Saving Seafood

NEFMC SSC Meeting Live Streaming Information

August 5, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet on Wednesday, August 10, 2016.  The public is invited to participate via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION:  Hilton Garden Inn, Boston Logan Airport, 100 Boardman Street.  Hotel information is available here.

START TIME:  9:00 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting will be available here.

There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (914) 614-3221.

The access code is 960-909-979.

Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will develop overfishing levels (OFLs) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendations for (1) Georges Bank yellowtail flounder for fishing year 2017; (2) monkfish for fishing years 2017-2019; and (3) Atlantic deep-sea red crab for fishing years 2017-2019.  The SSC also may take up other business as necessary.

MATERIALS:  Meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at SSC Aug. 10, 2016 meeting.

Regulators to Vote on New Lobster Fishing Restrictions

August 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – New restrictions might be proposed for southern New England’s lobster fishery as it deals with a steep decline in population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to save the lobsters and might cast a vote on Thursday.

A report from the commission says that one way to slow the loss of lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size for the crustaceans.

Scientists say the population off of southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut has declined during a time of warming oceans. Lobsters have remained plentiful to consumers because of heavy supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story at the Maine Public Broadcasting Network

MASSACHUSETTS: 6 SouthCoast towns getting federal funds for habitat protection, restoration

August 5, 2016 — BOSTON  — A total of $210,924 in federal grant funding is being awarded to help towns in the Buzzards Bay watershed protect important habitat and drinking water resources and provide passage for migratory fish species, the Baker-Polito Administration said in a news release.

The grants are being matched by $114,447 in municipal and private contributions and will focus on permanently protecting or restoring habitat, as well as promoting passive recreation.

“These forward-thinking local projects will ensure the Commonwealth’s native species are being preserved and our drinking water resources are protected,” said Gov. Charlie Baker in a statement. “With this round of grants, our administration continues to focus on assisting Massachusetts land protection and conservation projects like these in Buzzards Bay.”

The grants are being awarded by the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program through the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management with funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

The following seven grants were awarded to six towns:

Acushnet: $35,000 to work with the Buzzards Bay Coalition to protect a 9-acre property along the Acushnet River. The property contains field, forest and forested wetlands and is designated habitat for rare species. Protection of this property will advance the town’s long-term vision of a “greenbelt,” a corridor of connected conservation and recreation land along the Acushnet River.

Fairhaven: $35,000 to work with the Coalition to protect 61.5 acres in East Fairhaven that is part of a larger conservation effort. The property is designated as habitat for rare species and contains significant salt marsh, forested freshwater wetlands and frontage on a perennial stream.

Marion: $10,924 to remove an obstruction to fish passage on Borden Brook, which runs through Grassi Bog. Borden Brook is an existing American eel run and has the potential to support other fish species, including alewife. The town will remove an existing culvert and replace it with a larger culvert that will mimic natural stream channel conditions and provide unimpeded fish passage.

Mattapoisett & Rochester: $35,000 each to work with the Buzzards Bay Coalition, to protect 164-acres of land straddling the Rochester-Mattapoisett town boundary. The properties lie within a drinking water recharge area, are designated as habitat for rare species, contain extensive wetlands, have frontage on Branch Brook and abut existing protected lands owned by the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game and the Mattapoisett Water Department.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Connecticut Lawmakers, Proposed Atlantic Monument Met With Opposition From Commercial Fishermen

August 5, 2016 — The following is excerpted from a story published yesterday by the Hartford Courant:

A plan announced Thursday that would designate a unique undersea area 150 miles off the New England coast as the nation’s first Atlantic marine national monument was met with immediate opposition from commercial fishermen.

Connecticut’s congressional delegation, as well as environmental and educational groups, want President Barack Obama to preserve the “New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts” area, which lies along the continental shelf.

The proposal would dramatically restrict commercial fishing in that area and is drawing fierce opposition from commercial fisherman like Stonington’s Bobby Guzzo, who owns and operates two boats.

“That’s just the government trying to take all our water,” Guzzo said Thursday from aboard his fishing vessel. “I’m dead set against it.”

Joseph Gilbert’s Empire Fisheries operates four fishing boats out of Stonington, and he also has problems with the proposed undersea sanctuary. “Fishermen are conservationists, too,” Gilbert said, explaining that he believes the proposal “is well intentioned” but simply “goes too far” without considering the impact on commercial fishing operations and supplies of fish for consumers.

“A lot of these areas are protected already,” Gilbert said.

Commercial fishing groups such as the National Coalition for Fishing Communities argue that there already exist federal laws and regulatory commissions that are set up to protect valuable marine resources like those within the proposed marine sanctuary.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is responsible for regulating fishing in the region, is also opposed to creation of a protected marine monument off New England’s continental shelf. Commercial fishing organizations warn that the plan would hamper fishing for red crab, swordfish, tuna, as well as off-shore lobster fisheries.

Jon Mitchell, mayor of New Bedford, Mass., New England’s most important fishing port, has also objected to the proposal, as has Maine Gov. Paul LePage.

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant

Regulators to vote on new lobster fishing restrictions

August 4, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — New restrictions might be proposed for southern New England’s lobster fishery as it deals with a steep decline in population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to save the lobsters and might cast a vote on Thursday.

A report from the commission says that one way to slow the loss of lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size for the crustaceans.

Scientists say the population off of southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut has declined during a time of warming oceans. Lobsters have remained plentiful to consumers because of heavy supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary seeks advisory council applicants

August 4, 2016 — NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is seeking applicants for one business/industry alternate seat on its advisory council. The council ensures public participation in sanctuary management and provides advice to the sanctuary superintendent.

