Saving Seafood

NOAA: Fishing gear killed endangered right whale

October 3, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Entanglement in a morass of fishing gear killed an endangered right whale spotted off Boothbay Harbor last week and brought ashore in Portland last weekend for a necropsy, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Speaking on Monday, Jennifer Goebel, a spokeswoman for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Region in Gloucester, Mass., said scientists from the fisheries service had determined that “chronic entanglement was the cause of death” of the 45-ton, 43-foot-long animal.

Goebel also said that the New England Aquarium had identified the whale as No. 3694 in its North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog. According to Goebel, the whale was a female, believed to be about 11 years old, with no known calves.

The whale was first sited by researchers in 2006. Since then, the whale has been sited along the Atlantic Coast 26 times, most recently off Florida in February of this year.

According to Goebel, passengers on a Boothbay Harbor-based whale watching boat spotted the dead whale on Friday floating about 12 to 13 miles off Portland wrapped in fishing gear. Rope was reportedly wrapped around the whale’s head, in its mouth and around its flippers and its tail.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Despite parent company’s woes, National Seafood turns a profit

October 3, 2016 — The bankruptcy proceedings involving international seafood processing giant Pacific Andes International Holdings has pulled back the curtain on the performance of its Gloucester-based subsidiary, National Fish & Seafood.

Quoting filings in Pacific Andes’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in New York, the Undercurrent News website reported that National Fish, normally mute on all matters related to its financial performance, turned a $1.28 million profit on revenues of $115 million for the six-month period that ended March 31.

That appears to be a marked improvement over the seafood processing subsidiary’s performance in the year that ended Sept. 28, 2015, when National Fish reported a similar profit of $1.27 million on revenues of $252.7 million for the entire 12-month period.

To date, National Fish, which processes and markets more than 40,000 tons of frozen seafood annually at its East Main Street facility under the National Fish, Matlaw’s and Schooner brands, has remained above the bankruptcy fray even as Pacific Andes has explored selling off other subsidiaries to pay creditors.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Changes could come to East Coast monkfish business

September 30, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Interstate fishing regulators are working on a new plan to manage the monkfish fishery on the East Coast.

Monkfish are bottom-dwelling fish that are fished commercially and are a popular menu item in seafood restaurants. The New England Fishery Management Council has initiated a plan to create new fishing specifications for the fish for the next three years.

A spokeswoman says the council’s monkfish committee will work this fall on specifications for the fishery. Rules will be approved in November. The rules could also remain status quo.

Fishermen catch monkfish from Maine to North Carolina, though most are brought ashore in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Journal

Part of New England’s herring fishery to be closed

September 29th, 2016 — Herring fishing off part of the New England coast will be shut down for most of October.

The closure begins Sunday and lasts until Oct. 29. It is the product of a spawning forecasting method that interstate regulators approved earlier this year.

Regulators say an analysis of samples necessitates a closure of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area for most of October. The area stretches from the north side of Cape Cod to southern Maine.

Vessels will not be allowed to possess Atlantic herring caught in the area during the closure.

The herring fishery is a key source of bait fish as well as food. The New England fishery struggled with low supply this summer, which resulted in a shortage of bait for some lobster fishermen.

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

Lawmakers call lobster ban ‘excessive’ in letter to EU

September 29th, 2016 — Sweden’s push to list live American lobsters as an invasive species and ban their import by the full European Union is “an excessive and unscientific response” that jeopardizes its $125 million lobster trade with Massachusetts, according to Rep. Seth Moulton, Sen. Edward J. Markey and the remainder of the state’s congressional delegation.

In a letter sent today to the EU’s directorate-general for the environment that listed Moulton and Markey as the lead signatories, the Bay State delegation picked up where many North American scientists and fisheries regulators have left off in the escalating international trade tiff.

“Isolated reports of individual American lobsters found in European waters do not constitute the invasion of an alien species,” the delegation wrote to Daniel Calleja Crespo. “This possible designation is not merited because, as indicated in the data provided to the (EU) Scientific Forum by the United States and Canada, there is no evidence that American lobster can reproduce in waters as warm as those of coastal Europe.”

They also insist that the initial Swedish risk assessment, which serves as the basis for the Swedish claim, “failed to demonstrate that interbreeding between European and American lobsters produces fertile offspring” and an “outright ban of the importation of live American lobster to the EU is an excessive and unscientific response.”

The import ban, they argued, would dismantle the $200 million trans-Atlantic lobster trade between Canada and the United States with the 28 members of the EU and severely and negatively impact the Massachusetts lobstermen and lobster sellers who annually send about $125 million worth of live American lobsters to the EU.

A link to the letter can be found here 

Read the full story at The Gloucester Times 

Scientists bemoan spate of whale entanglements

September 28, 2016 — It has not been a good week for right whales off the coast of New England, nor for the marine scientists who study them.

In the wake of the three separate right whale incidents since last Thursday, including two involving dead right whales, NOAA Fisheries organized a teleconference Tuesday in which a number of scientists said the recent spate of incidents reflect the continuing crisis of trying to return the right whale population — now estimated at about 500 — to health.

