Saving Seafood

Pier to Plate Brings Sustainably Harvested, ‘Under-Loved’ Fish to New England Diners

September 8, 2017 — Every summer, tourists flock to Chatham Pier on Cape Cod, Massachusetts to watch commercial fishermen unload their catch. And for hundreds of years, it was cod that fishermen hauled into Chatham’s storied harbor—and cod that gave this coastal region its name.

Today, however, it’s dogfish and skate the fishermen are hauling, as warming waters, prior bad management, and a host of other factors have made cod increasingly hard to find in New England’s Gulf of Maine.

The fishermen are paid pennies for their catch—literally 20 cents per pound for dogfish—and the majority of the fish is whisked off to markets in Europe and Asia, where higher demand fetches better prices.

Tired of telling Chatham Pier’s tourists, “You have to go to Europe!” when asked what their catch was and where it could be bought, a group of fisherman launched Pier to Plate, a Cape Cod effort to shift the market away from cod and toward the lesser-known species that are more readily available in the New England waters, says Nancy Civetta, a spokesperson for the Cape Cod Commercial Fisherman’s Alliance.

“Pier to Plate is a way for the public to support local fishermen,” said Civetta. “The truth is, what used to be the bread and butter for Cape fishermen has changed. Now it’s dogfish and skate.”

Launched this year, the initiative provides the fish for free to chefs at participating restaurants, an idea that came from the fishermen themselves. “We all sat around and brainstormed, and the fishermen said, ‘Just give it away for free,’” Civetta said, at least until the effort gets off the ground. “Chefs still need to experiment with the fish, but they’re not going to do it out of pocket.”

Read the full story at Civil Eats

 

Conservation Law Foundation submits victim impact statement in Carlos Rafael case

September 7, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD — Within the past 10 days, the Conservation Law Foundation sent three letters to various individuals involved — either directly or indirectly — with the Carlos Rafael case.

The foundation doesn’t represent any party directly, but its goal is to “use the law, science and the market to create solutions that preserve our natural resources, build healthy communities, and sustain a vibrant economy,” according to its website.

CLF sees Rafael’s guilty plea in March to illegal fishing as infringing on its principles.

“Discovering there’s been someone who has been systematically trying to undercut management, from our perspective not only harms the fisheries but also the work we’ve done,” senior counsel for CLF Peter Shelley said.

Shelley drafted all three letters. The first, he sent Aug. 29 to the New England Fishery Management Council’s Chair John Quinn and Executive Director Thomas Nies.

The second was addressed to NOAA’s John Bullard, the regional administrator, and Joe Heckwolf, an enforcement attorney, was sent Sept. 1.

The final letter, dated Sept. 6, was addressed to Judge William Young, who presided over Rafael’s plea agreement and will sentence the New Bedford fishing giant on Sept. 25 and 26.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

New Rules for New England Shrimp Fishery — if It Reopens

September 7, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — With the prospect of New England’s shuttered shrimp fishery reopening this winter, new rules are being designed to perpetuate the crustacean’s numbers and prevent another shutdown.

Maine fishermen once caught millions of pounds of the shrimp every year, with fishermen also bringing some ashore in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. But as the Gulf of Maine waters warmed, the catch plummeted from more than 13 million pounds in 2010 to less than 700,000 in 2013. The fishery shut down that year.

A decision on whether to allow the fishery to reopen could come in November.

With that in mind, an arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is developing new rules for the fishery to put it in a better position to sustain itself if it does reopen, said Max Appelman, a fishery management plan coordinator for the Atlantic States.

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

 

JOHN BULLARD: Set facts straight on scallop recovery

September 7, 2017 — Don Cuddy continues to peddle a simplistic, incorrect and unfair fable about the rebuilding of the scallop stocks that places all credit for the turnaround on the shoulders of Dr. Kevin Stokesbury (“Stokesbury’s science continues to yield scallops for SouthCoast,” Sept. 3).

