Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Chilmark Adopts Detailed Rules to Monitor Oyster Growers

May 19, 2016 — New shellfish regulations in Chilmark aim to better monitor the 10 oyster grants in Menemsha Pond and protect the town’s inshore fisheries.

Following a public hearing on Tuesday, the selectmen unanimously adopted the regulations, as drafted by the town shellfish department.

For the first time, anyone holding an aquaculture permit in town must provide an annual report to the selectmen that includes harvest data, approximate numbers of adult and seed oysters at the site, and a record of mortalities and growing conditions, among other things.

“We really had a lack of aquaculture rules in general for the town,” shellfish constable Isaiah Scheffer said Wednesday. “We need to make sure that everybody that has an oyster grant is compliant.”

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

MASSACHUSETTS: The Sharks are Coming

May 19, 2016 — Get ready – the sharks are coming. And local officials are hard at work tracking them.

“It’s a lot of laborious work, but it really kicks off the season for us,” said Dr. Greg Skomal of the Division of Marine Fisheries.

On Wednesday, Skomal and volunteers were busy preparing receivers that track tagged great white sharks when they arrive in Massachusetts waters.

Read and watch the full story at NECN

SMAST founding dean, chancellor medal recipient Brian Rothschild, reflects on state of fisheries science

May 16, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Dr. Brian Rothschild already had a stellar career in fisheries and marine science when he came to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 20 years ago to head the fledgling Center for Marine Science, now known as the School for Marine Science and Technology.

He built that institution from the ground up, recruiting top talent and developing a strong reputation in the field of fisheries, ocean science, and industry regulations. At 81, he is officially retired, but continues his scientific work unburdened, he says, by the demands of management.

For his contributions to science and his service to the community, Rothschild on Friday was awarded the UMass Dartmouth Chancellor’s Award. He recently sat down for an interview by The Standard-Times.

Q: You said earlier that in your long career you have had some jobs you don’t remember.

A: Yeah, not exactly. I started in 1953 working fisheries for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Game. I’ve always been devoted to marine science, fish and marine science. Underneath that is a much deeper interest in science per se, finding out the unknown. I have been fortunate in my career to produce some classic papers that relate to that.

Q: You have had recognition all around the world, also traveling around the world.

A: Yes, I‘ve been in many countries. I used to consult for the Food and Agriculture Organization at the United Nations. I’ve spent a lot of time in Rome as a result of that. I worked on the Egyptian trawler fleet. I helped write the draft plan for the Indian Ocean Program at the United Nations. I worked on a plan for fisheries in Namibia and many other activities outside the United States.

Read the full interview at the New Bedford Standard-Times

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: Restaurant deal shows Gloucester fish still sells

May 16, 2016 — A deal struck earlier this spring is already paying dividends for Gloucester.

Back in March, the Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub group announced it would feature Gloucester-landed haddock on the spring menu at its 105 restaurants in New England and upstate New York.

The agreement seemed like a nice bit of news for the local fishing fleet at a time when it was sorely needed.

If the last few weeks are any indication, however, the deal is more than window dressing. It can be measured in jobs.

Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Daily Times

Support groups tout new safety manual at New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center

May 16, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD — J.J. Bartlett, president of Fishing Partnership Support Services, said the most dangerous job in America isn’t firefighting or police work.

It’s commercial fishing, Bartlett claimed Tuesday at the new Fishing Heritage Center downtown. Bartlett said groundfishermen in the northeastern U.S. work in the most dangerous waters in the country — more hazardous than Alaska — and, from 2000 to 2009, were 37 times more likely to die on the job than police officers.

He said that figure came from a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and workforce data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Bartlett’s comments came at an event announcing the release of RESCUES — Responding to Emergencies at Sea and Communities Under Extreme Stress — a new safety and resources manual created by Fishing Partnership Support Services, the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership and other collaborators.

Madeleine Hall-Arber, an anthropologist with MIT’s Sea Grant College Program, is one of the manual’s authors. The MIT program funded the manual’s printing. Hall-Arber said at the Heritage Center that collaborators’ intent is to distribute the free manual to fishing boats and fishermen’s families across the region.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

‘Codfather’ pleads not guilty to fish conspiracy

May 13, 2016 — New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Worcester to conspiracy, lying to NOAA Fisheries about the exact species of fish he landed through a four-year span, and illegally smuggling cash out of the country.

Rafael, know widely as “The Codfather,” remains free on the $1 million bond set after his February arrest for conspiracy and submitting falsified records. The arrests of Rafael and his bookkeeper Debra Messier capped an undercover sting operation by federal authorities, some of whom posed as Russian mobsters looking to buy his business.

The 64-year-old Rafael, who appeared before Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy, controls one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in the United States and has been a powerful force in Northeast commercial fishing circles through his ownership of 32 fishing vessels and a block of 44 federal fishing permits with a value estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Water rescue needed during at-sea training

May 13, 2016 — Almost 40 fishermen and others who work on the water participated in safety and survival training Thursday at the Coast Guard’s Station Gloucester. Little did they know that session would provide a real-life safety incident.

