Saving Seafood

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center seeks volunteers

September 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The Fishing Heritage Center is recruiting volunteers and will host an orientation session from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Oct. 20, according to a news release.

The session will include an overview of the mission and activities of the center as well as an introduction to the commercial fishing industry. A light breakfast will be provided.

In the coming months, volunteers will be invited to participate in a series of insider tours to learn first-hand about the commercial fishing industry.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Public Meetings on New York Bight Offshore Wind

September 14, 2018 — The following was released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management:

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will be hosting three public meetings and a webinar to discuss feedback that we have received from a recently published Call for Information and Nominations (Call) for potential offshore wind energy leasing and development in the New York Bight.

The meetings will be held at the following locations:

Monday, Sept. 17, 2018
Riverhead, NY
Shade Tree Community Center
60 Shade Tree Lane
Aquebogue, NY
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018
New Bedford, MA
Waypoint Event Center at Fairfield Inn & Suites
Sea Loft Room
185 MacArthur Drive
New Bedford, MA 02740
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018
Long Branch, NJ
Long Branch Library
328 Broadway
Long Branch, NJ 07740
5:00 -7:45 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018
Webinar hosted by BOEM
https://orep.adobeconnect.com/nybightareaid/
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

At each meeting, BOEM will present its most recent analysis that incorporates comments received from the Call. In addition, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback to help inform BOEM’s decision-making process.

Read more from BOEM

Processor: New hire had no know-how to steal fish secrets

September 14, 2018 — Tampa Bay Fisheries, the Florida seafood company that Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood accuses of stealing trade secrets, has come out swinging in its first response to the charges.

In a document filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, Tampa Bay Fisheries characterized the civil lawsuit filed by NFS as “a fish tale about the one that got away” and claimed it never obtained any of the Gloucester seafood processor’s secrets.

The document was filed in opposition to NFS’ motion for a preliminary injunction. It  highlighted financial problems at NFS parent company Pacific Andes International Holdings — which is in the midst of an extraordinarily complex bankruptcy proceeding — and the criminal convictions of three top NFS executives or board members during the past two years.

“This is not a case about Tampa Bay seeking any information whatsoever from NFS,” Tampa Bay’s lawyers argued in their filing. “This is a case about NFS, a bankrupt company run by investors and still reeling from its top executives’ criminal convictions, seeking a pretext to undermine Tampa Bay’s legitimate success. The evidence is clear — there is no scheme and no grand conspiracy.”

U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin has yet to rule on NFS’ motion for the preliminary injunction.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford revives push to seize Northeast Fisheries Center

September 13, 2018 — Appealing to the new management team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, elected officials from New Bedford are newly appealing to relocate the Northeast Fisheries Science Center from Woods Hole to New Bedford, arguing the change will help the federal government to more effectively engage with members of an active fishing community.

In a letter Tuesday to Acting Administrator Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, officials cited media reports suggesting that NOAA had ruled out every possible location for the center except Woods Hole in Falmouth.

In asking for reconsideration, they also demanded the federal government release its “business case analysis” of potential locations in the Northeast.

“We believe that that by siting the facility in the undisputed center of the commercial fishing industry on the East Coast, the Administration could at last begin to break down barriers to communication, and repair the distrust that has plagued the relationship between the National Marine Fisheries Service and the fishing industry in the Northeast for decades,” fishing industry and South Coast lawmakers wrote in the letter.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Free film in New Bedford follows Point Judith fisherman on the job

September 11, 2018 — The Dock-U-Mentaries Film Series continues Friday, Sept. 21, 7 p.m., with “Rodman Sykes: A Life in the Fisheries.” The film is part of a series by Markham Starr documenting the commercial fishing port of Point Judith, Rhode Island.

Rodman Sykes is a lifelong commercial fisherman out of Point Judith. He began fishing with his grandfather as a child and has pursued this career his whole life. He discusses his life in the fisheries, how it has changed over time, and what increasing regulatory pressure is doing to the industry against the backdrop of a day aboard the F/V Virginia Marise, catching both groundfish for food and skate to be used as bait by local lobstermen.

Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month 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.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New England herring fishing to be limited in September

September 12, 2018 — Interstate fishing regulators say the quota is almost tapped out in one of the most productive herring fishing areas of the Northeast, and they’re shutting the fishery down for the rest of the month.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says 97 percent of the quota has been harvested from the inshore Gulf of Maine. The area includes coastal Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The commission says the fishery will be shut down from Thursday morning until Sept. 30. Boats that harvest other species will also be allowed to possess no more than 2,000 pounds of herring per trip per day.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

Filmmaker documents ravages of green crabs

September 12, 2018 — More than a year ago, Gloucester filmmaker Nubar Alexanian laid out his airtight case against the rapacious European green crabs for Bruce Tarr and the incredulous state lawmaker had a suitable response:

“There’s a horror movie happening in my district and I didn’t even know about it,” Tarr told Alexanian.

