Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: First three sharks of the season detected off the coast of Cape Cod

June 18, 2018 — Shark season in New England officially kicked off this week, and marine biologists have already detected the first three great whites of the year off the coast of Cape Cod.

The sharks first showed up on marine biologists’ scanners June 7 and have been detected off the outer Cape intermittently since Tuesday, said Greg Skomal, a shark expert at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

The research team began checking receivers on the Cape on Thursday and were able to pick up signals from Monomoy Island to Wellfleet, Skomal said.

“I don’t think the sharks have left. I’m sure they’re still around,” he said. “And more and more will start trickling in as time goes on over the course of the month.”

The researchers detected the great whites in multiple areas over several days — including the first, whom biologists call Omar, off the coast of Orleans on June 7, followed by another shark, Turbo, near Wellfleet two days later, said Marianne Long, the education director at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which is assisting the Division of Marine Fisheries in the research.

Sandy, the third great white, was also detected swimming near Orleans on Monday, and Omar was detected again in Chatham on Tuesday, Long said.

Many sharks in the area have acoustic tags on them, she said, so although none of these sharks were actually spotted, the receivers picked up their acoustic signals.

The region has been “very active” with sharks in the past several years, Skomal said.

“These are great whites, and they feed on seals during the summertime,” he said. “We have a sizable seal population on the Cape, so that’s where they usually go.”

The shark season usually begins in June and can last until November, Long said. Most Cape Cod residents and vacationers are generally aware of the marine animals, she said, but she advised the public to be cautious and avoid swimming beyond waist-deep waters, especially off the coast.

“It’s important that when people go to the beach, they read all the signage to make them aware of all the recent sightings,” she said. “We do have these large animals off the coast in the water.”

New England Fishermen Worry About Trade Dispute With China

June 18, 2018 — New England fishermen could be caught in the middle of the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China.

In response to Trump administration tariff threats, China is planning its own 25 percent tariff on more than 500 U.S. products, including seafood.

Latest numbers from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries put the value of seafood caught in Massachusetts in 2016 at $551 million.

But Chatham’s Doug Feeney says small boat fishermen like him are already hurting. He’s been traveling to China to try to expand his market.

Read the full story at WBUR

Senator Calls for Investigation Into Possible Fish Fraud

June 18, 2018 — U.S. Sen. Edward Markey is asking federal agencies to investigate where a leading sustainable seafood distributor actually gets its fish, after an Associated Press investigation found Brooklyn-based Sea To Table was selling tuna labeled as coming from docks where it wasn’t landed and with the names of boats that didn’t catch it.

Here’s how it was supposed to work: Every day chefs and other potential customers get a long list of “Just Landed” seafood identifying what Brooklyn-based Sea To Table can offer from its trusted, waterfront partners — some 60 fishermen and small commercial docks around the country. Chefs order what they want, and the fish is boxed, put on ice and sent via FedEx overnight.

“We send all fish directly from the landing dock to your kitchen,” Sea To Table explained.

The growing world of foodies and conscientious consumers cheered them on. Celebrity chef Rick Bayless signed up. So did Roy’s seafood restaurants, the Chopt salad chain, dozens of universities and even home meal kits like HelloFresh and Sun Basket. The Monterey Bay Aquarium made them a collaborator, James Beard Foundation singled them out.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Times

MASSACHUSETTS: MONTIGNY SECURES BIPARTISAN PROTECTIONS FOR COMMERCIAL FISHING

June 15, 2018 — The following was released from the office of Massachusetts State Senator Mark Montigny:

Senate Assistant Majority Leader and Rules Committee Chairman Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford) secured bipartisan legislation today to ensure protections for commercial fishing interests prior to any future increased offshore wind procurement.

His amendment to S2545, An Act to Promote a Clean Energy Future, will require commercial fisheries impacts to be studied and considered prior to any increased offshore wind procurement.

In 2016, the legislature directed the procurement of 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind by 2027. Last month, the Baker Administration announced the first round selection of 800 megawatts of offshore wind development south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Throughout the process, commercial fishermen have raised concerns regarding offshore wind’s effect on navigation and fisheries habitat.

While federal guidelines require input from the fishing industry for offshore wind development, thus far fishermen have raised concerns that those federal guidelines lack specifics. Efforts are now underway through the Massachusetts Fisheries Working Group to build consensus and a detailed study plan.

