — Off the shores of Newfoundland, Canada, an ecosystem is unraveling at the hands (or pincers) of an invasive crab.

Some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) to the south, the same invasive crab — the European green crab — is helping New England marshes rebuild.

Both cases are featured in a new study that shows how the impacts of these alien invaders are not always straightforward.

Around the world, invasive species are a major threat to many coastal ecosystems and the benefits they provide, from food to clean water. Attitudes among scientists are evolving, however, as more research demonstrates that they occasionally carry a hidden upside.

“It’s complicated,” said Christina Simkanin, a biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, “which isn’t a super-satisfying answer if you want a direct, should we keep it or should we not? But it’s the reality.”

Simkanin co-authored a new study showing that on the whole, coastal ecosystems store more carbon when they are overrun by invasive species.

Take the contradictory case of the European green crab. These invaders were first spotted in Newfoundland in 2007. Since then, they have devastated eelgrass habitats, digging up native vegetation as they burrow for shelter or dig for prey. Eelgrass is down 50 percent in places the crabs have moved into. Some sites have suffered total collapse.

That’s been devastating for fish that spend their juvenile days among the seagrass. Where the invasive crabs have moved in, the total weight of fish is down tenfold.

The loss of eelgrass also means these underwater meadows soak up less planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

In Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the same crab is having the opposite impact.

Off the coast of New England, fishermen have caught too many striped bass and blue crabs. These species used to keep native crab populations in check. Without predators to hold them back, native crabs are devouring the marshes.

Read the full story at VOA News

EDWARD KRAPLES: We need more, not less, competition for offshore wind

October 15, 2018 — The offshore wind era in the United States is here. With no need to burn fossil fuel, to enrich uranium, to dam rivers, or to build thousands of acres of solar panels, offshore wind is the most benign form of bulk power available to mankind.

Plans to seize the potential of offshore wind already have powerful momentum on the East Coast. Between Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey alone, more than 8,000 megawatts of wind power is envisioned. Building out 1,000 megawatts entails up to $5 billion of capital investment, drawing the attention of developers far and wide. So far, European companies — mostly giant, state-spawned enterprises with deep experience in the offshore — have been quickest to recognize this enormous investment opportunity. This week the Danish firm Ørsted bought the only remaining independent US company with offshore wind positions, Deepwater.

Ørsted’s acquisition of Deepwater naturally diminishes the amount of competition for offshore wind contracts. Policy-makers in Massachusetts should immediately take two actions: first, Gov. Charlie Baker should ask the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to increase the number of planned offshore wind lease areas from two to three. Another lease area would assure that the loss of Deepwater as a competitive entrant will be offset by the emergence of a new lease owner off the coast of Massachusetts.

Second, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources should even more strongly promote an ocean grid that serves as a platform for multiple offshore wind developers. The first request for proposals that have solicited offshore power did not stipulate anything about the transmission that will take it to market. Naturally, extremely large and competent offshore wind generators dearly wish to own both the wind farms and the conduit to land and have advanced arguments to the effect that, they, and they alone, can get the job done right.

But letting each generator plan and build and own major transmission lines to shore is akin to letting Walmart plan and build and own the interstate that leads to its stores using its customers money. Bundling generation and transmission limits bidders to the few that have the capacity to do both. Limiting the offshore opportunities to only a few competitors is never good for those paying the bills.

Read the full story at Commonwealth Magazine

MASSACHUSETTS: Falmouth and New Bedford Battle Across Buzzards Bay for NOAA Headquarters

October 15, 2018 — A dispute across Buzzards Bay may break out between Falmouth and the City of New Bedford.

The Falmouth Board of Selectmen has been working to keep the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.

Other elected officials in the area have also been lobbying for NOAA to keep the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole for weeks.

In late September, Falmouth selectmen teamed up with Barnstable County state representatives and state senators, area chambers of commerce, directors from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Woods Hole Research Center to pen a letter to the federal agency urging them to stay put in the small section of Falmouth.

Operations Chief of the NOAA Fisheries Science Center Garth Smelser responded to that letter, and met with Falmouth and Barnstable County officials on Friday to discuss the possible move.

“For almost 150 years we’ve been studying fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and the marine environments that sustain them, and right here in Barnstable County we have over 300 employees and contractors that complete that work. The Fisheries Commission started right here in our community. We’ve been doing wonderful marine science for those 150 years,” Smelser told elected officials. “Yes, we are very proud of our presence in Woods Hole, but we’re much bigger than just Woods Hole. We have 225 federal staff and 165 contract staff spread around the east coast from Orono, Maine all the way down to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The majority of our folks are centered in Woods Hole, but we’re just as proud of our other people.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishermen’s Wives tout Gov. Baker’s support

October 15, 2018 — Gov. Charlie Baker said he and his wife, Lauren, have taken 20 vacation days over the last three years. On 17 of them, he said, they’ve visited Gloucester.

The affinity between the governor and the city continued on Saturday morning, when the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association held an event at the Gloucester House Restaurant to thank Baker for his support of the fishing industry.

The group has officially endorsed Baker, who is running for re-election against Democrat Jay Gonzalez in the November election. The governor, whose office listed the event as part of his campaign schedule, received both praise and a bouquet of flowers from Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association President Angela Sanfilippo and Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, the group’s vice president.

“We need representation and Charlie Baker is our representation,” Romeo Theken, who has also endorsed Baker, said. “He will listen to us and we will be heard.”

Sanfilippo said the governor’s ties to Gloucester and the fishing industry go back two decades, when Baker, then a health care executive, worked on a plan to obtain health insurance for fishermen.

When Baker decided to run for governor, Sanfilippo said he showed up in her office one day and said, “I want to learn all about the fishing industry because if I become governor I want to know what to do.”

In his remarks to the crowd of about 75 people, Baker, wearing a blue shirt and jeans, ran down several issues of concern to the fishing industry and ways the state is trying to help. He said the state has contributed about $500,000 to an industry-based survey, invested grant money in the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, and continues to work on making sure the fishing industry has access to health insurance.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Advisory group grapples with right whale protection measures

October 15, 2018 — A week of meetings about how commercial fishermen could reduce harm to the imperiled North Atlantic right whales ended Friday with an immediate focus on exploring more temporary area closures with possible testing of new technologies, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries biologist Colleen Coogan, an organizer of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team.

“There was extremes on both ends,” Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association president Arthur Sawyer said of pitches made at the monthly take reduction team meeting in Providence, Rhode Island.

Interest seemed to land on the possibilities of weaker rope, with 1,700 pounds as maximum breaking strength. That could allow right whales to break free of entanglements more easily, Sawyer said. “That was kind of middle of the road,” he said, and might be able to be put in place in the near future, although it might not be useful in deep water.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times