Saving Seafood

Manager hired for New Bedford’s Marine Commerce Terminal

November 22, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — One of the project construction managers of the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal has been hired as its manager, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center announced Monday.

Gregory Dolan “brings more than 18 years of professional experience in waterways development and port infrastructure design, permitting and construction to his new role as the terminal manager,” said the announcement.

One of those projects happens to be the new terminal, the first of its kind in North America, design to withstand the heaviest loads in operations such as wind turbine assembly and construction.

The Mass Clean Energy Center decided it is better that it employ the terminal manager rather than contract it out, according to the announcement.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Heritage Center Speaker Series Continues

November 22, 2016 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford, MA – The Fishing Heritage Center’s “A Day in the Life” speaker series continues on Wednesday, November 30th at 7:00 p.m. with lobsterman Dave Casoni. Programs are presented free of charge for members and volunteers, there is a $5 fee for the general public. The Center is wheelchair accessible and located at 38 Bethel Street in New Bedford’s historic downtown.  Free off street parking is available

Dave Casoni has been a commercial lobsterman, working out of Sandwich, Massachusetts, for over forty years. He serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Massachusetts Lobsterman’s Association and serves on a wide variety of “fishing” related boards.  Dave will talk about the fishery, the gear, and daily life at sea, providing a rare firsthand look at the work and life of a lobsterman.

For more information please contact the Fishing Heritage Center at: info@fishingheritagecenter.org or call (508) 993-8894.

Locals wary of changes to whiting plan

November 21, 2016 — It didn’t take long for the Gloucester Fisheries Commission to oppose the proposals being developed at the New England Fishery Management Council that would introduce limited access to the historically open-access whiting fishery.

A mere two days after the NEFMC received its first look at the proposals being generated by its whiting advisory panel and whiting committee, Gloucester commission members raised concerns over the impact the proposals could have on the city’s whiting fleet — particularly the small boats.

“We should not allow any other species to go under limited access,” said commission member Angela Sanfilippo, also the president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association. “This is a healthy stock and I am totally against limited access.”

Sanfilippo’s views were echoed by member Joe Orlando and Chairman Mark Ring.

The three proposals to potentially limit access to the fishery are contained in Amendment 22 currently being developed by the council. The council’s whiting committee hopes to furnish a more finished product at the council’s next meeting in late January.

The city fisheries commission, however, wasn’t waiting around for the council staff’s final analysis. It voted 6-0 to oppose any attempts to limit access to Ipswich Bay for the local whiting fleet.

The three proposals, being developed by the NEFMC’s whiting advisory panel and whiting committee, essentially offer potential eligibility parameters for future access into the fishery.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishing industry seeks reversal of Atlantic Marine Monument

November 21, 2016 — The Gloucester Fishing Commission isn’t ready yet to employ a full-court press on President-elect Donald Trump to reverse the Obama administration’s creation of a Marine National Monument in the canyons and seamounts off the coast of southern New England.

It’s not that the commission members think it’s a bad idea. They just think it’s too early to start beating that particular drum.

“There’s already a lot of talk and the group letters will be coming along like before,” said commission Chairman Mark Ring. “But I don’t think we should be doing a letter now. It’s too premature.”

“Let’s wait until he gets into office,” said Angela Sanfilippo.

Other fishing stakeholders around the country have said they hope to appeal to Trump’s oft-stated intent to reverse any of the Obama administration’s policies and decisions he deems to be executive overreach.

“It’s a new day,” said fishing industry advocate Robert Vanasse of the Saving Seafood website. “I would anticipate there would be a desire to address monuments. Whether it’s the radical step of revoking the designation, or modifying it to allow non-destructive, sustainable fishing to take place, which we think is rational, I don’t know.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: The plan to combine fishing, tourism, and the waterfront to invigorate a New England city

November 17, 2016 — Working waterfronts along the Eastern seaboard are slowly dying out. As rising sea temperatures result in different fish migration patterns and locations, fishermen are struggling to adapt and keep up. The phenomenon is believed by many scientists to be due to climate change—the effects of which are most prominently evidenced on the East Coast according to a 2009 article, “Progress in Oceanography,” which found that waters in the northeast saw their temperatures rise at twice the global rate between 1982 and 2006. 

The port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, however, has remained strong. Since 1999 it has been the nation’s number one fishing port, netting 40 million pounds of seafood valued at more than $329 million in 2014, generating economic activity surpassing $1 billion.

Sustaining this economic fruition is a different matter, though. Boston-based consultant Sasaki Associates has produced a study of New Bedford’s waterfront, a scheme that seeks to further the area’s economic longevity. 

Proposals vary from advocating investment in particular areas and buildings to introducing other industries to the area. An example of the latter can be seen in the suggestion to enhance access—both public and private—to the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction where national and international buyers bid on fish. “A direct connection between fishing boats and the seafood auctions would improve the efficiency of getting fish to the consumer and make the process a transparent experience for the public,” reported Sasaki. Additionally, this would allow tourists to witness fish trading, something that is popular in, London, Sydney, Tokyo, and even, as Sasaki points out, Chatham, Massachusetts.