In the meantime, Montigny’s latest efforts will require the Commonwealth to identify and consider offshore wind effects on commercial fisheries prior to any procurement beyond 1,600 megawatts. It further stipulates that any plan to increase procurement must also identify measures to mitigate fisheries impacts. Montigny filed the amendment, entitled Offshore Wind Effects on Commercial Fishing, to the omnibus energy bill S2545. Working with Senator Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), Montigny secured the amendment with the support of the bill’s sponsor, Senator Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) and bipartisan coalition of Senators.

“Offshore wind presents significant economic opportunities for New Bedford and the Commonwealth,” said Senator Montigny, key Senate supporter of the 2016 offshore wind legislation. “However, we must be certain that fishermen who have relied on our oceans for generations to earn a living are heard and that their concerns are seriously and adequately addressed. This decades-old billion dollar industry provides serious job creation and economic output that we must not forget. I look forward to these two industries thriving together along our unique working waterfront in the years to come.”

Read the full release at WBSM

MASSACHUSETTS: Wicked on and off the water: What makes a tuna captain’s motor run?

June 15, 2018 — What advice do you have for fans and readers about starting out in the commercial fishing industry?

Dave Marciano: “My first instinct is – don’t do it. The fishing industry has changed. These days, fishing is a part-time vocation, whether you like it or not. Dave Carraro is a good example – he has a career as a pilot, and he built his commercial fishing career around that. And today, that’s the reality. You can’t make a reliable vocation full-time on commercial fishing.”

T.J. Ott: “Be prepared to fail before you even start, and you can only go up from there. Be confident, but prepare for the worst. The rod isn’t bending every day, there is a lot of downtime. It’s an expensive way to make a living, and it’s hard if you have a family, so be prepared for that roller coaster ride. If you are really passionate about it and committed, then it’s an amazing way to make a living, but just be prepared for the ride. Do not think you can come out here and make $20 a pound on every fish. Fish for fun and enjoy it – you can’t lose if you do that.”

Paul Hebert: “This is the biggest thing I can tell people – don’t do this for a living. Don’t think you’re going to go out there and make tons of money doing it. We’ve been doing this for years. The only reason we do it is because we were born into it, and it’s all we know. Take a charter, go fishing for fun.”

Dave Carraro: “Bottom line: Commercial fishing is a difficult way to earn a living.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Finding new ways to bolster New Bedford’s fishermen

June 15, 2018 — We’re encouraged by recent efforts to boost the local fishing industry. And we’re excited about bigger developments on the way this summer.

Last week, restaurateurs from around New England gathered with aquaculture experts at Johnson and Wales University in Providence. The purpose: to exchange ideas on sustainability in America’s seafood industry.

Derek Wagner, chef and owner at Nick’s on Broadway in Providence, told attendees that he once struggled to get his hands on locally caught seafood — until about 10 years ago.

Frustrated by the lack of information about where his restaurant’s salmon originated, he met with two fishermen out of Point Judith, Rhode Island. Instead of telling them what he wanted for his menu, he asked the fishermen what they wanted to sell: ″What is abundant? What are you having a hard time selling? What do you think people should be eating?”

Wagner pledged to take whatever the local fishermen could provide and “make it delicious.” Now he said he consults with local fishermen whenever he creates a new menu.

Another chef, Bun Lai from Connecticut, told of how he began making sushi with the Asian shore crab — an invasive species found in great abundance along the New England coastline. “They’re absolutely delicious,” he said.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

There’s Something Fishy About U.S.-Canada Trade Wars

June 15, 2018 — If U.S. politicians’ love affair with tariffs seems novel, it’s really the latest installment in an on-again, off-again romance. And it’s one that has been much more passionate in the past. In the decades after the Civil War, the “tariff question” was the biggest issue in American elections. On everything from wool to sugar, the U.S. government slapped steep fees on goods passing through its borders. These tariffs protected domestic industry and paid the government’s bills.

But sometimes tariffs also led to trade wars with America’s neighbor to the north. Today, America and Canada fight over dairy and aluminum. In the late 19th century, they fought over frozen herring—and these trade wars meant real violence. When T. Aubrey Byrne alighted from his train in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the last day of 1894, he stepped into the middle of one such war.