Candidates are selected based on their expertise and experience in relation to the seat for which they are applying, community and professional affiliations, and views regarding the protection and management of marine resources. Applicants who are chosen as members should expect to serve a three-year term.

The advisory council consists of 36 primary and alternate members representing a variety of public interest groups. It also includes six governmental seats representing Massachusetts Environmental Police; Coastal Zone Management; Division of Marine Fisheries; New England Fisheries Management Council; NOAA Fisheries; and U.S. Coast Guard.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Should the New England Aquarium be in the advocacy business?

July 30, 2015 — Hillgarth, now 62, has taken that zeal to spread awareness and compel change to a new level since becoming president and CEO of the aquarium in Boston, a city she had never visited before interviewing for the post.

Among her goals: more closely linking what the aquarium’s 1.3 million annual visitors experience and their interest in protecting the environment. Surveys there have shown that about 40 percent of visitors leave saying they want to do something to help the oceans; she aims to double that.

“We don’t have much time to wake the public to the issues,” she says. “There comes a point when things are so important in the environment that you can’t sit back and say nothing.”

But Hillgarth’s mix of scientific analysis and environmental concern has spurred some to question whether she may be pushing one of the region’s premier cultural institutions — which has more visitors than all but five other aquariums in North America — too far into an advocacy role.

They have raised concerns, for example, about the aquarium’s support of controversial legislation that would ban the sale of shark fins and its efforts to persuade the Obama administration to declare a marine monument in portions of the Gulf of Maine. The proposal has angered the region’s fishermen because it would ban fishing in those areas permanently. A monument is a federally designated protected area similar to a national park.

“I think it’s appropriate for the New England Aquarium to advocate for a greater appreciation and understanding of our oceans, but I think it’s inappropriate for a museum and cultural institution to use its resources for the advocacy of highly charged, controversial political positions,” says Robert Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, a Washington-based group that represents the fishing industry. “I think Dr. Hillgarth should lead the aquarium in a way that it doesn’t become a pawn of the more extreme wing of the environmental movement.”

Vanasse and others have decried a potential presidential decision on a marine monument. They say it would circumvent a well-accepted legal process, one required by Congress, which applies to all other proposed fishing closures.

“I’m a big fan of the aquarium, but I think they’ve picked the wrong battle on this,” says Mayor Jon Mitchell of New Bedford, one of the nation’s top-grossing fishing ports.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Boat with series of mystery owners sinks

August 2, 2016 — The Irish Piper did not go quietly. But finally it did go.

The 41-foot wooden boat, one of the more infamous vessels in Gloucester because of its previous owners’ penchant for abandoning it at various boat yards and dockages, had its own Irish wake Monday when the city cut up the boat at Rose Marine and disposed of it. The city had recovered the boat Saturday from about 37 feet of water in the southeast harbor where it sank Thursday.

The Piper, however, did not give up all its secrets as it went to its final demise — most significantly, who legally owned the boat and abandoned it on the Gloucester Harbor mooring for nearly a month this summer.

“That’s a little murky,” said Gloucester Harbormaster T.J. Ciarametaro on Monday afternoon.” All we know is some guy bought it at auction, but we haven’t been able to track down exactly who. We’ve got several possible names, but we’re not sure yet exactly who owned it, so I don’t want to start naming anybody without knowing for sure.

“But now it belongs to the city of Gloucester and in a few hours, it’s going to be in a Hiltz dumpster somewhere,” he said.

Calls to the U.S. Marshals Service in Boston on Monday seeking information on the successful bidders for the vessel at auction went unreturned.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Minimum size for keeping caught lobster may change south of Cape Cod

August 1, 2016 — Southern New England lobster fishermen might have to start throwing back more small lobsters in an attempt to stem population losses.

New restrictions are on tap for the region’s historic lobster fishery, which is grappling with an unprecedented decline in some areas. Scientists have said lobsters off southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have declined as ocean waters warm.

The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to help preserve the species, and a report from the commission says one way to preserve lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size. The commission’s lobster board might take action on the issue Thursday.

“The biggest challenge I see is trying to establish an appropriate goal to manage the fishery in the face of what the scientists are telling us is the decline caused by ocean warming,” said Dan McKiernan, a member of the lobster board.

New England lobster fishing is one of America’s oldest industries, and it was worth more than a half-billion dollars last year. Lobsters have remained plentiful for consumers, and prices have been relatively stable because of abundant supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Recreational fishermen can target cod starting Monday

July 29, 2016 — As of Monday, recreational anglers will get a chance to reacquaint themselves with the much-coveted Gulf of Maine cod when federal fishing restrictions for the species are lifted until the end of September.

But don’t expect a windfall. The bag limit for the iconic species, whose stock NOAA Fisheries maintains is in freefall, will be one cod per fisherman per day.

Still, for recreational fishermen, party boats and larger charter operations, it just might work out that the opportunity to catch one cod a day is enough to lure bigger crowds aboard the boats. Tom Orrell, owner of Gloucester-based Yankee Fleet, certainly hopes that’s the case.

“Our numbers were a little light in July and we’ve been wondering if maybe if some of our recreational fishermen made a conscious decision to wait until they had a chance to land cod,” Orrell said. “So, we’re kind of holding our breath to see what happens.”

Up to this point in the season, Orrell said, his customers have been hauling big numbers of haddock and cusk from around the waters off Cape Ann and farther out. But there is no discounting the allure of the cod.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times