Mr. Cuddy says that Dr. Stokesbury’s camera work caused Secretary Daley to open up the scallop grounds, causing New Bedford to be the top dollar port ever since. First of all, it was the New England Fishery Management Council that closed the grounds to scalloping in 1994, which allowed the scallops to grow from 40 count to U10′s by 1998 and to spawn several times before being harvested. They certainly deserve some credit for making that courageous decision.

Read the full letter at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Don Cuddy: Stokesbury’s science continues to yield scallops for SouthCoast

September 5, 2017 — It’s been a long and busy summer for Kevin Stokesbury and his team of scallop researchers at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology. But a lot of sea time, following many months of preparation, has paid off in a big way. “We surveyed the entire footprint of the scallop resource from Virginia all the way up to the Hague Line,” Kevin told me. “That’s 70,000 kilometers square, a huge area. We’re all really jazzed.”

The data was gathered using the system developed by Kevin in the 90′s, dropping underwater cameras mounted on a steel pyramid to the sea bed from the deck of a commercial scalloper. The work began at the end of April and finished in mid-July.

“We sampled over three thousand stations and you can multiply that by four drops at each location. Then multiply that by three because there are three cameras. So that’s a huge amount of information.”

As any fisherman can tell you, SMAST has been doing groundbreaking industry-based research for more than two decades. The drop-camera was pioneered to count scallops on Georges Bank in 1999 and proved a game changer that rescued what was then an ailing industry.

The resulting pictures provided independent evidence that what fishermen had been saying was correct. There were plenty of scallops out there awaiting harvest in spite of what the government survey would have everyone believe.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section Selects Final Measures for Amendment 3 and Recommends Final Approval by the Commission

September 1, 2017 — Portland, ME – The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section (Section) selected final measures for Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northern Shrimp and recommended Commission approval of the Amendment at its next Business Session meeting, likely in October in Norfolk, VA. The Amendment is designed to improve management of the northern shrimp resource in the event the fishery reopens (the fishery has been under moratorium since 2014). Specifically, the Amendment refines the FMP objectives and provides the flexibility to use the best available information to define the status of the stock and set the total allowable catch (TAC). Furthermore, the Amendment implements a state-specific allocation program to better manage effort in the fishery; 80% of the annual TAC will be allocated to Maine, 10% to New Hampshire, and 10% to Massachusetts. Fishermen with a trap landings history will continue to operate under gear-specific allocations (i.e., 87% of the state-specific quota will be allocated to the trawl fishery, and 13% to the trap fishery), however, the Section anticipates exploring alternative measures through the adaptive management process that would allow states to modify allocation between gear types on an annual basis. The Section also has the discretion to roll over unused quota from the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts to Maine by a date determined during annual specifications.

Additionally, the Amendment strengthens catch and landings reporting requirements to ensure all harvested shrimp are being reported, and requires shrimp-directed trawl vessels to use either a double-Nordmore or compound grate system (both designed to minimize the catch of small, presumably male, shrimp). Other changes include the implementation of accountability measures (i.e., penalties if states exceed their quota), specification of a maximum fishing season length, and formalizing fishery-dependent monitoring requirements.

The Section will meet November 29 (location to be determined) to review the 2017 stock status report and set specifications for the 2018 fishing season. For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

MASSACHUSETTS: Sunset Cruise to Benefit New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center

September 5, 2017 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center will host a sunset harbor cruise fundraiser aboard the M/V Cuttyhunk on Saturday, September 16 from 5:00 p.m. – 7 p.m. Passengers will enjoy live music, a cash bar and light refreshments. Musical entertainment will be provided by Joanne Doherty.

Born and raised on the Southcoast with the working waterfront in her blood, Joanne Doherty spent her childhood climbing on her father’s scallop boats and painting them for summer jobs. For the last fifteen years she’s been performing throughout New England spinning her magic on a wide variety of songs selected from an eclectic catalogue of folk, blues and old standards combining her deft & delicate stylings on guitar and ukulele with a rich smooth voice.

