Saving Seafood

New Bedford Standard-Times: groundfishermen need to get back to work

May 14, 2018 — It was a bittersweet start to the fishing season on May 1.

Bittersweet because much of New Bedford’s already battered groundfish fleet could not go to sea.

Nearly 60 permits in Sectors VII and IX did not receive quota allocations from NOAA. The federal government withheld their quota because of overages accumulated by fleet owner Carlos Rafael when he admitted last year that he had falsified the numbers of fish he had taken, substituting valuable species subject to quotas for ones that were not so.

Rafael is in prison now but the results of his misdeeds continue to be paid by the community that made him rich. About 80 fishermen have been out of work since November when NOAA first instituted its groundfish ban for the sector in which Rafael perpetuated his fraud. Shoreside businesses, including the ones that manufacture nets and ice and repair boats, have also been greatly affected by the cut to New Bedford’s groundfish effort.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Safety training is a must for all who go to sea

May 14, 2018 — On December 20, 2004 the 75-foot New Bedford scalloper Northern Edge went down in the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area. Five men perished. It was a loss that rocked the city. Pedro Furtado, the only survivor, was a 22 year-old man who had been through safety training in his native Portugal before coming to the United States. He had the presence of mind to jump into the wintry sea while the other men froze. It was this disaster that prompted the city to introduce safety training for those who earn their livelihood from commercial fishing, the most dangerous occupation in the United States.

It has been very successful, according to Ed Dennehy, director of safety training for the Fishing Partnership which runs these one and two-day programs in fishing harbors up and down the coast. “We’ve been all over, from Jonesport, Maine to Jones Beach, Long Island, he said. “We like to bring the program to where the fishermen are and it has grown over the years.”

In response to the loss of the Northern Edge the city received some funds from National Marine Fisheries in 2005 in order to develop safety and survival training. At the time Dennehy, a retired Coast Guard captain, was running New Directions in New Bedford and with the help of SMAST and others, like Rodney Avila, along the waterfront the program began. Since then more than 3500 fishermen have taken the safety classes which are offered free. The Fishing Partnership began running the program in 2012.

I had the opportunity to participate in the training myself on Thursday last. It was held at UConn’s Avery Point campus in Groton and there were 40 participants, a testament to the growing awareness and demand for this vital service.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: Federal delegation ‘solidly behind’ New Bedford in fishing fight

May 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Prior to a town hall-style meeting in New Bedford on Saturday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren quietly gathered with fellow senator Ed Markey and Congressman William Keating in the Wharfinger Building on Pier 3. Inside, the three legislators sat for more than an hour, listening to representatives of the fishing community relay their present and future concerns facing the industry.

About 80 fishermen out of New Bedford have been unable to fish or lease their quotas since NOAA shut down Sector IX in November. The shutdown remains in effect until the feds can estimate how much quota convicted “Codfather” Carlos Rafael depleted in his overfishing scheme.

Massachusetts’ two senators have been all but crucified for what many see as inaction on the Sector IX closure. Following Saturday’s meeting, Senator Warren told WBSM News what appears to some as inaction is, in fact, a more tactful approach in discussions with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“There are a lot of steps to go through to get Sector IX back up,” said Warren. “And NOAA seems committed to move forward on those. Senator Markey and I are pushing. We don’t want to turn this into politics. We want to facilitate this. We want to make it move forward.”

“But we have made it very clear that both of us and Congressman Keating are deeply committed to getting a fast process so that the innocent people that have been harmed by what’s happened here can get back out on the water and fish,” she said.

Read the full story at WBSM

 

Massachusetts: Elizabeth Warren packs a town hall meeting, sits with Markey, Keating over fishing

May 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., came to the city Saturday to hear the concerns of fishermen who wanted a faster resolution to the Carlos Rafael problems that have closed two fishing sectors, maybe throwing fishermen permanently out of their jobs.

These cases of licensing and ownership, and repayment of overfishing, “need to be resolved as quickly as possible,” Warren said later.

Warren also heard from Mayor Jon Mitchell and fishing representatives who contend that the wind energy companies that are the finalists for an exclusive contract are not listening to the concerns of the fishing industry, mainly scallopers.

Warren along with U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass, and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., listened about these matters in a meeting at the Wharfinger Building on City Pier 3, organized by Bob Vanasse of the industry lobby Saving Seafood.

They parted ways when Warren and her campaign staff went to the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School to conduct a town hall style meeting.

The event had an atmosphere much like a campaign rally, with Warren on stage answering questions from attendees who signed up in a lottery.

She touched on a dozen topics, taking her talk where the questions went, on everything from her late mother, poverty, and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who rejects a bill that would insulate special prosecutor Robert Mueller from being removed from office by President Donald Trump.

She also condemned the recent trillion-dollar tax cut while Medicaid recipients are threatened by cuts and 90 percent of Americans claim zero percent in the rise of the economy in the past several decades.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times 

 

Massachusetts: Cape Cod waters yield valuable product for fishermen, Whole Foods

May 11, 2018 — Longtime commercial fisherman Greg Walinski stopped fishing with longlines for awhile, but now he’s back.

“I got back into it this winter thanks to Whole Foods,” the Yarmouth resident told a roomful of Whole Foods employees at the grocery chain’s headquarters in Marlborough. About 50 people who manage seafood sales in stores across the Northeast had gathered for a day-long conference.

Walinski was one of four fishermen who made the trip (in his case after fishing more than 16 hours the day before) to meet the people who sell and promote the fish they catch.

The partnership of local fishermen and Whole Foods, brokered with help from the Fishermen’s Alliance, is a hopeful model for the future.

