Saving Seafood

In boon for Gloucester fleet, flounder limits doubled

January 26, 2017 — In a victory for the local inshore dayboat fleet, fishing regulators on Wednesday approved new specifications for witch flounder that will nearly double the annual catch limit for the species in 2017.

Meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the New England Fishery Management Council approved an acceptable biological catch of 878 metric tons of witch flounder, also known as grey sole, for 2017. When adjusted for management uncertainty, the move will result in a 2017 annual catch limit of 839 metric tons — nearly twice the 2016 annual catch limit of 441 metric tons.

“I think the council was compelled by the industry’s own observation that we have a pretty strong witch flounder stock,” said Vito Giacalone, policy director for the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition.

The council action on witch flounder should provide a significant boost to the local dayboat fleet and the fortunes of the fishermen that are immutably tied to the stock.

“It’s huge,” Giacalone said. “Everybody who is left fishes for it. The inshore dayboat fleet is almost entirely dependent on this stock.”

The spike in the 2017 annual catch limit should provide a double-edged benefit, according to Giacalone.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center presents Unusual Catches Day

January 25, 2017 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford, MA – The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center will host Unusual Catches Day on Saturday, February 4, 2017 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Every fisherman has experienced catching a strange object in their net or dredge.  Alan Cass, a retired fisherman and Center volunteer, says he has caught everything including a kitchen sink. Many fishermen have a collection of these items found while sorting the catch on deck. From fossils to old tools to pieces of wooden ships to strange objects, these items come back to shore and are keepsakes for the finder.

Active and retired fishermen are invited to bring their treasures from the deep to Unusual Catches Day.   Maritime archeologists will be at the Center to examine the treasures and provide more information about each piece. This event will provide an opportunity for the fishermen and the public to learn more about these artifacts.

This event is free and open to the public. The Center is located at 38 Bethel Street in New Bedford’s historic downtown and is handicap accessible through the parking lot entrance. Free off-street parking available.

MASSACHUSETTS: Fish councilor hopes for reappointment

January 25, 2017 — Elizabeth “Libby” Etrie had a pretty well-formed idea of what awaited her when she was appointed in 2014 to her first term on the New England Fishery Management Council.

Etrie had built a solid professional foundation while working with groundfishermen as the program director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Sector Service Network, and through her work with 13 of 17 New England groundfish sectors as the southern sector coordinator for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute sector extension program.

Still, her elevation onto the council as one of Massachusetts’ at-large members provided her with a glimpse of the fishing world beyond groundfish.

“I had spent a lot of time working on groundfish issues, so I was already comfortable there,” Etrie said. “But the council deals with so much more than groundfish and the challenge was getting up to speed on the other fisheries. It’s required more work, but it’s been really rewarding.”

Etrie, who lives in Gloucester, is in the final year of her first three-year term on the council. Gov. Charlie Baker must decide by March 15 if he will submit Etrie’s name to the council and the U.S. Commerce Department — which has final approval on fishery management council member appointments — for re-appointment to another three-year term.

For now, Baker’s office remains non-committal on its plans for filling the two Massachusetts at-large seats on the council whose terms expire this year. The terms of Etrie and John Pappalardo of Chatham both expire on Aug. 10.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

How Smart Fishery Management Saved The Atlantic Sea Scallop

January 24, 2017 — Scallops taught the United States an important lesson in sustainability.

A smart fishery management plan was meant to relieve suffering cod and flounder populations, but it also prevented the Atlantic sea scallop market from fizzling out in the ’90s.

In 1991, New England fisheries yielded 37 million pounds of scallops. Scientists started to worry when scallop landings dropped to less than 10 million pounds in 1994.

Then, regulators closed three fisheries along the Georges Bank, an underwater plateau between Massachusetts and Nova Scotia. They also temporarily stopped issuing new fishing licenses, and they rotated access to certain fishing grounds.

Read the full story and watch the video at Newsy

MASSACHUSETTS: Right whales return to Cape Cod Bay

January 24, 2017 — Two rare and critically endangered North Atlantic right whales were spotted in Cape Cod Bay, the first of the year seen in the area, according to the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown.

The center’s research vessel Shearwater spotted the two whales in the bay five miles south of Provincetown Harbor on Jan. 17. On Thursday, center officials say they saw five right whales in the same area.

There are only an estimated 524 right whales in the world, according to the center. They come to the bay every winter due to the high concentrations of microscopic zooplankton there, which is a food source for the whales.

The whales’ presence in the bay warrants caution, according to the center.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Carlos Rafael Trial Delayed

January 24, 2017 — The federal trial of New Bedford fishing kingpin Carlos Rafael has been pushed back more than a month to March amid indications that Rafael is looking for a deal from federal prosecutors.

U.S. District Court Judge William Young, sitting in Boston, approved the defense’s request to reschedule the start of the trial to March 20 to accommodate a scheduling conflict for one of Rafael’s attorneys. It is the second time the original Feb. 6 trial date has been extended.

The motion for a continuance filed by Rafael’s attorney William H. Kettlewell also indicated that Rafael is speaking with prosecutors about resolving the charges in the 27-count indictment before the matter goes to trial.