Tickets are $40 and may be purchased at the Fishing Heritage Center. Tickets may be reserved by calling 508-993-8894 or online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3079097. All proceeds will benefit the Center’s programs, exhibits and daily operations.

Located at 38 Bethel Street in the heart of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is dedicated to preserving and presenting the story of the commercial fishing industry past, present, and future through archives, exhibits, and programs. The Center is open to the public Thursday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.fishingheritagecenter.org.

2017 Northeast Groundfish Operational Assessment Meeting Materials Available

September 1, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center is carrying out routine, regularly scheduled stock assessments for New England groundfish. The peer review will be September 11-15, and the NEFSC is sending the draft assessment reports and supporting information to the peer reviewers and making the information available to the public this Friday, September 1. At this stage the results are preliminary until they are vetted by the peer review panel.

You may now access the 2017 draft groundfish operational assessments and a range of additional materials through our data portal link here:

https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/groundfish/operational-assessments-2017.

For each species stock, we will also include models, model inputs, maps, figures, tables, and other background materials that will be used by peer reviewers. We hope this will help you prepare for the assessment meeting if you plan to attend and to better understand the draft assessment results, recognizing that the results are not final until confirmed by the peer review panel.  Please let us know your thoughts on how we can continue to improve access to information for future assessment meetings.

The 2017 peer review of 19 Northeast groundfish operational stock assessments will occur September 11-15 in Woods Hole, MA.  The meeting will also be available by webinar and teleconference.

Questions? Contact Teri Frady at 508-495-2239 or teri.frady@noaa.gov.

Sturgeon ruling may impact federally funded projects

Merrimack River made ‘critical habitat’ for Atlantic sturgeon

September 1, 2017 — They are large, bony fish whose ancestors began swimming the Earth during the Triassic period, some 245 million years ago.

The federal government says the Atlantic sturgeon is now an endangered species in some places and is threatened in others, and that states up and down the Eastern Seaboard must take necessary measures to ensure their survival.

A ruling handed down on Aug. 16 by the Department of Commerce through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, designates the Gulf of Maine as a critical habitat for the fish, which includes approximately 152 miles of water in the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, the Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin and Piscataqua rivers of Maine, and the Cocheco and Salmon Falls rivers of New Hampshire.

But what sort of impact will the efforts to replenish the Atlantic sturgeon population have on Merrimack Valley cities like Haverhill and Lawrence?

Allison Ferreira, spokeswoman for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, said Friday that the ruling mandates that when a federal agency constructs or develops a project near the river or there is a project that is receiving some amount of federal money, such as a highway or bridge project where there could be significant water runoff, that agency must contact NOAA to ensure proper measures are taken so as not to upset the fish’s natural habitat.

Read the full story at the Haverhill Gazette

Bristol, Mass. sheriff’s captain charged with smuggling in Carlos Rafael case

August 31, 2017 — BOSTON — A captain with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office was arrested and charged late Wednesday in connection with helping Carlos Rafael, the owner of one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the U.S., smuggle the profits of his illegal overfishing scheme to Portugal, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

James Melo, 45, of North Dartmouth, was charged with one count each of bulk cash smuggling, structuring and conspiracy. He was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond following his appearance in federal court in Boston on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

In May 2015, federal agents began an undercover operation targeting Carlos Rafael, the owner of one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the U.S. In the fall of 2015, undercover agents, posing as potential buyers of Rafael’s business, met with Rafael to negotiate buying his fishing business. Rafael told the agents that he hid the cash proceeds of his illegal fishing sales, in part, by smuggling the money to Portugal. Rafael said that he sometimes took the money himself, but also used the services of others, and referred to knowing several members of the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, including Melo, whom he described as, “the captain at the prison,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement sent to news media.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times