Depending on who you asked, Byrne was either the Treasury’s best special agent, a man who had saved the government fortunes by uncovering massive smuggling rings—or he was a failed ranch hand and ex-newspaperman, a paranoiac who saw fraud in others’ honest toil. But his superiors at Treasury approved of the job he’d done breaking up operations to illicitly import sugar and Chinese laborers. Now Byrne sniffed another conspiracy: a plot by merchants and captains in Gloucester, the capital of New England fishing, to avoid taxes on fish from Newfoundland.

Every winter, a fleet from Gloucester sailed to the island—still a British colony—to fill their holds with frozen herring. At less than a cent apiece, herring would be eaten by humans or used as bait for the more lucrative cod and halibut fisheries. Starting with one entrepreneurial vessel in 1855, by the 1890s almost 100 ships each year went to Newfoundland from Gloucester. And each year tens of millions of spawning herring swam into the bay only to sail out of it.

Read the full story at The Atlantic

ZINKE IS ‘VERY BULLISH’ ON DEVELOPING OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY

June 13, 2018 — The Trump administration is working with northeastern states to build offshore wind farms in the Atlantic ocean, the Washington Examiner reported.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has received significant pushback from officials in the Northeast over a plan to open the East Coast to offshore drilling. Wind energy is much more popular with the local residents and lawmakers, though.

“When the president said energy dominance, it was made without reference to a type of energy,” Zinke told the Washington Examiner. “It was making sure as a country we are American energy first and that includes offshore wind. There is enormous opportunity, especially off the East Coast, for wind. I am very bullish.”

Massachusetts and Rhode Island recently signed off on a 1,200 megawatt wind farm to be built off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The wind farm could be the largest constructed in the U.S. Massachusetts awarded a contract to Vineyard Wind to supply 800 megawatts of power to the state, and Rhode Island commissioned another 400 megawatts from Deepwater Wind.

“Market excitement is moving towards offshore wind,” Zinke told the Washington Examiner. “I haven’t seen this kind of enthusiasm from industry since the Bakken shale boom.”

Read the full story at The Daily Caller

NOAA awards USD 50 million Northeast Fisheries Observer Contract to AIS Inc.

June 12, 2018 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on 11 June that Marion, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based AIS Inc. has been awarded a five-year, USD 50 million (EUR 42.4 million) contract to provide fisheries observers for federal monitoring programs.

The contract will cover an area on the U.S. East Coast from Maine to North Carolina. AIS previously held the same contract from 2002 to 2012, and supported the contract beginning in 2016.

“We’ve been actually doing the Northeast section of the contract since October 2016,” AIS Senior Vice-President Rick Usher said.

Fisheries observers work on-board vessels alongside fishermen during trips. They collect information on catch, both kept and discarded, as well as biological data and information on gear and fishing operations over a range of commercial fisheries.

“These data are used extensively by researchers and fishery managers to better understand the condition of fishery stocks, fishing businesses, and fishing operations,”  NOAA wrote in a release announcing the contract.

Typically, the observers are provided with living quarters, food, and amenities comparable to crew on board the ship as they observe the operation to collect unbiased data.

“Good data prevent overregulation and ensure the sustainability of our fisheries and the observation of protected species populations,” NOAA said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Open Season: No one is more upset with ‘greedy’ poachers than ethical fishers

June 11, 2018 — Fishing for black sea bass is both a simple and exciting sport.

Bump the bottom with a double hook rig baited with squid or sea clams and hang on. The fish are aggressive and the males are a gorgeous fish, sporting iridescent blue on their heads, backs and dorsal fins. They are also fine eating fish. The rules are simple. The open season for recreational fishermen is May 19 to Sept. 12. The daily limit is five fish per angler and the minimum size is 15 inches. Greedy poachers however, who are slimier than fish, abuse the resource, which angers the ethical fishing community.

According to Massachusetts Environmental Police, officers in New Bedford inspected a headboat that had returned from a fishing trip in Buzzards Bay and found 560 pounds of black sea bass over the legal limit, 33 of which were under the legal limit of 15 inches. Officers also located 90 pounds of scup over the legal limit, one undersized striped bass, and one undersized tautog. Multiple citations were issued in response to the violations and the illegal catch was donated to the New Bedford Salvation Army.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times