Saving Seafood

New Net Aims to Help Maine Fishermen Land Fewer Cod

December 9th, 2016 — Some fishermen are pinning their hopes on a new kind of trawl net at use in the Gulf of Maine, designed to scoop up abundant flatfish such as flounder and sole while avoiding species such as cod, which regulators say are in severe decline.

For centuries, cod were plentiful and a prime target for the Gulf of Maine fleet. But in recent years catch quotas have been drastically reduced as the number of cod of reproductive age dropped perilously low, according to regulators.

For many boats, that turned the formerly prized groundfish into unwanted bycatch.

But, for fishermen, it can be tough to avoid cod while trying to catch other fish. And the stakes are high.

“Say tomorrow I go out, have a 10,000 set of cod and I only have 4,000 pounds of quota, essentially your sector manager — the person that oversees this — would shut me down,” says Jim Ford, whose trawler, the Lisa Ann II, is based in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Not only that, Ford would be forced to “lease” cod quota allowances from other fishermen to cover his overage. The cost of such leases, he says, can quickly outweigh the value of the cod that’s inadvertently landed.

“And I would pay a ridiculous price. And then you’re shut down, you can’t even go fishing,” he says.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio 

Fishing groups seek Atlantic wind farm delay

December 8, 2016 — MINEOLA, N.Y. — Commercial fishing companies, trade groups and three fishing-based municipalities are seeking to delay the lease sale of an Atlantic Ocean site between New York and New Jersey that federal officials envision as the home of a massive offshore wind energy project.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of a 45-page motion ahead of its filing Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C. It seeks a temporary restraining order halting the Dec. 15 lease sale. Those seeking a delay include groups representing scallop and squid fishermen, the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The motion seeks to delay the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s plans for developers to build a 127-square-mile, 194-turbine offshore wind farm. The United States still has no offshore wind projects online, though BOEM has awarded 11 commercial offshore wind leases for sites in the Atlantic. Some major projects have been delayed by political opposition.

A BOEM spokeswoman said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

The country’s first offshore wind farm, a tiny project off Rhode Island with just a few turbines, is expected to debut this month.

The court motion argues that BOEM failed to consider alternative sites and contends that besides negative impacts on scallop and squid fishing, others who harvest fish species including summer flounder, mackerel, black sea bass and monkfish also would be negatively affected. When it announced final plans for the lease sale earlier this fall, BOEM said it had removed about 1,780 acres from the initial proposal because of environmental concerns.

The plaintiffs referred to that as a “diminutive change” in their motion. The fishing groups said they aren’t opposed to wind farms. But they argue that site alternatives weren’t considered and that conducting site analysis after a lease sale is completed will be too late.

“BOEM must carry out the proper analysis prior to officially leasing out areas to companies for construction, due to the importance of this fishery area,” said James Gutowski, president of the Fisheries Survival Fund, who is a scallop fisherman from Barnegat Light, New Jersey; the group is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

“It must adequately and accurately characterize the potential impacts to the industry from construction on this site,” Gutowski said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Scallop & Fishing Industry, Municipalities, Sue Feds to Ensure Seafood Interests Are Considered in NY Bight Wind Energy Project

December 8, 2016 — The following was released by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities:

WASHINGTON — December 8, 2016 – The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which represents the majority of the limited access Atlantic scallop fleet, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction to delay an anticipated lease sale for the development of a 26-mile long wind farm project approximately 11 miles off the coast of Long Island, scheduled for December 15, 2016. The story was broken today by the Associated Press.

The filing alleges that the leasing process for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) did not adequately consider the impact the proposed New York Wind Energy Area would have on the region’s fishermen. The site chosen for the 127 square mile wind farm is in the waters of the New York Bight on vital, documented scallop and squid fishing grounds, which serves as essential fish habitat and grounds for other commercially important species, including black sea bass and summer flounder. It is also an important foraging area for threatened loggerhead sea turtles and critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The lawsuit argues that fishermen’s concerns regarding the location of the lease area received “virtually no attention or analysis” from government officials ahead of the planned December 15 lease sale, despite fishing stakeholders repeatedly making their concerns known. It further states that BOEM failed to identify the proposed wind farm’s environmental, economic, social, and cultural impacts, and failed to “consider alternative sites in an open, collaborative, public forum.”

Several other members of the National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC)—including commercial fishing organizations, businesses, and communities that depend on the sustainable use of Atlantic Ocean resources—have joined the lawsuit. The suit was filed against Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, BOEM, and BOEM Director Abigail Hopper.

Organizations joining the lawsuit include: the Garden State Seafood Association and the Fishermen’s Dock Co-Operative in New Jersey; the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in New York; and the Narragansett Chamber of Commerce and Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance in Rhode Island.

