Saving Seafood

JOEANN HART: CO2 and feeling blue

September 14, 2016 — When we swim in the sea there is no visible footprint left behind so it easy to believe we make no mark. But all of us leave a carbon footprint in the ocean. Every time we use fossil fuels to drive our cars, charge our phones and heat and light our homes, we add heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, more than 1.5 trillion tons of it since the Industrial Revolution. The last time so much CO2 was pumped into the air was 250 million years ago, when volcanic eruptions almost wiped out life on Earth. Humanity has survived the current environmental assault so far because of the oceans, which have absorbed about a third of the CO2 and much of the heat. The price we pay for that favor is rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and the destruction of fisheries throughout the world.

We are all at risk, but most especially for a fishing town like Gloucester. Coastal erosion from rising seas threaten not just our homes, but fragile wetlands, the nursery of many marine species. Other dangers from CO2 are not so visible but even more catastrophic. When the CO2 we’ve released into the air falls into the ocean it turns the water acidic, which weakens phytoplankton, the bedrock of the ocean’s food chain. No fish, no fishing industry. Reduced calcification from a lower pH also makes it difficult for shellfish to build their shells. No shells, no clams, no lobsters. Many marine animals can only live at a specific temperature, and as the water warms those populations decline or migrate. Again, no fish, no industry, and for people around the globe who rely on fish as their major source of protein, no food. The World Wildlife Fund believes that climate change is one of the main reasons for the decline of marine species in the last 30 years. Yet fisheries managers are not mandated to address the impact of non-fishing activities such as climate change, oil spills and water pollution. Instead, they focus on catch quotas.

Fishermen shouldn’t have to shoulder alone the consequences of a problem that all of us are responsible for creating. Since we cannot wait for nations to act, it is up to local communities to lower their carbon footprint. Unlike volcanoes, we can control the amount of CO2 we pump into the atmosphere, but to do that we need to restrict our use of fossil fuels. As a community, we already have wind turbines thanks to Gloucester’s Clean Energy Commission. Future options could include offshore wind farms, tidal energy systems and solar parking lots but there is plenty that individuals can do as well. Request a free energy audit from the Mass Save Program (masssave.com), which comes with help in replacing old appliances and insulating homes. Walk more, bike more, then lobby for bike lanes and better public transportation. Buy an electric or hybrid vehicle and take advantage of federal tax credits; install some solar panels and get Massachusetts incentives and rebates. Consider the carbon footprint of groceries. Eating seasonally and locally helps reduce the amount of fuel needed to get food to the table. Even using less plastic can help lower one’s carbon footprint, because plastic is a petroleum product. And in a coastal community like Gloucester, balloons and single-use bags often blow into the ocean where they can become death traps for whales, sea turtles and dolphins, all of whom mistake floating plastic for a dinner of jellyfish. We’re doing enough damage to them as it is with the CO2.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

CHRISTIAN PUTNAM: Balancing good news with bad

September 13, 2016 — Due to budgetary constraints and other factors, in recent years the federal surveys of fish stocks have been reduced and carried out by a single vessel, the Fisheries Survey Vessel (FSV) Henry B. Bigelow. The way a survey is done is like regular commercial fishing in that the survey vessel tows gear similar to commercial fishing gear in order to determine how many fish are in the area and what species. The reduced surveys and limited areas surveyed have been the subject of considerable criticism by the commercial fishing industry and local politicians.

Taking a page from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts fisheries regulators, last month NOAA Fisheries announced the agency is looking for one to three trawler-type fishing vessels to handle “part or all” of the spring and fall surveys for the next five years.

NOAA Fisheries states this action is to get more consistent and expansive results from the surveys. Perhaps this will avoid recurrence of the disastrous quota reductions, such as the nearly 90 percent reduction in cod quota over the past couple years. This action also shows that NOAA Fisheries is beginning to listen to the criticism of the stakeholders that suffer the results of their decisions and wishes to build some trust in the science and processes used to make quota decisions.

It also makes sense to allow the under-utilized fishing fleet to operate for these purposes so that the fishermen can create revenue through survey research, as they are not able to fish on a consistent basis these days. It is encouraging to see what appears to be a change toward better policy and perhaps a more rational approach to gathering the information needed to make important decisions about the natural resources that belong to the public and are relied up by many of our neighbors to make a living.

Read the full story from the Scituate Mariner

Discovery Channel Acquires Worldwide Rights to Revealing Documentary ‘Sacred Cod’

September 12, 2016 (NEW YORK) — SACRED COD will make its premiere on Sept. 17 at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine. Tickets can be found here. It will also be screened at 7 p.m. on Oct. 2 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, as part of the GlobeDocs Film Festival. Tickets are available here. For more information, visit the SACRED COD website. The following was released by Discovery Communications:

Discovery Channel announced the purchase of global rights of the revealing documentary SACRED COD. The film will make its world premiere at the 2016 Camden International Film Festival and debut on Discovery in 2017 under the Discovery Impact banner.

