Saving Seafood

President Obama bans oil drilling in large areas of Atlantic and Arctic oceans

December 21st, 2016 — President Obama moved to solidify his environmental legacy Tuesday by withdrawing hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from new offshore oil and gas drilling.

Obama used a little-known law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect large portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the Arctic and a string of canyons in the Atlantic stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia. In addition to a five-year moratorium already in place in the Atlantic, removing the canyons from drilling puts much of the eastern seaboard off limits to oil exploration even if companies develop plans to operate around them.

The announcement by the White House late in the afternoon was coordinated with similar steps being taken by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to shield large areas of that nation’s Arctic waters from drilling. Neither measure affects leases already held by oil and gas companies and drilling activity in state waters.

“These actions, and Canada’s parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth,” the White House said in a statement. “They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region’s harsh conditions is limited.

White House officials described their actions to make the areas off limits to future oil and gas exploration and drilling as indefinite. Officials said the withdrawals under Section 12-A of the 1953 act used by presidents dating to Dwight Eisenhower cannot be undone by an incoming president. It is not clear if a Republican-controlled Congress can rescind Obama’s action.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Fisheries officials seek count of booming seal population

December 19, 2016 — NANTUCKET, Mass. — Fisheries officials in Massachusetts are seeking a head count of the booming seal population that’s drawn great white sharks to Cape Cod waters in greater numbers.

The Cape Cod Times reported earlier this month that state Division of Marine Fisheries Director David Pierce said determining the size of the gray seal population size is “extremely important” for ecosystem management in New England at the recent Nantucket Seal Symposium.

But National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials warned the count could cost as much as $500,000.

New England fishermen have been calling for a seal population count for years to gauge its impact on cod, haddock, flounder, striped bass and other important species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

New Bedford fishing boat finds body near Provincetown

December 16th, 2016 — New Bedford fishermen found a human body as they pulled in their nets early Thursday off Provincetown.

The gender of the body found in the fishing gear was not confirmed, and the state medical examiner has accepted jurisdiction of the case, Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Tara Miltimore said.

“The matter remains under investigation,” she said.

Fishermen on the Hera reported at 4:35 a.m. that they had pulled up what they believed was a human body in their nets, state police said Thursday morning. At that time, state police could not confirm if it was a body, state police spokesman David Procopio said.

The Hera went to Provincetown Harbor and a state police detective from the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office went to the town pier to meet the boat, Procopio said.

There is nothing that has been released publicly to indicate the body is connected to three New Bedford fishermen who disappeared after they left Sandwich marina on Nov. 8 for a fishing trip aboard a 23-foot Wellcraft, Dad Sea Cave, but people posting to social media speculated it could be one of the men.

“Family members are still searching for answers about the three missing fishermen, please be respectful because we do read this,” Jessica Coelho wrote in a Facebook post.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times 

Local Fishermen Urged to Complete NOAA Fisheries Survey

December 14, 2016 –HYANNIS, Mass. — In August, approximately 2,500 vessel owners in the Northeast were asked to provide data on 2015 business costs, in an effort for NOAA Fisheries to have a better understanding on how management actions impact the bottom line of fishing businesses, and the deadline to complete these surveys is rapidly approaching.

While completing the survey is voluntary, NOAA Fisheries is hoping for a strong response.

“Every response is important if we are to end up with sufficient data to reflect costs,” said Tammy Murphy, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center economist.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Fishermen Team Up With Scientists To Make A More Selective Net

December 14th, 2016 — Some New England fishermen are pinning their hopes on a new kind of trawl net being used in the Gulf of Maine, one that scoops up abundant flatfish such as flounder and sole while avoiding species such as cod, which 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 have dropped perilously low.

For many boats, that turned the formerly prized groundfish into unwanted bycatch. And for fishermen, it can be tough to avoid cod while trying to catch other fish. 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 is based in Newburyport, Mass.

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 caught.

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

But instead of joining the growing number of New England fishermen hanging up their nets, Ford has worked to modify the nets themselves. This summer he joined a net-maker and scientists at Portland’s Gulf of Maine Research Institute to design a trawl net that targets profitable species while avoiding cod.

Read the full story from NPR at WLRH

Trawler to be hired for study of imperiled shrimp

December 14th, 2016 — Government fishing managers will hire a shrimp fisherman from Massachusetts to help perform research about the future of the New England shrimp fishery.

The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries say they want to hire a shrimp trawling vessel to collect samples of Northern shrimp. The fishermen will also be allowed to bring 1,200 pounds of shrimp per week to shore and sell them.

The project will begin on Jan. 15, 2017 and last eight weeks.

Regulators are also hiring shrimp trawlers and trappers from Maine and New Hampshire to collect samples.