“The short continuance requested in this motion will allow counsel time to complete (another) trial and complete discussions with the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding resolving the matter short of trial,” Kettlewell wrote in his motion.

Kettlewell did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment on the rescheduling or the possibility of a pre-trial deal.

Rafael, known widely as the “Codfather” to reflect his expansive fishing fleet of at least 36 commercial fishing vessels and significant waterfront holdings, is accused of 25 counts of lying to federal fishing regulators about the value and species of his seafood landings and selling portions of those landings off the books.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA Fisheries to move into historic renovated New Bedford Custom House

January 23, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The historic Custom House building looks a little like a construction site right now with a tarp covering one side, but come March it will have new tenants and a new stairway on the William Street side, federal officials said.

Patrick Sclafani, a spokesman for the General Services Administration, said in an email to The Standard-Times that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) will be locating there in March and the interior renovations are being done in advance of their arrival.

NOAA’s Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region Stakeholder Engagement Division and NOAA seafood inspectors will be moving into the building then. Currently, the U.S. Custom and Border Protection agencies are there.

The marble floor tiles are being refurbished and a new subfloor is being installed to the building’s first floor main corridor, he said. The building, which was built in 1836, has two floors.

The contractor is also installing new granite exterior stairs on the William Street side of the building that were removed many years ago, he said.

The new stairs will be “architecturally and historically accurate to their original state,” and should be done by approximately March, he said. The reconstructed stairs will be for the exclusive use of NOAA.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: A day in the life of a scallop boat captain

January 23, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — “We’re really pleased to see such a great turnout,” Fishing Heritage Center Director Laura Orleans told the standing-room-only crowd filling the center on Jan. 11. The capacity audience was there to hear Fairhaven scallop boat captain Chris Wright talk about “A Day in the Life” of the master of not one but two local 200-foot scallopers.

Pleased, but not surprised at the big turnout. “It’s no surprise because Chris Wright is one of my favorite captains,” Orleans said. By the end of the interesting lecture on his life at sea, and a spirited question-and-answer session, Wright was the favorite scallop boat captain of everyone in the room. 

“Don’t be in awe of us” braving fierce winds and mountainous waves far offshore, Wright suggested modestly at one point in the question-and-answer period. “It’s just what we do.”

What Wright does is skipper the Huntress out of Fairhaven, and the Nordic Pride, based in New Bedford. A shared captain is not uncommon these days, with each scallop boat limited by fishing regulations to a maximum of 75 days at sea, he noted.

“I’m getting ready for my 29th year as a captain,” Wright said, looking back on a life at sea that started with summer and vacation work on his father’s fishing boat as a youth, and through college. He graduated from a maritime academy in 1983, and spent a year working on commercial vessels, traveling far and wide over the oceans.

“But it was too much time away from home,” he suggested. “After a while, I went back home and started fishing.” 

He said he is lucky to have found two good boat owners to work for, and build long-term relationships with over the decades. He alternates trips on the two vessels, helming each for 10 or more trips per year with the same crew.

A captain spends much of his time on shore preparing for the next trip, with each fishing voyage lasting from 10 to 14 days. If the maximum catch allowed for that trip is 17,000 pounds of scallops, the boats generally stay out as long as is needed to get close to the allowed harvest.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Carlos ‘Codfather’ Rafael to talk with prosecutors about resolving criminal case

January 23, 2017 — Indicted New Bedford scallops magnate Carlos “Codfather” Rafael has asked the court to postpone his upcoming trial in part to pursue talks with prosecutors about “resolving” the matter, court documents show.

One of Rafael’s attorneys, William Kettlewell, asked the Massachusetts federal court of judge William G. Young to postpone Rafael’s Feb. 13 trial to at least March 20. Young granted the order.

The delay, the second in recent months, is required as Kettlewell is expected to represent a different client in a two-week trial beginning on Jan. 30, the lawyer wrote. But, that time can also be used for negotiations with prosecutors about a possible settlement.

“The short continuance requested in this motion will allow counsel time to complete that trial and complete discussions with the US Attorney’s Office regarding resolving this matter short of trial,” Kettlewell wrote in the motion.

He did not respond to requests from Undercurrent News for comment.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester receives $20K to help city sell seafood

January 23, 2017 — The city has received a $20,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and plans to use the funds to bolster its Gloucester Fresh marketing campaign for locally landed seafood.

“These funds will enable us to continue our outreach efforts on behalf of the Gloucester Fresh campaign,” said Sal Di Stefano, economic development director for the city. “It really came as an extension of the “Local Foods, Local Places” initiative we’ve already engaged in with the USDA.”

Bolstering the Gloucester Fresh campaign may be the short-term goal, but Di Stefano said the city hopes the $20,000 can be used to leverage larger sums that would enable it to launch a product development test kitchen.

The kitchen, at a site to be determined, would be operated by a partnership of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and SnapChef.

“It would be a seafood testing and demonstration kitchen that could be utilized by companies for developing new products that could ultimately be marketed under the Gloucester Fresh brand,” Di Stefano said. “It also will be used for workforce training for the culinary industry.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times