Saving Seafood

Democrats Press Trump for Tariff Relief for Fishing Industry

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.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

National Fish & Seafood sues former employee

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.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

CPR, first aid training for fishermen to include opioid awareness

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.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

To great white sharks off Maine: Smile, you’re on research cameras

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.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Changes coming to herring fishery as bait crunch looms

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

NMFS ends New Bedford groundfishing ban

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.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA lifts New Bedford groundfish ban

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.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: From sea to table: Hotel, restaurants serving Gloucester Fresh seafood

July 23, 2018 — Eric Lorden, the owner of Passports and Machaca restaurants, has been cooking and running restaurants in Gloucester for a quarter century and there’s always been one thing he never quite understood about some of his local culinary peers.

“For 25 years, I’ve been cooking here and I’ve never understood why anyone would cook and serve frozen seafood,” Lorden said Thursday amid a state visit from Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken to welcome Machaca to the Gloucester Fresh restaurant program. “Both of our restaurants try very hard to use only non-chemical products.”

Machaca, newly opened at 14 Rogers St., joined Captain Carlo’s on Harbor Loop and the Beauport Hotel Gloucester on Commercial Street as the newest members of the marketing program designed to raise the profile and availability of locally landed seafood among restaurants and consumers.

As part of the program, the restaurants agree to carry one locally landed seafood item on their regular menu and many choose to carry even more. In return, they receive a distinctive blue Gloucester Fresh placard to display at their establishments to inform their customers of their investment in the local fishing community.

The Gloucester Fresh restaurant program now boasts more than a dozen local restaurants — not counting the 110 Ninety-Nine restaurants that feature Gloucester-landed haddock on its menus — and has begun to imbue its members with a deeper sense of community.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

All shell, no shock: Lobster prices strong as season picks up

July 23, 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 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 Portland Press Herald

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Lifting federal ban on groundfishing a good first step toward rebuilding industry

July 23, 2018 — New Bedford fishermen last week received the news they had been waiting to hear for eight months. Federal regulators lifted their ban against Sectors VII and IX — two groundfishing groups tied to Carlos Rafael.

The ban, which had been in place since Nov. 20 of last year, prevented 17 boats and roughly 80 fishermen from going out to sea. And it caused a ripple effect that was felt around the seaport.

Fuel suppliers, fish processors, boat engine mechanics and all the other support industries that work with the fishing fleet were hurt. By one estimate, some 240 jobs were lost to the ban.

So Thursday’s announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was welcome news.

“It’s finally happening,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, who had long pressed for a timely resolution.

“We’re happy,” he said. “It’s something that we’ve been doing everything in our power to encourage.”

At The Standard-Times, we think NOAA’s action — albeit too long in coming — was a good first step. But we’re not ready to uncork the champagne yet.

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