Saving Seafood

Pass the dogfish nuggets? Seafood industry rebrands ‘trash’

January 20, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Call them fish sticks for millennials. At any rate, Dana Bartholomew is banking on college students warming up to “Sharck Bites.”

Ipswich Shellfish, of Massachusetts, for which Bartholomew oversees sales, is offering that product — nuggets of dogfish coated in a gluten-free, allergen-friendly crust. Bartholomew, who believes so-called “trash fish” such as dogfish are part of the new wave in New England seafood, already has a couple of colleges on board.

Bartholomew’s fondness for dogfish, a species East Coast fishermen catch millions of pounds of every year that sells for just pennies at the dock, is part of a growing trend in fish markets around the country. The industry is putting more emphasis on fish that have traditionally lacked market appeal or economic value as old staples — such as cod, tuna, haddock and shrimp — decline or become the subject of tougher fishing quotas.

“We know we have to make a great-tasting product that supports local fishermen, supports the local industry and economy,” Bartholomew said. “And it’s local — it’s right here.”

New England’s traditional food fish has long been the Atlantic cod, but it has faded in the face of overfishing and environmental changes. Restaurant owners, fishermen and food processing companies said a growing shift to other species is helping to fill that void. Catch of species such as spiny dogfish, Acadian redfish and scup have all increased dramatically since 10 years ago as cod has fallen.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CNBC

MASSACHUSETTS: Changes in law could buoy lobster sellers

January 21, 2016 — BOSTON, Mass. — Millions of pounds of lobster caught by Massachusetts fishermen are shipped to Canada for processing — mostly because a decades-old law prohibits the meat from being prepared locally.

Legislation set for a vote in the state Senate today, Jan. 21, would lift those restrictions, opening what some in the industry say is a multi-billion dollar market for processed lobster, in one of the few areas of the commercial fishing industry that is thriving.

The proposal sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester allows for the processing and sale of frozen, in-shell lobster parts in the state.

A 1997 state law allows wholesalers to process lobsters into frozen, shell-on tails for distribution outside the state, but they cannot be sold in Massachusetts. The law was intended to curb mutilations of undersized lobsters.

Tarr said Maine, a major player in the lobster industry, eased similar restrictions several years ago and has seen a “significant increase in processing capacity and demand for lobster processing licenses.”

“New businesses have taken root in previously abandoned factories, and this has translated into significant job growth and economic stimulation,” said Tarr, who expects the measure to pass when the Senate meets in formal session today.

The proposal would still need to be approved by the House and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker to become law.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishing boat taking on water off Martha’s Vineyard, crew rescued by Coast Guard

January 18, 2016 — A four-man crew aboard a vessel taking on water, was rescued by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and a good Samaritan early Friday morning. According to a USCG release, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England received a call from the crew of the Sasha Lee reporting they were taking on water.

The fishing vessel was located 11 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. Watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (UMIB) and launched a 47-foot motor life boat crew from Coast Guard Station Menemsha. The 270-foot Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, which is homeported in Boston, was diverted to the scene.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Today

 

Massachusetts fishermen fear new rules smothering industry

January 16, 2016 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Gerry O’Neill looks at the water world spinning around him, a world of regulation and re-regulation and over-regulation— in other words, the modern world of commercial fishing —and thinks that he’s seen this movie before.

Two days removed from the public comment hearing at the state Division of Marine Fisheries offices on Emerson Street on potential changes to rules governing the scope and the schedule of the herring season, O’Neill sits in his office on Jodrey State Fish Pier and wonders if his two 141-foot mid-water trawlers Challenger and Endeavour and the Cape Seafood fish processing and sales operations that collectively employ almost 40 full-time workers— and even more when the product is flowing —will survive the future any better than the nearly decimated Gloucester groundfish fleet.

‘‘At the end of the day, the groundfishermen are struggling and everybody knows that and it’s because of over-regulation as well,’’ O’Neill said. ‘‘We’re not dying yet. But if they keep doing what they’re doing, we’re going to go the same way as the groundfishermen.’’

Given the state of the groundfish fleet, that is a chilling phrase, made even more-so by his matter-of-fact delivery in the soft brogue of his native Ireland and his admission that he favors regulations that will sustain the fishery even when they cost him fish and money.

His voice was steady and calm, just as it was at last week’s session in which David Pierce, the executive director of DMF and the state’s representative on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission which governs the Northeast herring fishery, conceded the fishery remains robust.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: State meets fluke fishermen halfway after barring offload of entire catch

January 15, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — All but one of the seven fishing boats that were barred from offloading their catch of fluke, or summer flounder, earlier this week are back fishing, according to Dr. David Pierce, head of Massachusetts fisheries.