The City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the nation’s top-grossing fishing port; the Borough of Barnegat Light, New Jersey; and the Town of Narragansett, Rhode Island have joined as plaintiffs. Also joining are three fishing businesses: SeaFreeze Shoreside, Sea Fresh USA, and The Town Dock.

The New York Bight consists of the waters from Cape May Inlet in New Jersey to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, and offshore to the outer edge of the Continental Shelf, where the coasts of New York and New Jersey form an upside-down L around shallow waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The plaintiffs are represented by the law firm of Kelly, Drye & Warren.  The case will be heard by Judge Tanya Chutkan in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No. 1:16-cv-02409.

Press inquiries should be directed to Bob Vanasse at Stove Boat Communications, 202-333-2628.

Read the full legal filing and declarations from the plaintiffs at atlanticscallops.org

A mystery at sea unfolds in New Bedford

December 5th, 2016 — A mystery is unfolding at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

 It all started last month when the fishing vessel Jean Marie out of Newport, North Carolina raised its nets and found pieces of wood, a five-part block with wooden shives, a single block with a hook on it, a knee brace and other pieces of wreckage. The fishing vessel was fishing in 55 fathoms of water (between 250 and 300 feet), just east of the Great South Channel shipping lanes.

It is not uncommon for fishermen to find strange objects in their nets, but what is unusual is that the crew of the Jean Marie recorded the location of their find about 50 miles east-southeast of Nantucket, said Victor T. Mastone, director and chief archaeologist with the state Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources.

The nautical position is North 41 08.52 x West 69 07.39.

On Friday, a few weeks after the discovery, a state official, a university professor, a fishing captain and Heritage Center officials met for a little over an hour to view the materials and to try and figure out exactly what they have on their hands.

Read the full story at The Portsmouth Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Weeks after shellfishing ban is lifted, Wellfleet worries remain

December 5th, 2016 — A soft rain falls just before sunrise and Jason Weisman is at work on Duck Creek armed with a knife and a bushel basket, scouring the muddy shoreline for food that supports his young family, still asleep in their beds miles down the road.

He’s cooked in kitchens in the North End and Allston. He’s worked on lobster boats. He’s studied painting and has a keen appreciation for art. And now, at his feet, he recognizes the artistry before him.

“It sparkles like a diamond when the light hits it just right,’’ he tells me, holding a freshly harvested oyster, the shellfish that has become his passion and livelihood.

He’s got his eyes on the water and on the horizon, preferring to look ahead and forget about the economic calamity from which he is just emerging — a month-long shellfishing ban that has staggered him and his town.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

Faster seafood DNA testing on the way

November 30, 2016 — A new, faster seafood DNA testing technology could be developed by late next year, thanks to research starting soon in the United States.

J. Aquiles Sanchez, a senior research scientist at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.A., will test and develop a “fast, cost-effective identification of edible fish and fish products to prevent species substitution and fraud,” according to the Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF), which is funding the project.

The research seeks to develop a rapid means of seafood species identification using Closed-Tube DNA Bar Coding. Compared to difficult and expensive DNA testing that the Food and Drug Administration uses currently, the closed-DNA system “represents a convenient alternative that can be used with both laboratory equipment and, importantly, handheld devices,” SIRF said in a statement.

“It is being developed for commercial use throughout the seafood supply chain. We know it will be less than the cost of laboratory DNA testing and results are much quicker than sending to a lab and waiting for those results. Speed is critical to the potential to use this technology to prevent mislabeling of fish species,” Russ Mentzer, chairman of SIRF, told SeafoodSource.

However, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.-based InstantLabs already offers rapid DNA tests for several seafood species, including Atlantic, sockeye and coho salmon, Atlantic blue crab and catfish.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Will Trump Be Able To Undo Papahanaumokuakea?

November 28, 2016 — In the months leading up to the Nov. 8 election, President Barack Obama signed a series of proclamations to dramatically increase the amount of land and water that is federally protected from commercial fishing, mining, drilling and development.

On Aug. 24, he established a nearly 90,000-acre national monument in the Katahdin Woods of Maine. 

Two days later, Obama expanded Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands by 283 million acres, making it the world’s largest protected area at the time.

And on Sept. 15, he created the first national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, protecting more than 3 million acres of marine ecosystems, seamounts and underwater canyons southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Obama has used a century-old law called the Antiquities Act to federally protect more land — 550 million acres and counting — than any other president. He’s established 24 new national monuments in at least 14 states since taking office eight years ago, with the bulk of the acreage in Papahanaumokuakea and the Pacific Remote Islands.

But with Republican Donald Trump’s surprise upset of Democrat Hillary Clinton, attention is turning to what Trump plans to do when he takes office in January and whether he will seek to undo or at least modify the national monuments that Obama created.

