Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center to host Seafood Throwdown

July 17, 2017 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, in collaboration with the Port of New Bedford, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, Mass in Motion New Bedford, and New Bedford Farmers’ Market, is pleased to present a Seafood Throwdown on Thursday, July 27, 2017. Funded through a Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries grant secured by the Port of New Bedford, this free event will take place beginning at 5:30 p.m. in Custom House Square located in downtown New Bedford. This evening also marks the launch of the New Bedford Seafood brand by the Port of New Bedford.

Chef Edward Roszak, Executive Chef at How on Earth, and Chef Joe Rego, Executive Chef at Cask and Pig Kitchen and Alehouse, will compete to create a winning dish using a surprise, locally caught seafood ingredient and local produce purchased at the New Bedford Farmers’ Market. The secret ingredient is an abundant, underappreciated, and underutilized species of seafood.

Judging their creations will be Chef Chris Cronin, Executive Chef at Farm & Coast Market and two-time Seafood Throwdown Champion; Dan Medeiros of the Herald News and contributor to the Dine Out column in the Standard-Times’ Coastin’; and Diane Nanfelt, co-owner of Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market.

Seafood Throwdowns are a collaboration between the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and fishing communities, providing a unique opportunity for the public to learn more about our local seafood, local fishing fleet, and fisheries related issues. The chefs can bring three of their favorite ingredients. When the secret seafood ingredient is revealed, they are given $25 and 15 minutes to shop the New Bedford Farmers’ Market for additional ingredients. After their shopping spree, they have one hour to cook and present their entry for the judges’ consideration. LImited sampling will be available for audience members.  This year’s secret ingredient is generously donated by Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market.

Through a grant with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the Port of New Bedford created a New Bedford Seafood logo to better brand the seafood landed in the Port of New Bedford – the #1 fishing port in the country by value.  A website will also be launched as a central location for buyers to find and directly connect with all of New Bedford’s fish processors and wholesalers.

MASSACHUSETTS: Seals die within days of each other at Woods Hole Aquarium

July 14, 2017 — The Woods Hole Science Aquarium is mourning the loss of its two beloved harbor seals, Bumper and LuSeal.

They died within 11 days of each other, and the causes of their deaths are unknown, officials said. The aquarium announced that it would be closed Friday and Saturday to allow time for the staff to recoup.

The two seals came from different states — LuSeal was stranded on Cape Cod in 2002 when she was just a month old, and Bumper was found on a South Hampton, N.Y., beach after being wounded by a shark in 2007 — and fate led them to live together at the aquarium’s modernized seal habitat, where they swam, ate, and sunned themselves, as seals are wont to do.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: Local Fishermen Applaud New NOAA Fisheries Administrator Appointment

July 14, 2017 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently announced a new assistant administrator for fisheries. The fishing community, including here on the Cape, largely applauded the nomination of Chris Oliver, who comes from the Alaska fishery.

WCAI’s Kathryn Eident talked with Cape Cod C0mmercial Fishermen’s Alliance CEO John Pappalardo to learn more about the appointment.

Read and listen to the full story at WCAI

MASSACHUSETTS: Sixth Annual Boston Seafood Festival

July 13, 2017 — The following was released by the Boston Seafood Festival:

The sixth annual Boston Seafood Festival, the biggest and tastiest seafood event of the summer, takes over Boston’s historic Fish Pier on Sunday, August 13, 2017 from 11am–7:00pm.

Presented by Boston Fisheries Foundation, Boston Seafood Festival combines a terrific family friendly day of delicious seafood sampling, live music, local chef demonstrations, children’s activities and more with a rare opportunity to learn more about preserving Boston’s essential seafood and maritime heritage.

“We encourage everyone to visit our annual must attend seafood event just brimming with New England favorites like our all day lobster bake, the legendary battle of the shuckers, and great seafood sampling from Boston’s finest seafood vendors,” said Chris Basile, president of Boston Fisheries Foundation. He added, “It’s also a great way to celebrate Boston’s heritage as the seafood hub of our country by engaging with entertaining educational exhibits and demonstrations by real working fishermen right from the dock at Fish Pier.”

Tickets are $15.00 and are available at http://www.bostonseafoodfestival.org/. Proceeds underwrite Boston Seafood Festival and in part support the work of the Boston Fisheries Foundation, a not for profit organization which preserves and protects the local seafood industry’s long term viability as well as safeguards the ocean’s present and future natural resources.

