July 26, 2018 — A Falmouth-based nonprofit has received a grant through NOAA Fisheries and the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Monkfish Research Set-Aside Program.
The Coonamessett Farm Foundation received a two-year cooperative research project grant to improve the understanding of monkfish biology.
The study will explore non-lethal techniques for determining the sex of the fish and evaluate the maturity stage of Southern New England Monkfish.
July 26, 2018 –Kathleen Scanlon – the former head of research, development, and quality assurance for National Fish & Seafood – was ordered not to work for her new employer, Tampa Bay Fisheries, and return National Fish property in a heated court battle.
Pacific Andes-owned National Fish, based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, filed a complaint against Scanlon, Tampa Bay, and a “John Doe” on 20 July, alleging that Scanlon “unlawfully acquired NFS’ confidential information and trade secrets” involving its proprietary clam production process.
NFS, which markets the longstanding Matlaw’s stuffed clam and seafood line, said Scanlon’s action were “part of a scheme to harm NFS’ position in the seafood-supply industry,” according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Dover, Florida-based Tampa Bay Fisheries specializes in private label seafood for retailers and restaurants. Both suppliers recently tried to secure a national listing with Whole Foods Market, according to the complaint.
After working for NFS for 20 years, Scanlon voluntarily resigned on 11 July. She was set to begin working for Tampa Bay Fisheries on 23 July.
July 26, 2018 — New England’s lobster industry faces big new challenges in selling to Europe and China, but the trouble hasn’t caused prices to budge much for American consumers.
The business is in the midst of its busiest part of the year, when tourists flock to coastal states with a beachside lobster dinner in mind. Summer is also when prices tend to fall a bit because it’s when the majority of lobsters are caught.
But the prices haven’t fallen much. Retailers are selling live lobsters in the $7 to $12 per pound (per 0.45 kilogram) range in Maine, where the American lobster industry is based. That’s not too far behind recent summers.
“It’s starting to pick up, so of course the price is dropping. But that’s pretty normal,” said William Adler, a lobsterman out of Green Harbor, Massachusetts. “Now it’s starting to come alive, and prices are still good right now.”
Members of the industry are concerned about heavy new tariffs applied by China to U.S. seafood this month, because that country is a major lobster buyer. Canada also recently brokered a deal with the European Union to remove tariffs on Canadian lobster exports to Europe, while the U.S. has no such agreement.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Akron Legal News
July 26, 2018 — Democratic members of Congress are pressing the Trump administration for compensation for fishermen hit with losses as a result of President Donald Trump’s escalating trade disputes with China and other countries.
The group, led by Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, points to the administration’s announcement Tuesday that it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to help American farmers hurt by foreign retaliation to Trump’s tariffs.
The five members of Congress said Wednesday in a letter to Trump the fishing industry is getting hit by administration tariffs on steel and aluminum imports needed for boats, fishing hooks, and lobster and crab traps — and by the 25 percent retaliatory Chinese tariff on 170 American seafood products.
July 25, 2018 — Care for a side order of alleged corporate espionage with your stuffed clams? Belly on up to the bar.
As in the legal bar.
Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood is accusing its former head of research, development and quality assurance of absconding with confidential processing information and other corporate trade secrets when she resigned recently to take a similar position with a Florida-based seafood competitor.
In a civil lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston, NFS alleges Kathleen A. Scanlon, who worked at NFS for more than 20 years before resigning about two weeks ago, used company-issued equipment to help steal confidential recipe, processing and customer information as a means of assisting her new employer, Tampa Bay Fisheries Inc. of Dover, Florida.
The suit also names Tampa Bay Fisheries as a co-defendant, along with an unnamed John Doe at Tampa Bay Fisheries who allegedly helped hatch the plan.
Officials at Tampa Bay Fisheries did not respond to phone calls Monday seeking comment.
July 25, 2018 — Fishing Partnership Support Services is bringing its CPR / First Aid training to New Bedford from 8 a.m. to noon Thursday at the Massachusetts Fishing Partnership Office, 114 MacArthur Drive.