Advocates for commercial fishing interests on the East Coast have started nudging policymakers to consider what changes the next administration could make. But West Coast and Hawaii industry groups are still gathering information and developing plans.

Saving Seafood, a nonprofit that represents commercial fishing interests, has already started pushing policymakers to consider what changes the next administration could make to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. 

Saving Seafood Executive Director Robert Vanasse told the Associated Press earlier this month that he thinks it would be “rational” to allow some sustainable fishing in the monuments.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

MASSACHUSETTS: Bird’s eye view: Scientist visits students, talks researching oceans with drones

November 28, 2016 — “Using Drones and Robotic Boats to Study Coastlines.” What kid wouldn’t be interested in this? Newburyport public school students were enthralled when Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution research scientist Dr. Peter Traykovski visited their classrooms.

A pioneer in using drones for mapping and data collection in order to increase understanding of how coastal processes work, Traykovski showed students how hobby grade robotics have the potential to revolutionize studying and monitoring coastal processes with examples and pictures from aerial imaging drones and robotic boats.

Traykovski has used off the shelf drones and software to produce 3-D profiles of eroding beaches on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.

“The exciting part for us was the drone work he has been doing,” said Elizabeth Kinzly, PreK-8 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) coordinator for the Newburyport Public Schools. “Even our youngest kid is totally motivated when you talk about drones.”

Traykovski was invited to Newburyport by Storm Surge, a group of citizens from Amesbury, Newburyport, Ipswich, Rowley, Merrimac, Salisbury, Newbury, and West Newbury concerned with the impacts of sea level rise, extreme weather events and other effects of long-term climate change in the Greater Newburyport area. He made a presentation at City Hall on Nov. 2 and visited the schools the following day.

“Our purpose is to provide awareness and foster preparedness,” said Sheila Taintor, one of the founders of Storm Surge in 2013. “Our purpose is not action, but education. We have had a speaker series since 2013, and Peter Traykovski was our most recent speaker. We sponsored his visit, but he received no stipend. I’m always amazed how generous scientists are with their time.”

Read the full story at Wicked Local Newburyport

‘Codfather’ asks court to split his, deputy’s cases

November 28th, 2016 — New Bedford fishing kingpin Carlos Rafael and the Bristol County sheriff’s deputy indicted as Rafael’s co-defendant each are seeking to be tried separately in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Rafael, known widely as “The Codfather” because of his vast New Bedford fishing assets and waterfront holdings, and Antonio M. Freitas, the Bristol County deputy sheriff, are scheduled to stand trial together on Jan. 9.

Attorneys for both men filed separate motions with the court earlier this week to sever the cases. The motions also seeks to have the court try each defendant separately, each claiming the other’s statements to law enforcement officials would injure their own cases if tried together.

 Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“A joint trial presents a serious risk of compromising Mr. Rafael’s Sixth Amendment confrontation rights in light of incriminating evidence made to law enforcement by Mr. Freitas,” William Kettlewell, Rafael’s defense attorney, wrote in his motion to U. S. District Court Judge William Young. “Moreover, severance in this case would not be administratively burdensome as the defendants are jointly named in only one of 28 counts alleged in the indictment.”

Read the full story at The Salem News 

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing for film money

November 25, 2016 — The Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, which has fully assumed the role of producer in Rockport native David Wittkower’s film on the demise of the commercial fishing industry, will hold another fundraiser on Dec. 1.

The GFWA, with the assistance of private benefactors and the foundation for which Gloucester resident Linzee Coolidge is a director, has raised about $41,000 of the estimated $65,000 Wittkower needs to finish the film, “Dead in the Water.”

The GFWA will try to narrow the funding gap with the Dec. 1 fundraiser at the Elks Club on the Back Shore that will include a reception catered by the GFWA and a 50-50 raffle.

 Tickets are $100 each for the raffle and are available at the GFWA offices at 2 Blackburn Center. Only 200 tickets will be sold. Winners do not have to be present to collect prizes.

Half of the proceeds from the raffle — which will pay prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and two prizes of $1,000 — will go to help fund Wittkower’s final photography and post-production on the film he has been working on for more than two years.

“David Wittkower’s film, while presenting the harsh facts of fishing, also illustrates the warmth and heart in this industry, and why it is so important to the Gloucester community,” the GFWA wrote in its letter announcing the most recent fundraising event for the completion of the film. “If completed, the film will end with hope, presenting the people working to make Gloucester fishing a sustainable 21st century fleet.”

Wittkower, a 1979 graduate of Rockport High School, is a veteran, award-winning filmmaker, serving as producer, director and editor on a number of documentaries.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times