Event highlights also include food for purchase, a blessing of the fleet, notable speakers, face painting, costumed characters, among other festivities.

The Boston Seafood Festival is presented by Boston Fisheries Foundation along with generous sponsors that include; Massport, Harpoon, Stavis Seafoods, Channel Fish, The

John Nagle Company, Quarterdeck, JCDecaux, Carpenter’s Union, Ipswich Clambake, East Boston Savings Bank, and F.J. O’Hara & Son’s. Boston Seafood Festival is managed and produced by Conventures, Boston’s leading events management and communications agency.

For more information and a complete list of activities, please visit http://bostonseafoodfestival.org.

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Under-loved fish need a home right here

July 12, 2017 — A recent report from the social policy researchers at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole shed some light on what happens to local fish after its caught by commercial fishermen.

The report is part of ongoing research, and has yet to be finalized in an academic paper, but the first findings indicate that most of the groundfish landed in NOAA’s Northeast region is sold and consumed locally. And it’s no surprise that most of the scallops landed are shipped around the country and the world.

Trucks carry much of the groundfish landed between Maryland and Maine, hauling along the coast and inland for 75 or 100 miles. Some is frozen and shipped far away, but the fish we buy locally is frequently locally caught.

Cod, haddock, pollock and different flounders find their way into local restaurants, fish markets and grocery stores, then onto local plates.

The local consumption of this groundfish is a function of the difficulty of NOAA Fisheries’ management of the multispecies fishery that includes about 20 different species. The complex interplay between abundant and scarce species that intermingle has thwarted attempts to harvest the Total Allowable Catch of the abundant species and confounded attempts to avoid the scarce ones. Groundfish landings today are a shadow of those from the early 1980s.

Even as traditional regional species have become harder to harvest, new species have moved into warming state and federal waters managed by the Northeast Fisheries Management Council, which is the management arm of federal fisheries management in this region. Skate and spiny dogfish have become the abundant species, and their harvest is less complicated than those from among the traditional groundfish stocks. But skate wings don’t get the price at the dock of those other species. Last Friday at the local seafood auction, skate wings fetched 30 cents a pound; flounder, cod and haddock were all paying 5 to 10 times that at the dock, some 20 times more.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

HILDE LEE: Cod has special place in nation’s food history

July 11, 2017 — I have a certain curiosity about food, particularly seafood. I am not shy about asking, “Is the fish fresh? When did it come in?”

Thus, one day I got the definitive answer from one a man at one of our local grocery store fish counters. “Yes, the fish is fresh and we get it frozen. I only thaw out what I think will sell daily. Thus, the fish is very fresh.” Well, it may be fresh, but it was frozen. After all, we are not on the seacoast.

I like cod and the various members of the cod family — haddock, hake, pollock and Atlantic cod. The flesh of these fish is usually firm, making it ideal for a variety of dishes — broiled, baked, and stewed. Cod is also a good receiver of sauces, particularly tomato-based ones with herbs.

Just like the bison and the eagle, cod can be considered a symbol of America. It was here even before the first settlers came to New England, where cod was plentiful.

When Giovanni Caboto sailed from Bristol, England, on May 2, 1497, he, like Columbus, was searching for a western sea route to Asia. But Caboto — known as John Cabot, a Venetian navigator sponsored by King Henry VII — returned from his first voyage not with exotic spices, but tales of the sea. He told of the many fishes that could be caught simply by lowering weighted baskets into the water.

Even before Cabot’s reports of great schools of cod along the northern shores of the new continent, fishermen from Scandinavian areas had spent any years fishing the North Atlantic.

By 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold ventured south beyond Nova Scotia seeking sassafras — believed to be a cure for syphilis — but found French and Portuguese fishermen harvesting numerous fish along the Great Banks, an area 350 miles of coast south of Newfoundland. There, the cold Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream joined, creating ideal conditions for a variety of fish. Gosnold named the land, which jutted out to sea, Cape Cod.

Read the full story at The Daily Progress

GLOUCESTER TIMES: Saving a species in danger

July 11, 2017 — The revival of the right whale should be one of America’s great conservation success stories, standing alongside the grey wolf, the American bison and the bald eagle.

Once hunted to the edge of extinction, the right whale made strong strides toward recovery in recent decades, in large part due to conservation efforts. Today there are thought to be about 500 of the mammals swimming in Atlantic waters.

Recent events, however, show just how tenuous the species’ hold on survival really is, and make clear the need for continued, innovative conservation efforts. A new effort to educate recreational and competitive sailors about the dangers of vessel strikes is a step in the right direction.