An official selection of the 2016 Camden Film Festival, SACRED COD chronicles the collapse of the historic cod fishery in the waters off New England in the United States. Scientists and environmental advocates have attributed the collapse to overfishing, climate change, and government mismanagement. Many of the fishermen — who are losing their livelihoods and way of life as the species have declined — have argued that the science is wrong and have protested government policies that have banned them in recent years from fishing for cod. SACRED COD features interviews with fishermen and their families, along with scientists, advocates, and federal officials who warn about the risks of overfishing and climate change and say that the plight of cod could be a harbinger for fish around the world. The film tells a complex story that shows how one of the greatest fisheries on the planet has been driven to the edge of commercial extinction, while providing suggestions about how consumers can help support sustainable fisheries.

“For centuries, cod was like gold. Wars were waged over it. Settlers sailed across oceans in search of it. And early America used it to finance a revolution,” said David Abel, one of the filmmakers and a Boston Globe reporter who has covered the fishing industry for years. “Cod were so abundant in the waters off New England that fishermen used to say they could walk across the Atlantic on the backs of them, and generations of men from places like Gloucester and Cape Cod spent their entire lives chasing the coveted fish. Cod played such an important role in the early history of New England that a carved replica of the fish has hung for centuries in the Massachusetts State House. It’s called the Sacred Cod.”

“Unfortunately, what is happening in New England is being seen in many fisheries and fishing communities across the world,” said John Hoffman, EVP Documentaries and Specials, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Science Channel. “The decline or collapse of fish stocks is a complex issue rooted in climate change, overfishing and shifting legislative policies, which together have destroyed many once thriving communities. SACRED COD is an epic tale of our times about a collapsing ocean ecosystem, which threatens a community’s livelihood, and the scientists who are working to rescue a species and way of life.”

SACRED COD is directed and produced by Steve Liss, Andy Laub and David Abel. The film is presented by Discovery Channel in association with Endicott College, The Boston Globe, In Our Own Backyard, and As It Happens Creative. For Discovery: Ryan Harrington is Supervising Producer and John Hoffman is executive producer.

Read the release at Discovery Communications

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester Fresh banks on ocean-to-table appeal

September 12, 2016 — This is a story that starts at 2 o’clock in the morning, when those who work on Gloucester fishing boats rise for the day, ready to hit the water.

“Gloucester Fresh” is the mantra coming from America’s oldest fishing port, intended to tap into the farm-to-table trend while applying it to the Atlantic Ocean. The bid to reinvigorate the city’s historic industry conjures a tradition of hard work, blue water, fresh air, and one of nature’s most beneficial resources.

“This is a very healthy protein,” said Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, whose husband, John, is one of the hardy souls who sets off in the early morning and returns to the dock at 3 p.m. with that day’s catch. “It’s the only natural protein left in the world. You’re talking about the North Atlantic, the cleanest water around the United States. We’ve fought very hard so we can keep a clean ocean for the fish.”

While cod, flounder, and haddock continue to serve as the breadwinners, the ocean-to-table movement is promoting underused species such as whiting and redfish that are often eaten by fishermen’s families but not often found on restaurant menus. Exposing consumers to new species is the reason Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken has been demonstrating how to cook redfish soup at seafood shows.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

National Marine Monument off New England coast?

September 12, 2016 — The third installment of the Our Ocean forum will convene in Washington, D.C., this week and the betting window is open on whether the Obama administration will use the event to announce the designation of new National Marine Monuments.

No one — neither conservationists nor fishing stakeholders — claims to know exactly what will happen when the two-day, international event opens Thursday. But it has not escaped anyone’s attention that the Obama administration has used the same forum in the past to make similar announcements.

[In March], in a victory for fishing stakeholders, the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality removed Cashes Ledge, which sits about 80 miles off of Gloucester, from consideration as a possible site for a new National Marine Monument.

The Obama administration’s decision not to use the Antiquities Act to designate any portion of Cashes Ledge as a monument validated fishing stakeholders and others who characterized the proposal — which originated with the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pew Charitable Trusts — as an end-run around the existing fisheries management system and wholly unnecessary given the existing protections already afforded the area.

Cashes Ledge currently is closed to commercial fishing.