Cost is $25 payable on the day of the event. However, if payment is a problem, contact Deb Kelsey, Fishing Partnership Navigator, to discuss scholarship opportunities.
Fishing Partnership Support Services is incorporating two additional offerings for free: ergonomics and opioid awareness. The ergonomics training was designed specifically for commercial fishermen and will provide information on ways to reduce pain and injury through more efficient work practices. Opioid awareness training provides information on recognizing signs of opioid addiction, understanding how to recognize an overdose, and administering Naloxone (Narcan), an opioid antagonist, during an overdose.
July 24, 2018 — Marine researchers have deployed underwater cameras in hopes of documenting great white sharks off the coast of southern Maine for the first time.
The effort is part of the first study dedicated to learning about the habits of the sharks near Maine. Scientists say great whites – the world’s largest predatory fish – have increased in number in the Atlantic Ocean and will continue to do so in the Gulf of Maine.
Two cameras, each attached to a crate of chum to attract large fish, were deployed by University of New England professor James Sulikowski and undergraduates two weeks ago near Stratton Island, 2 miles from Old Orchard Beach. The island was chosen because a radio receiver that Sulikowski placed on a nearby buoy detected a tagged great white shark last fall.
“The goal is to get a better understanding of the ecosystem and what white sharks are coming in, and to find out how prevalent they are,” said Sulikowski, a marine biologist.
July 25, 2018 — New England’s lobster fishing industry is again facing the possibility of a bait shortage, and ocean managers are looking to make some tweaks to the herring fishery.
The lobster and herring fisheries are tied to each other because herring is the preferred bait for lobster traps. But fishermen in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have sometimes had trouble getting enough bait in recent summers.
An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission changed some of the rules about herring fishing off of New England starting on Monday. The rules have to do with how many days herring fishermen can operate, and how much fish they can bring to land.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Herald
July 23, 2018 — Nearly eight months after NMFS announced the decision to shut down Northeast Fishing Sector IX following the criminal trial of quota-skirting kingpin Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael, the agency lifted the ban that has kept at least 80 fishermen off the water and out of work.
NMFS announced the end of the ban on Thursday, approving lease-only operation plans for Sector IX and allocated quota for Sector VII.
When little headway was being made in lifting the ban this spring, 55 vessels in Sector IX, including four owned by Rafael, moved to be included in Sector VII for the 2018-19 fishing season in order to lease their quota and recoup losses from missed fishing time.
The process was slow moving, with quota remaining frozen while NMFS officials and the New England Fishery Management Council worked to review and approve a new operating plan.
NMFS’ final rule on the situation — published and opened for comment on Friday, July 20 — “determines the quota overages that Northeast Fishery Sector IX is responsible for paying back, allocates annual catch entitlements to Northeast Fishery Sectors VII and IX for the 2018 fishing year, approves a new lease-only operations plan for Northeast Fishery Sector IX, and approves a substantive amendment to Northeast Fishery Sector VII operations plan,” according to the Federal Register.
July 23, 2018 — New Bedford’s groundfishing fleet began to emerge from the criminal shadow of Carlos Rafael on Thursday when NOAA Fisheries announced the approval of new operational plans for two fishing sectors that have been shut down for the past eight months.
They’re not fishing yet. But there is light on the horizon.
NOAA Fisheries, in an interim final rule published Thursday morning in the Federal Register, approved plans to transform Northeast Fishing Sector IX to a lease-only operation for 2018. Meanwhile, all of Northeast Fishing Sector VII’s 56 vessels remain inactive and those vessels and permits owned by Rafael will remain unable to fish until they are sold to independent third parties, NOAA Fisheries said.
“To become active, the sector board would have to allow a vessel to harvest sector annual catch entitlement consistent with normal sector operations, and notify (NOAA Fisheries) of the vessel change in status” the rule stated. “In contrast to the vessels owned by Mr. Rafael, these vessels do not need to be sold in order to be active in the groundfish industry.”
In both cases, NOAA Fisheries said, the agency approved plans developed by the individual fishing sectors in consultation with federal fisheries regulators.