Scientists say warming oceans have hurt the shrimp’s ability to reproduce. Regulators shut the fishery down in 2013.

They were previously a popular winter seafood item in New England and elsewhere.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Portsmouth Herald 

Court splits cases for fishing mogul, deputy

December 14th, 2016 — Federal authorities prosecuting New Bedford fishing magnate Carlos Rafael released a small trove of documents this week that made at least one thing pretty obvious: It didn’t take long for accused co-conspirator Antonio Freitas to drop Rafael into the bag once the law showed up.

The documents were attached to the government’s response to separate-but-similar motions by Rafael and Freitas to be tried individually.

They included partial transcripts from recorded conversations between Rafael and the undercover agents in which Rafael appears to talk about his family joining him in the alleged cash smuggling.

U.S. District Court Judge William Young on Monday granted the motions to sever the trials of the two defendants, with Rafael scheduled to go first on Feb. 6 in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Freitas, a Bristol County sheriff’s deputy, is set to be tried following the completion of Rafael’s trial.

Prosecutors have charged Rafael with one count of conspiracy and 25 counts of making false statements to fishing regulators about the species of groundfish he landed in New Bedford and fish he was selling off the books.

They’ve also charged Rafael and Freitas with one count each of bulk cash smuggling.

“The cash smuggling is where the co-defendant, Antonio Freitas, comes in,” the government wrote in its response to the motions.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Times 

Mass. Division of Marine Fisheries seeks fisherman to catch shrimp off Massachusetts coast as part of study

December 13th, 2016 — Government officials are looking for a shrimp trawler to take part in a study of the future of the New England northern shrimp fishery.

The study is a joint effort by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries alongside the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC).

A release by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries details the study, which is intended “to collect northern shrimp samples during the winter period when the shrimp are in inshore waters, to collect data on the timing of the egg hatch, and the size, gender, and developmental stage of the shrimp.”

The chosen vessel will not have to go anywhere new beyond Massachusetts waters; they are expected to fish where they normally would when searching for shrimp. They must provide two random 4.5 pound samples each week but can otherwise sell up to 1,200 pounds of shrimp per trip. No other compensation is offered.

The northern shrimp’s population is considered “depleted” and scientists have pointed to warming oceans as a key factor in their decline. According to an ASMFC release about the ongoing moratorium on northern shrimp fishing, warming ocean temperatures suggest “an increasingly inhospitable environment for northern shrimp and the need for strong conservation efforts to help restore and maintain a fishable stock.”

The New England shrimp fishery was shut down in 2013.

Read the full story at Massachusetts Live

Partial transcript of Rafael’s meeting with undercover IRS agents revealed

December 12, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston Thursday show seafood mogul Carlos Rafael implicating his whole family in his alleged scheme to smuggle cash to the Azores and turn large catches of protected fish into large amounts of cash by selling them under the table.

Rafael is also quoted as boasting that he pressured Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson, into giving Deputy Sheriff Antonio Freitas a raise and promotion, and in turn using Freitas to get large amounts of cash around immigration and customs at Logan Airport.

The document is an official response to requests by Rafael and Freitas to be tried separately to preserve their individual rights.

The items are contained in a partial transcript of a meeting Rafael had with two men he thought were Russian businessmen but who were actually IRS agents operating under cover to learn how Rafael did business.

Rafael explained that as many as eight people in his family would make the trip to the Azores carrying cash that Freitas could bypass from customs.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Commercial fishermen ask court to block NY offshore wind energy lease

December 12, 2016 — Commercial fishing industry groups are asking a federal court to delay a planned Dec. 15 federal lease auction of 127 sq. mi. of seafloor off New York for wind energy development.

Led by the Fisheries Survival Fund, representing the East Coast sea scallop fleet, the organizations – joined by coastal towns where fishing is a major employer – seek an injunction against U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The move comes after months of circling by BOEM and commercial fishing interests from Massachusetts and New Jersey – including the prosperous sea scallop industry, which has enjoyed historic abundance and high prices for the shellfish. They fishermen were joined in the action by Narragansett, R.I., New Bedford, Mass., and Barnegat Light, N.J., where fishing provides good employment.

In their complaint, the critics say BOEM “grossly underestimated” the level of fishing activity in the proposed New York Wind Energy Area, a shortcoming industry advocates tried to remedy by providing tracking data from boats towing for scallops and squid.

Fishermen say the results show “spaghetti tracks” demonstrating that proposed lease areas are important fish habitat and seafood sources.  In court papers, captain James Lovgren from the Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., recounted bringing plotter data to BOEM that showed “the proposed windmill site was completely covered by track marks from the vessels.”

Lovgren says he and other fishermen were not notified of subsequent public listening sessions held by BOEM, despite having provided their contact information.

Read the full story at WorkBoat