After fishing on North Carolina permits for the fluke, four boats from North Carolina and three from New Bedford (two owned by Carlos Rafael and one by Mark Bergeron) sought shelter in New Bedford during strong storms of the past week.

But Massachusetts’ fluke season doesn’t start until Feb. 1, and the regulations do not allow transfer of fluke quota from another port unless there is a crew injury or illness, or the boat has mechanical problems. The latter applied in the case of the one boat that had to double back to New Bedford with mechanical trouble.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Sale of shell-on lobster claws bound for Senate floor

January 14, 2016 — BOSTON — Massachusetts lobstermen could get a leg-up if a Senate bill set for consideration next Thursday becomes law.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who sponsored the bill (S 469), said it would allow for shell-on lobster claws to be processed and sold in Massachusetts.

In contrast to the groundfishery, hampered by lowered federal catch limits on cod and other stock, the Bay State’s lobster fishery is “doing fairly well,” according to Tarr, who said there are concerns about the prices lobsters fetch at the market and competition from Canada.

Read the full story at Saugus Advertiser

New Bedford Standard Times: One more fault with fishing rules

January 15, 2016 — Fishing vessels tied up in New Bedford but not allowed to unload part of their catch this week suggest one more weakness in our fishing regulations that is ripe for remedy.

State environmental regulations allow a boat carrying fish to an out-of-state port to land fish in Massachusetts when injured crew or severe mechanical issues force the decision. Foul weather, apparently, is not part of the equation.

Unfortunately for seven vessels — three home-ported here and four from North Carolina — foul weather this week chased them to New Bedford, though they were all fishing on North Carolina permits. The state regulators have allowed the boats to land the portion of the catch classified as “incidental,” but the main target, fluke, as of Thursday afternoon, were still aboard at least two of the vessels because the fluke season doesn’t open in the local fishery until February.

The decision to allow the landing of the incidental catch is somewhat encouraging, as it suggests the Environmental Police tackling this interstate fish story can be flexible.

The fact that the fluke was still aboard yesterday, however, means there’s room for improvement among the rules concerned with quotas, sectors and neighboring regional Fishery Management Councils.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Commission to talk monitoring, seafood show

January 13, 2016 — The city’s Fisheries Commission is set to discuss a variety of issues dealing with at-sea monitoring at its meeting Thursday night at City Hall, as well as details of Gloucester’s participation in the upcoming international seafood show in Boston.

The commission is scheduled to meet at 7 in the conference room on the first floor.

The groundfish at-sea monitoring items involve a request from the Northeast Seafood Coalition for the commission to support the recent votes by the New England Fishery Management Council to reduce the level — and ultimately the cost — of at-sea monitoring coverage mandated for groundfish vessels.

NOAA Fisheries has said it has enough money to continue paying for the monitoring — at an estimated cost of $710 per day per vessel — into some point early in 2016 and then plans to shift those costs to the permit holders.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Regulations bar three boats from unloading catch in New Bedford

January 13, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Three New Bedford-based fishing boats were barred from unloading their catch in the city Wednesday because the fish were caught on North Carolina quota that cannot be transferred to New Bedford.

Two boats owned by Carlos Rafael and one owned by Mark Bergeron of Bergie’s Seafood Inc. of New Bedford idled at the dock while they tried to budge state environmental police, who are following the regulations that say only a vessel breakdown or crew injury qualify a boat to go to an alternative harbor and unload.

At press time, Major Patrick Moran of the Environmental Police said the “incidental catch” (all the fish except fluke) for the local boats can be unloaded. Fluke by regulation cannot be landed in Massachusetts until February.

“We are trying to work together on this for a solution that is satisfactory to everyone,” Moran said. “This is a good start.”

Rafael and Bergeron had feared that they would have had to allow an entire catch to rot and be thrown overboard because of the strictness of the rules.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

FDA nominee sails through Senate committee, but could a fish stand in his way?

January 12, 2016 — A Senate health committee on Tuesday easily advanced the nomination of former Duke University researcher and cardiologist Robert Califf as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. But Califf, while widely expected to win confirmation from the full Senate, faces at least one surprise hurdle on the way to his new job: genetically engineered salmon.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told her colleagues on the committee that met Tuesday to vote on Califf’s nomination that she is willing to stall it until he and FDA agree to mandatory labeling requirements for the AquaAdvantage salmon.

The salmon, produced by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty and approved by the agency in November, is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon and has been given a gene from the ocean pout, an eel-like fish. The result is a fish engineered to grow twice as fast as its natural counterpart. The first genetically altered animal approved for human consumption, it has been the subject of long-running fights involving food-safety activists, environmental groups and the salmon fishing industry.

Read the full story at The Washington Post