Whole Foods, whose motto is “Whole Foods, Whole People,Whole Planet,” made a decision to only sell fish that meet stringent “Seafood Watch” criteria. The rating system started in the 1990s, had its beginnings in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Fishing for Solutions exhibit, and is designed to help people make good decisions about what they buy.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Wicked Local

 

The Future of Fishing Is Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

May 10, 2018 — New England’s groundfish season is in full swing, as hundreds of dayboat fishermen from Rhode Island to Maine take to the water in search of the region’s iconic cod and haddock. But this year, several dozen of them are hauling in their catch under the watchful eye of video cameras as part of a new effort to use technology to better sustain the area’s fisheries and the communities that depend on them.

Video observation on fishing boats—electronic monitoring—is picking up steam in the Northeast and nationally as a cost-effective means to ensure that fishing vessels aren’t catching more fish than allowed while informing local fisheries management. While several issues remain to be solved before the technology can be widely deployed—such as the costs of reviewing and storing data—electronic monitoring is beginning to deliver on its potential to lower fishermen’s costs, provide scientists with better data, restore trust where it’s broken, and ultimately help consumers gain a greater understanding of where their seafood is coming from.

“Electronic monitoring is a tremendous tool,” says Brett Alger, national electronics technology coordinator for NOAA Fisheries. “It isn’t necessarily for everyone or every fishery,” but “we’re working collaboratively in all of our regions with fishermen on the ground to understand their needs. I expect it to grow.”

The technology is required for highly migratory longline species in the Atlantic (swordfish). It’s thriving in the Pacific coast groundfish industry, and dozens of other fisheries regions have pilot initiatives.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

 

Rep. Bill Keating: End in sight for groundfishing ban in New Bedford

May 10, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Bill Keating sees a finish line in sight to get New Bedford’s groundfishing boats back to work.

The Democratic U.S. representative spoke with NOAA’s regional administrator Mike Pentony on Wednesday and came away with the belief that the operational plans in Sectors VII and IX would be approved soon, potentially as soon as a few weeks.

“There’s great progress now on the road to beginning to fish,” Keating said. “And that’s good news.”

Keating said the rule-making process would be finalized for each sector by the end of the month. NOAA released its final rule allotting quota to sectors or fishing divisions at the end of April for the start of the 2018 fishing season. Sectors VII and IX were not provided quota.

After the rule is finalized, a comment period is required.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

The Future of Lobstering May Mean Fishing by Computer

May 9, 2018 — The endangered North Atlantic right whale is facing extinction, with fewer than 450 left. The cause of the highest mortality is entanglement in fishing gear, including lobster trap lines. A lawsuit forcing the government to protect the whales may bring about a change in the way lobster fishermen have worked for more than a hundred years.

Lobster fishing used to be pretty straightforward. But there may be big changes ahead for fishermen in New England.

“First thing you have to remember is, you’re taking the lobster industry and flipping it around on its head and shaking it,” Mike Lane said, sitting on his lobster boat in Cohassett Lane. Lane is a life-long fisherman. His dad fished for lobster before him. He’s concerned about the proposals. “How are you going to teach 60-year old men that don’t use computers to use a computer?”

Pretty soon, Lobstermen may be asked to find their traps using computers, instead of buoys. New fishing technology is being developed to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale—it’s called ropeless fishing.

Read the full story at WCAI

 

Massachusetts: Gloucester fish seller, supplier earn sustainability certification

May 8, 2018 — Haddock, pollock and redfish — “The Big Three” — are getting a big new marketing edge from a little blue label.

“There’s a lot of them out there,” says Jimmy Odlin from the headquarters of his Portland, Maine-based AtlanticTrawlers Fishing. “We just needed to sell more of it. We knew we needed to expand our market and after researching, we decided that MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification was the best fit.”

The other half of Odlin’s “we” is Gloucester’s Nick Giacalone, who, along with brothers Chris and Vito Jr. have since 2008 shared the helm of Fishermen’s Wharf Gloucester on Rogers Street. And what the two men were after, the MSC certification label — the international gold standard for dealing in sustainably caught and processed seafood — does not come easily.

But after one solid year, “a lot of money and meetings,” a third-party assessment, internal research and finally, 350-odd pages of copious scientific and peer reporting, the pair announced this week that the much coveted little blue MSC “ecolabel” will now go on all haddock, pollock and redfish trawled from the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank by Atlantic Trawlers Fishing and landed at Fishermen’s Wharf.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Fishing company to pay $400,000 penalty following 4,200 gallon fuel spill into New Bedford Harbor

May 8, 2018 — A fishing company will pay $400,000 in penalties after spilling thousands of gallons of fuel into New Bedford Harbor and routinely dumping oily waste overboard, in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In August of 2017, the Challenge — a fishing boat owned by the New Bedford company Quinn Fisheries — sunk while docked on the city’s waterfront, causing a fuel spill that spread over a mile and killed at least five ducks.

The Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of Justice launched an inquiry, and found that the ship sunk when its captain failed to shut off a valve after illegally dumping bilge into the harbor and leaving the boat for the day, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

“Discharges of fuel and oily bilge wastes into our nation’s waters have long been prohibited and will not be condoned,” Captain Richard J. Schultz, Commander of the Coast Guard’s Sector Southeastern New England, said in a statement. “These defendants will pay significant penalties and conduct fleet-wide corrective measures for their discharges of oil into New Bedford Harbor and the ocean.”

Quinn Fisheries signed a consent decree agreeing to pay the penalties and correct violations, but did not admit liability for the discharges. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Read the full story at MassLive