Six right whales were found dead in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, late last month. Early evidence suggests two of the whales died after being struck by boats, and one after becoming entangled in lost or discarded fishing gear.

Meanwhile, fewer right whale calves have been born in recent years.

“Including the right whale killed by a ship strike in Cape Cod this past April, we have now lost seven right whales in a year where only five calves were born,” said Regina Asmutis-Silva, executive director of the Plymouth-based research and advocacy group Whale and Dolphin Conservation. “Only 20 years ago, over 500 (vaquita whales) swam in the Gulf of California but today only 30 remain because of human impacts. Where will the right whales be in 20 years if we do not make meaningful changes that reduce their threats of ship strikes and entanglements?”

Massachusetts researchers, who warned the species was in trouble last year, remain concerned.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod shellfish bed closures await lab results

July 10, 2017 — Shellfish growing areas in six towns that were closed by the state Division of Marine Fisheries on Friday remained closed Monday pending lab results of bacteriological water samples from the affected areas, according to Katie Gronendyke, spokeswoman for the state Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The state closed shellfish growing areas east of the Cape Cod Canal in the towns of Sandwich, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable and in Lewis Bay in Yarmouth because of extreme rainfall. Shellfish beds in Sandwich are open only from November through May, according to the Sandwich Department of Natural Resources.

Friday’s rain, which accumulated up to 4 inches in two to three hours in some areas, overwhelmed roads, parking lots and storm drain systems, Gronendyke wrote in an email. The flooding can cause contaminated water to accumulate and release into coastal waters, she wrote.

The towns in which the shellfish growing areas were closed received the heaviest rainfall, she wrote.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Police identify New Bedford man reported missing from Miss Shauna

July 6, 2017 — Police identified the New Bedford fisherman, who presumably fell overboard on Monday, as Thomas Quintin Jr.

The 55-year-old was born into a fishing family. Both his grandfathers were fishermen and both were lost at sea, according to police, who also said his father, two nephews and sister all fished.

Quintin entered the fishing industry at 17 and was the captain of a New Bedford-based vessel for more than two decades before working aboard the Miss Shauna, police said.

According to Quintin’s Facebook page, he received a 200 ton masters license from Northeast Maritime Institute in 2014-15. A deeply religious man, he graduated from Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School in 1979.

The Coast Guard suspended a 28-hour search for Quintin on Wednesday.

Sabrina Clarke, of the Coast Guard, said a variety of reasons contribute to a suspension of a search including weather, water temperature and safety equipment the person may have been wearing.

The search for Quintin in the Atlantic Ocean began Monday afternoon after he didn’t report to his post when the Miss Shauna was about 25 miles south of Montauk, New York. He was last seen by the crew at around 4 p.m.

The vessel has since returned to New Bedford, according to an employee at Miss Shauna LCC at 1 Cape St.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and National Park Team Up to Present Something Fishy Camp

July 6, 2017 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, and the Whaling History Alliance have teamed up to offer a free summer camp at the Park for New Bedford children entering grade 4 in the fall of 2017.  Something Fishy Summer Camp is designed to give kids an introduction to the history and culture of the working port from whaling days to present day commercial fishing.

Camp activities will include hands-on marine science with fisheries scientists; storytellers; marlinspike ropework; arts and crafts; a harbor tour; and a fishing vessel tour. In addition, campers will explore the Park to learn about New Bedford’s whaling history and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center to learn about present day commercial fishing from a fisherman.  They will also visit the Seaman’s Bethel, Casa dos Botes Discovery Center; and Buzzards Bay Coalition.

The camp curriculum is designed to engage local youth in learning abut the history and culture of New Bedford’s whaling and fishing industries. For campers whose families are connected to our working waterfront, these programs honor the lives and experiences of their families.  For those who are not directly connected to the port, the opportunity to learn about this part of our community is equally important. Unlike many waterfront communities that have lost their working waterfront to development, New Bedford remains a working harbor. Continued support and preservation of our working waterfront requires a citizenry that understands its’ essential value.  It is the children of today who will be shaping the port of the future.     

Campers were chosen by lottery for a one-week session. Sessions begin July 10th and July 17th. 

Something Fishy Camp is a collaboration between the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, and the Whaling History Alliance.  The 2017 camp program is made possible by grants from the United Way Summer Fund, New Bedford Day Nursery Foundation, the New Bedford Education Foundation, and support from BayCoast Bank.