As Alexanian’s new documentary short film, “Recipe For Disaster,” makes clear, the call is coming from inside the Great Marsh, which stretches from Gloucester to the New Hampshire border.

“I live on the marsh here,” Alexanian said Tuesday at the Walker Creek Media studio adjacent to his West Gloucester home. “I fly-fish and fish for striped bass here all season long. I know this marsh really well. Last June, when I first heard about the green crab problem, it was pretty shocking to me. So I just started shooting.”

The nationally honored filmmaker and photographer, with a catalog of cinema and books to his credit, set out to chronicle the extent of the green crabs’ largely unabated invasion into the coastal waters near his home and beyond. And what Alexanian found astounded him.

“In the film, we say there are millions and millions of the green crabs here already,” Alexanian said. “Now I would say it’s billions and billions.”

Alexanian put the finishing touches on the final edit around midnight Monday and only a few audio tweaks remain before the film is set to be screened next Tuesday, Sept. 18, at Cape Ann Cinema & Stage on Main Street in Gloucester’s West End.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford makes new push for fisheries center

September 12, 2018 — The nation’s top fishing port is renewing its efforts to get the government to move its fisheries center from Woods Hole to New Bedford.

“The fishing industry wants the regulators for the first time ever to be in New Bedford because they see the benefits of good science and cooperative research,” said Ed Anthes-Washburn, the director of the New Bedford Port Authority.

On Tuesday, elected officials, the Port Authority and members of the fishing industry sent a letter to NOAA seeking a new feasibility study, maintaining the city is the best location for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, currently in Woods Hole.

The letter, addressed to Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere for the Department of Commerce in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was also signed by representatives of fishing vessels from home ports in New Bedford and Fairhaven and parts of Maine, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Virginia and North Carolina.

This push isn’t entirely new. In March 2016, a letter addressed to NOAA said the agency had a rare opportunity to further the center’s mission and restore its credibility in fishing communities by moving to New Bedford.

NOAA spokeswoman Teri Frady confirmed Tuesday that in the latest study New Bedford was considered as a new location, but Woods Hole is the “preferred alternative” location recommended in the Business Case Analysis.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fishing Communities, Massachusetts Officials Call for New Science Center Home in New Bedford

September 11, 2018 (Saving Seafood) — Today, 18 Massachusetts elected officials joined hundreds of Northeast fishermen and businesses to urge NOAA to relocate its Northeast Fisheries Science Center from Woods Hole to New Bedford, Massachusetts.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, six Massachusetts state legislators, 11 members of the New Bedford City Council, the New Bedford Port Authority, and hundreds of fishermen, businesses, and vessels joined together in signing the letter. Signatories hail from across the East Coast, including from Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina.

According to the letter, addressed to Acting Administrator Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, moving the science center to New Bedford would place NOAA closer to the commercial fishing industry. A move would present NOAA with a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to improve relations and build trust with commercial fishermen.

“We believe that by siting the facility in the undisputed center of the commercial fishing industry on the East Coast, the Administration could at least begin to break down barriers to communication, and repair the distrust that has plagued the relationship between the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the fishing industry in the Northeast for decades,” the letter states.

The letter notes that the current science center in Woods Hole is located far away from the region’s major commercial fishing ports. The letter argues that this physical distance hinders engagement between NOAA and the industry.

In contrast, the Port of New Bedford has, for the last 17 years, been the highest grossing commercial fishing port in the United States, and is one of the hubs of Northeast commercial fishing.

“If the science center were located in New Bedford, the Administration could be assured that its personnel would have considerably greater opportunity for formal and informal interaction with industry stakeholders, and each side would get to know one another in ways and to a degree that have long eluded both,” the letter states.

The letter, from major fishing industry stakeholders inviting fisheries scientists and regulators to the nation’s top fishing port, marks a significant shift, and illustrates a desire among the fishing industry to engage with fisheries scientists. The letter concludes on a positive note, hoping that co-location would have the ability “to create conditions for a new era of respect, trust and cooperation.”

Read the letter here

Fishery Management Council to Make Herring Trawler Decision

September 11, 2018 — An important decision for the future of the Atlantic Herring fishery will come this month from the New England Fishery Management Council.

The council will vote September 25 in Plymouth on a proposal that would push midwater trawlers at least 50 miles from the shores of Cape Cod.

The trawlers, which usually work in tandem, use very large nets to scoop up entire schools of herring, which has negatively impacted the local fishing industry and related economies.

Atlantic herring is a food source for many larger fish species and whales which feed in the area. Herring is also an important bait fish in the New England lobster industry.

Fishermen and local officials have urged fishery managers to impose a strict 50-mile buffer zone for the trawlers.

“They’ve removed so many of the herring from the waters that it’s really disrupted the entire ecosystem because there is not a solid forage base for other fish to feed on,” said Amanda Cousart, a policy analyst with the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Association.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com