According to Nina Groppo of the Fishing Partnership and Support Services, one of the participants encountered a problem during an in-water drill when his survival suit inadvertently opened as he was trying to get into a life raft and instructors had to fetch him out of the water.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

The boats that land the fish

May 11, 2016 — To ask the question “what boat landed this fish?” may be one of the most important environmental, social and political acts of 2016.

These are some names of Gloucester day boats, boats that make short trips to Jeffreys Ledge, Ipswich Bay and Middle Bank: the Maria GS, the Santo Pio, the Angela & Rose, the Janaya & Joseph, and Cat Eyes. And there are more. These boats land a mix of species that call the Gulf of Maine home, but they are primarily landing codfish, dab flounder, blackback flounder, yellowtail flounder, gray sole and some whiting.

These are some of the offshore Gloucester boats currently fishing the northern edge of George’s Bank: The Miss Trish, The Midnight Sun, the Teresa Marie III, the Harmony, the Teresa Marie IV and the Lady Jane. Again, there are more boats than this. Right now, they are landing haddock, redfish, pollock, codfish, dab flounder, gray sole and some hake.

In port, these boats, and others, can be seen tied up at Felicia Oil, Rose Marine, Gloucester Marine Railways and the State Fish Pier, wharfs along the Inner Harbor, many in clear sight of some Gloucester restaurants.

In an effort to celebrate and promote the quality seafood that these boats land, Gloucester Seafood Processing in Blackburn Circle stamps every issue of fish with the name of the fishing vessel that landed it. They are hoping other processors will, too. Restaurants — particularly in Gloucester — should proudly be announcing to their guests, “This pollock was landed yesterday on the Angela & Rose!” — or the Janaya & Joseph, or the Santo Pio.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Prosecutors in Rafael case: Carlos Seafood’s transaction reports didn’t match up

May 11, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The FV Hera II, a boat that prosecutors said fishing fleet owner Carlos Rafael owned through a shell corporation, reported catching 4,595 pounds of haddock on Jan. 25, then selling it to Rafael’s Carlos Seafood business, a registered dealer, according to the indictment of Rafael that was unsealed Monday.

Carlos Seafood also recorded acquiring 840 pounds of American plaice, or “dabs,” from the Hera II that day, prosecutors said.

But here’s the rub: Records of Carlos Seafood’s third-party sales Jan. 25, according to the indictment, cite about 200 pounds of haddock and 5,200 pounds of dabs.

In other words, prosecutors allege, a lot of the fish caught by the Hera II on Jan. 25 and reported as “haddock” actually were dabs, which are subject to stricter regulatory quotas. Those quotas are administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and limit how much of certain species commercial fishermen can catch.

Catching more of a protected species than allowed can bring significant value on the black market.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Fisheries Hosts Thorny Skate Extinction Risk Workshop

May 10, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries is hosting a Thorny Skate Extinction Risk Workshop to discuss the threats to thorny skates and their risk of extinction.

We are currently evaluating whether thorny skates should be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Where: Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop Road, Gloucester, MA.

When: May 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Goals and objectives:

An extinction risk analysis (ERA) can be used to help evaluate the known or perceived risk to the continued persistence of a species. At the ERA Workshop, participants will review and discuss the information on the threats to thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) noted in the petition and in the literature, available data sets and models regarding status; and types of ERAs that have been used for other species. A summary of the workshop will be prepared for use by the ERA working group and NOAA Fisheries.

Following the workshop, an ERA working group comprised of invited participants with expertise in thorny skates or other elasmobranchs will review data and analysis on thorny skates and select a method to use to develop an extinction risk assessment for the species. Following the discussion and results of the extinction risk assessment, the ERA working group will document their individual expert opinions and findings related to extinction risk for the species in a report. Both the workshop summary and the ERA working group’s report will be independently peer reviewed and will be used to help inform the listing determination for the species.

Invited Expert Participant Selection Criteria:

Invited working group participants were identified based on their working knowledge and recent experience with one or more of the following: 1) expertise in extinction risk analysis and/or population modeling; and/or 2) expertise in fisheries population dynamics, stock assessments and life history of elasmobranchs; and/or 3) advanced working knowledge of and recent experience developing and running population models with the available thorny skate data. 

Working Group Invited Expert Participants:

  • Tobey Curtis- Greater Atlantic Regional Office
  • Sonja Fordham- Shark Advocates International
  • Jon Hare- Northeast Fisheries Science Center
  • Fiona Hogan- New England Fisheries Management Council
  • John Mandelman- New England Aquarium
  • Katherine Sosebee- Northeast Fisheries Science Center


Webinar:  https://noaaevents.webex.com/noaaevents/onstage/g.php?MTID=e69a831a994ec9befe124bbef780a95d7
Conference Line: 877-710-3752

Participant Code: 7867681