“In recent years, we’re not seeing the strides we had once seen,” said David Gouveia, the marine mammal and sea turtle program coordinator in NOAA’s greater Atlantic region. “When you have something like this, that within a three-day period you’ve lost two valuable members or contributors to the population, that’s something we wanted to share with our partners and wanted to share with the public and wanted to really stress the continued importance of us being mindful of our conservation efforts.”

Michael Moore, a senior research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was even more emphatic in his reaction to the trio of right whale incidents.

“The fishermen and the fisheries, the stakeholders, have been put through an enormous amount of gear change and stress to make a more whale-friendly fishery and we’re not out of the woods by any means,” Moore said. “There needs to be a revisiting of strategy and public expectations. Something needs to change.”

The first incident occurred Thursday, when recreational boaters off Cape Cod reported seeing an entangled right whale — later identified as an 8-year-old female — towing hundreds of feet of line and buoys from its jaws.

A disentanglement team cut away some of the line and made other cuts scientists believe helped the whale, which scientists believe to be alive somewhere in the Gulf of Maine, to shed even more of the gear.

The gear was recovered and Gouveia said it provides clues to who owned the gear, where it was fished and whether that fisherman was in compliance with safety and gear regulations related to fishing in areas populated by right whales.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Herring fishing to be closed off New England in October

September 28, 2016 — YORK, Maine — Herring fishing off of part of the New England coast will be shut down for most of October.

The closure begins on Sunday and lasts until Oct. 29. It is the product of a spawning forecasting method that interstate regulators approved earlier this year.

Regulators say an analysis of samples necessitates a closure of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area for most of October. The area stretches from the north side of Cape Cod to southern Maine.

Vessels will not be allowed to possess Atlantic herring caught in the area during the closure.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Greenwich Time

US scallop prices expected to rise with little relief in sight

September 27, 2016 — US scallop prices look set to fluctuate but generally trend upwards throughout the fall, with no alternatives at reasonable prices, sources told Undercurrent News.

After the July 4 celebrations, prices for fresh scallop raw materials took an unusual dip in pricing, several sources said – though this quickly corrected and prices are now high again.

“Pricing started off very strong at the beginning of the season; ex-vessel prices of $18.50 per pound for U10s and U12s, and $12+ for both 10/20s and 20/30s,” said Joe Furtado, executive vice president of Eastern Fisheries.

“But, over the last 60 days, we have actually seen a reduction in ex-vessel pricing, where it is trending about $1/lb less than April/ May pricing.”

“It’s actually the first time that I have seen post July 4 pricing trend downward,” he added.

However, two other sources suggested this dip was only temporary, and that more recently prices were right back up again.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: Sunset Cruise to Benefit Fishing Heritage Center

September 26, 2016 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center will host a sunset harbor cruise fundraiser aboard the M/V Cuttyhunk on Saturday, October 8 from 5-7 pm. Passengers will enjoy live music, a cash bar and light refreshments. Musical entertainment will be provided by Joanne Doherty and Jon Campbell.

Tickets are $40 and may be purchased at the Fishing Heritage Center. Tickets may be reserved by calling 508-993-8894 or sending an email to info@fishingheritagecenter.org. All proceeds will benefit the Center’s programs, exhibits and daily operations.

Located at 38 Bethel Street in the heart of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is dedicated to preserving and presenting the story of the commercial fishing industry past, present, and future through archives, exhibits, and programs. The Center is open to the public Thursday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.fishingheritagecenter.org.

Born and raised on the Southcoast with the working waterfront in her blood, Joanne Doherty spent her childhood climbing on her father’s scallop boats and painting them for summer jobs. For the last fifteen years she’s been performing throughout New England spinning her magic on a wide variety of songs selected from an eclectic catalogue of folk, blues and old standards combining her deft & delicate stylings on guitar and ukulele with a rich smooth voice.

Jon Campbell owned a workboat before he owned a car. In those days, bay scallops, clams and quahogs, flounder and lobsters were abundant in the coastal ponds and Narragansett Bay. Regulations were few and the commercial fisheries were still represented by independent men in wooden Eastern Rigs. For the past 25 years, Jon has been writing and performing music based on the wide range of experience available to those people living in coastal regions, the tourists, the cuisine, the fisheries, cranky Yankees and an assortment of humorous and poignant characters.

Jon has been a recognized Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Folk Artist since 1982, and he has been involved in a large number of recording projects both as performer and producer. He is presently retired from a 25 year career in the motion picture industry, and yes he did work on the Perfect Storm, in addition to many more major releases. To fill in the blanks, Jon’s musical activities in the last year have ranged from Camden, Maine to Kodiak Alaska.

NOAA Fisheries Announces Public Hearing and Comment Period for Amendment

September 26, 2016 — HYANNIS – The public comment period is now open for a new amendment that allows for industry-funded monitoring over the past several years.

The Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Councils have worked on the amendment, which includes alternatives that would modify all the fishery management plans managed by the councils to allow for future industry-funded monitoring programs.

The public will have a chance to comment on the various amendment alternatives, including cost responsibilities, processes, administrative requirements and priorities.

The public meetings begin on October 4 in Gloucester and continue until November 1.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com