Read the full story at the Arch Paper

MASSACHUSETTS: Double feature at New Bedford Heritage Fishing Center

November 17, 2016 — Dock-U-Mentaries continues its free monthly film series on Nov. 18, 7 p.m., at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, 38 Bethel St., with “In History’s Wake: The Last Trap Fishermen of Rhode Island.” A new film by Markham Starr.

For as long as people have lived along RI’s meandering coast, the ocean at their doorstep has provided them with a ready supply of food. Faced with assaults from the broad Atlantic Ocean, fishermen from Rhode Island experimented with new designs, capable of withstanding the punishment delivered by wind and waves, eventually creating the unique floating trap system still in use today. While dozens of companies deploying hundreds of traps once fished the state’s waters, only four continue using this ancient but effective technique.

Following the film, the Center hosts the opening reception of its first gallery show: “New England Fishermen: The Photography of Markham Starr”.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Regulators to Discuss Localized Depletion of Herring

November 16, 2016 — CHATHAM, Mass. – The New England Fishery Management Council will meet in Newport, Rhode Island tomorrow and an organization that supports local fishermen will push for a buffer zone to move midwater trawlers further off shore.

The Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance is looking to move the large herring trawlers at least 50 miles from the Cape and Islands to protect the ecosystem and small-boat coastal fisheries.

The management council will discuss ways to address “localized depletion” in the herring fishery, which is a key source of food for whales and larger fish.

“Our concern is that they are depleting the forage species that we need for tuna, stripers, cod, haddock, dogfish, the whales – all of that stuff is the food chain and they are sucking up the lower end of it,” said Bruce Peters, an Orleans fisherman from the vessel Marilyn S.

Current regulations allow for the midwater trawlers to fish beyond three miles from shore from Provincetown past the Islands.

A vessel tracking program showed about a half dozen trawlers about three or four miles off the Coast of Orleans and Eastham along the back side of the Cape earlier this week.

“They have huge boats. They can go to Georges Bank. They can go offshore. They can fish herring pretty much anywhere,” Peters said. “Our small-boat fleets are 30 to 40-foot boats. We don’t have the luxury of being to go way, way offshore like that.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Herring trawlers just offshore anger Cape fishermen

November 16, 2016 — ORLEANS, Mass. — They were visible from shore for most of Tuesday, seven vessels of between 140 to 170 feet in length, four miles off Nauset Beach.

Some worked in tandem, towing a huge net between them, scooping up mackerel or herring right on the Cape’s doorstep and making local fishermen like Bruce Peters angry.

“They suck up all the herring and mackerel, the forage fish we need for the cod, tuna, stripers, the whales, what we need for the food chain,” said Peters, a longtime commercial cod and groundfish fisherman, who now runs a charter boat business and fishes commercially for tuna. “We need a 50-mile buffer zone to keep these guys offshore.”

Buffer zones that prohibit the herring fleet from fishing within anywhere from 6 to 50 miles from shore are part of a new amendment to the herring fishery management plan that will be outlined at the New England Fishery Management Council meeting Thursday in Newport, Rhode Island, and voted on at the January meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The council — a representative body of fishermen, industry representatives, environmental organizations and state and federal fishery officials — draws up plans to sustainably manage fish and shellfish stocks in federal waters. They received 238 pages of comment, much of it in support of requiring the herring fleet to fish farther from shore.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Heritage Center Launches Exhibit Series

November 14, 2016 — The following was released by the Fishing Heritage Center:

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The Fishing Heritage Center is pleased to announce the opening of New England Fishermen: The Photography of Markham Starr, the first in a series of changing exhibits.  An opening reception will take place on Friday, November 18th at 8 p.m. The Center is wheelchair accessible and located at 38 Bethel Street in New Bedford. Parking is available in the lot adjacent to the Center.  This first exhibit will be on display through January 17th.

The commercial fishing industry in New England has long been an economic mainstay of the region, but has struggled for its very survival over the past two decades. Fearing the loss of yet another traditional working culture, Markham Starr began going to sea to photograph commercial fishermen from ports such as Point Judith, Rhode Island, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Corea, Maine. His black and white images attempt to place today’s fishermen within the context of the long history of commercial fishing in New England, and preserve something of this important working culture for future generations.

Starr’s work has been translated into a dozen books and has been featured in magazines such as LensWork, The Sun, Vermont Magazine, and Rhode Island Monthly, and won a 2013 national magazine award for the best photographic essay for Yankee Magazine. The photographs from his major projects have been selected for inclusion in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress.

For more information, please contact the Fishing Heritage Center at: info@fishingheritagecenter.org or call (508) 993-8894.

New Lobster Trap Technology Could Reduce Whale Entanglements

November 14, 2016 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — More and more whales are becoming snarled in fishing gear, often dying slow, painful deaths.

Two Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) engineers have invented a lobster trap device that they say could help whales avert entanglements and, at the same time, might allow currently restricted waters to be safely reopened for lobster fishing.

In New England’s offshore lobster fishery, long vertical ropes or “lines” connect the traps on the bottom to floats on the water’s surface, so fishermen can locate their trawls and drag them back up.

The new device is called the “on-call” buoy and floats near the bottom attached to lobster traps.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com