In the wake of that defeat, conservationists redoubled their lobbying efforts, urging Obama to invoke the 1906 Antiquities Act to unilaterally designate a number of potential sites, including canyons and seamounts off southern New England and off the coast of Monterey, California, as Maritime National Monuments.

“All eyes are on the canyons and seamounts,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Bunker or Pogie: Menhaden by Any Name Makes a Great Bait

September 12, 2016 — Menhaden may have a bit of an identity problem. Most of the Northeast refers to them as “bunker.” But around Massachusetts they’re often known as “pogies.” Whatever you decide to call them, they’re great bait this time of year for fishing big stripers.

Menhaden are a member of the herring family. They migrate into our waters seasonally, arriving from the south each spring. They grow out to a couple of pounds and about a foot long. They’re schooling fish, typically swimming in big schools.

In this week’s Fishing News, Kevin Blinkoff, of On The Water magazine, talks about snagging pogies and using them to fish bigger striped bass in Boston Harbor.

Read and listen to the full story at WCAI

MASSACHUSETTS: Film on Gloucester’s fleet hooks local boost

September 9, 2016 — It’s now been more than three years since David Wittkower, struck by the spiraling decay of the Gloucester groundfishing fleet, decided to make a film chronicling its decline from the robust fleet he remembered as a kid growing up in Rockport.

The making of Wittkower’s film “Dead in the Water,” as with nearly every film project ever devised, has been an arduous slog through an endless array of creative decisions and more earthly problems — chief among them how to raise enough money to create the film the Los Angeles-based director first envisioned.

Now, with the assistance of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and generous benefactors throughout Cape Ann, Wittkower is closing in on having enough capital to finish the film and assemble a working print, possibly by as early as Thanksgiving.

To do that, though, he still needs— what else? — more money.

“The fundraising by the Fishermen’s Wives Association has been an incredible benefit, affording me the chance to work on making the film 24/7 instead of having to run around trying to raise money,” Wittkower said. “The fundraising has been very, very important.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Scientists blame fishing gear for fewer whale births

September 7, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — A study recently published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science says that, despite efforts by fishermen and federal fisheries management authorities, more right whales than ever are getting tangled up in fishing gear. The study also states that injuries and deaths from those incidents “may be overwhelming recovery efforts” for the endangered right whale population.

In the report published in July, lead author Scott Kraus, a whale researcher at the New England Aquarium in Boston, says that while the population of whales has increased from fewer than 300 in 1992 to about 500 in 2015, births of right whales have declined by 40 percent since 2010.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, between 2009 and 2013 an average of 4.3 whales a year were killed by “human activities,” virtually all of them involving entanglement with fishing gear.

From 2010 to 2015, 85 percent of right whale deaths resulted from entanglements with fishing gear. Those numbers stand in sharp contrast to what occurred between 1970 and 2009.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Europe studies claims of American ‘invaders.’ They are clawed and delicious.

September 7, 2016 — Today’s special: American lobster in European hot water.

The European Union’s Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species announced Tuesday that there was sufficient scientific evidence to push ahead with a review of Sweden’s request to declare the American lobster an invasive species that threatens native lobsters and other marine life.

It could mean a ban on the clawed cousins from across the pond.

Now, before European foodies go off the deep end, the whole spat is based on only a handful of American lobsters found in Swedish waters. And any final decision — not expected before April — will take into account potential fallout on international trade. That includes weighing the risks of possible retaliatory bans against Europe by the United States and Canada, which stand to lose a lobster market valued at up to $200 million by some estimates.

Overall, it is little more than a side dish compared with other transatlantic trade issues, such as last week’s E.U. order for Ireland to recover up to $14.5 billion in taxes from tech giant Apple. But out in places like the Gulf of Maine or the coast of Nova Scotia, the lobster showdown is a very big deal.

“Is this really about invasion of a species or invasion of [an] economy?” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

NOAA ship back after extensive trip

September 6, 2016 — NEWPORT, RI — Research scientists recently had the first confirmed sighting of a True’s beaked whale that was combined with a verified recording of the whale’s sounds.

“The whales are very far offshore and can spend one to three hours below the surface without coming up,” said Debra Palka, a research biologist with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass. “The whales are not seen very often.”

Palka was among a team of scientists that just completed a 54-day trip at sea aboard the 209-foot National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel Henry B. Bigelow, which was welcomed back home Friday at a ceremony that featured U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.; Rear Adm. Anita Lopez, deputy director for operations in NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations; and Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Taylor, Bigelow’s commanding officer, as the speakers.

Reed announced in April that Bigelow’s new home port would be Newport, moving here permanently from Woods Hole. He lobbied for several years to have the ship here because the waterfront at Naval Station Newport is an integral part of operations for both NOAA and Coast Guard vessels, he said.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun