Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA head visits New Bedford, tours harbor

October 28, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The commercial fishing community had an opportunity to meet and discuss regulations on Tuesday with Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the first in person meeting between the NOAA administrator and local fishing community since 1993.

The closed-door meeting included a boat tour of the New Bedford Harbor and a discussion at the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth with fishermen, city leaders, and other officials.

Sullivan’s visit comes as the ground fishing industry prepares to take another hit with the cost of at-sea monitors shifting to the fishing boats. Estimates are it will cost fishing boats $710 or more each day to employ a person to count the fish that a boat takes in.

The meeting was meant to spark a conversation between the regulators and the commercial fishing community in New Bedford, which is considered the United States’ top fishing port with annual landings valued at $379 million.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Lecture Series: Whales in the Heart of the Sea

October 27, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The following free lectures exploring our evolving relationship with whales will take place at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. 

6:00 p.m. Reception  |  6:30 p.m. Lecture

Tuesday, Nov 3

Whales: An Economic, Cultural, and Environmental Icon

Dr. Michael Moore (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Scott Landry (Center for Coastal Studies), Robert Rocha (New Bedford Whaling Museum), and Regina Asmutis-Silvia (Whale & Dolphin Conservation) discuss the complex and evolving relationship between people and whales.

Tuesday, Nov. 10 

The Culture of Sperm Whales 

Dr. Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University Professor of Biology and author of Sperm Whales: Social Evolution in the Ocean, illuminates the underwater lives and rich culture of these these misunderstood “monsters of the deep.”

Tuesday, Nov. 17 

Survivors: Life Before & After the Essex 

Michael Harrison, Chief Curator from the Nantucket Historical Society, discusses the real life tragedy that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and upcoming Warner Bros. film In The Heart of the Sea (based on the novel by Nathaniel Philbrick).

Save your seat by calling 508-997-0046 x 100 or register online.

These events will also be broadcast live online.  

This lecture series is supported by a grant from the NOAA Preserve America Initiative.

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, at 978-281-9175 or Jennifer.Goebel@noaa.gov.

 

 

US scallop prices only expected to rise with no supply relief in sight

October 27, 2015 — As landings continue to come in a little shorter than had been predicted for 2015, US sources see no easing in prices for domestic scallops, which are back up near the all-time high levels seen before this fishing season began.

The agreed outlook is for prices to remain where they are now, with limited landings expected between now and Christmas, when demand traditionally picks up from October.

One executive with a scallop catching firm told Undercurrent News that boats landing in Newport News, Virginia, last week, saw U12s earn $15.75 per pound to the boat, and as much as $16 a few days later.

10/20s sold for $12.03 – $12.05. A second source, also operating out of Newport News, confirmed the largest sizes were going in the $16 range. He put 10/20s in the high $11 area, and in the low to mid $12 too. Both sources added these were typical of recent developments, and that they expected prices to remain similar for the rest of 2015.

Meanwhile David Cournoyer, general manager of Marder Trading in New Bedford, Massachusetts, put prices for fresh, dry U10s at $17.50 to the boat, $18- 18.50 sold on the street.

10/20s were $14 sold on the street, give or take 40 cents, he told Undercurrent.

“October demand was down, as it generally is this time of year. Demand tends to increase in November, December, and early January usually.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan to Visit New Bedford, Mass.

October 26, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The following was released by Center for Sustainable Fisheries: 

Mayor Jon Mitchell will host a visit by NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27, 2015. 

Administrator Sullivan and Mayor Mitchell, accompanied by other officials, will meet with local fishing industry leaders as well as tour New Bedford harbor and the SMAST campus (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology).

Following a lunch at SMAST, participants will be available to answers questions from the press at 12:45 P.M. (706 South Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford)

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is the federal agency charged with managing the nation’s fisheries; NMFS is an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Department of Commerce.

New Bedford is the America’s top fishing port for fourteen consecutive years with annual landings valued at $379 million.

MAINE: Big changes are occurring in one of the fastest-warming spots on Earth

October 25, 2015 — Sandwiched on a narrow sandbar between Yarmouth’s harbor and the open Gulf of Maine, the fishermen of Yarmouth Bar have long struggled to keep the sea at bay.

Nineteenth-century storms threatened to sweep the whole place away, leaving Yarmouth proper’s harbor more open to the elements, prompting the province to build a granite cribwork across the quarter-mile bar, behind which the hamlet’s fishing fleet docks. Global warming has brought rising seas, a two-story-high rock wall to fight them and the hamlet’s designation as one of the communities in the province most threatened by climate change.

Now, snaking around the snout of Nova Scotia and into the Gulf of Maine is a new, unseen threat to Yarmouth Bar and hundreds of coastal communities in Maine, eastern New England and the Maritimes: currents fueling the rapid warming of the sea.

The Gulf of Maine – which extends from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to Cape Sable at the southern tip of Nova Scotia, and includes the Bay of Fundy, the offshore fishing banks, and the entire coast of Maine – has been warming rapidly as the deep-water currents that feed it have shifted. Since 2004 the gulf has warmed faster than anyplace else on the planet, except for an area northeast of Japan, and during the “Northwest Atlantic Ocean heat wave” of 2012 average water temperatures hit the highest level in the 150 years that humans have been recording them.

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald

Mercury Levels Still Dangerously High in Freshwater Fish

October 23, 2015 — Mercury emissions from major Massachusetts sources have declined by 90 percent over the past two decades, but mercury levels in the state’s freshwater fish hold stubbornly high, with many species too contaminated for pregnant women and children to eat.

The inability to reduce mercury in fish to safe eating levels troubles environment and health officials — and added to that concern is growing evidence that some freshwater fish in similar northern latitudes, from the Great Lakes to Scandinavia, appear to have increasing mercury levels after years of decline. The New England Center for Investigative Reporting found six studies in the past decade that point to increasing mercury levels in freshwater fish.

Read the full story at The Huffington Post

 

 

UMass Dartmouth to break ground on $55m facility

October 22, 2015 — UMass Dartmouth will break ground Friday on a $55 million expansion to its School for Marine Science and Technology.

The new 76,000-square-foot facility will be next door to the existing School for Marine Science and Technology, according to a university statement Wednesday. It is being built in collaboration with the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

The university hopes the expansion will create a more comprehensive marine science campus for education and research of commercial fishing, coastal preservation, ocean observation, and climate change.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Mass. Senators and Congressmen Call on Obama Administration for More Public Input on Marine Monuments

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — October 13, 2015 — Both Massachusetts Senators and three Massachusetts Congressmen have written to President Obama calling on him to further engage regional industry stakeholders before advancing any plans to use his Executive Authority to designate a marine National Monument off the coast of New England. The Monument would potentially include Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine and several of the New England Canyons and Seamounts.

In the letter, Sens. Warren and Markey, and Reps. Lynch, Keating, and Moulton urge the President to “include additional opportunities for our Massachusetts constituents to express their views on the potential designations in the context of ongoing conservation efforts,” as well as “provide more information on the potential designations, especially the objectives, geographic scope, and possible limits to activities, to help inform these additional discussions.” To date there has only been one opportunity for public input, a “town hall” meeting held last month in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their letter also notes that many of the areas under consideration for a monument designation already enjoy substantial protections. Specifically, the New England Fishery Management Council “has had in place protections for Cashes Ledge for more than a decade,” and “is currently considering management actions to protect Deep Sea corals in the region.”

The text of the letter is reproduced below:

Dear Mr. President:

For centuries, the ocean has been critical to the economy and culture of Massachusetts. As Members of Congress representing Massachusetts, we are working to ensure our coastal communities continue to thrive in the 21st century. A healthy ocean is critical for healthy coastal economies. The ocean economy of Massachusetts is worth more than $6 billion, according to the most recent economic data available. Given the unprecedented challenges our fishing industry, and the shore-side businesses that depend on it, have faced in recent years, we are acutely aware of the need for collaboration with our communities, the fishing industry, and other businesses that rely on the ocean and its resources.

We understand you are considering using your authority to make national marine monument designations of a number of submarine habitats–five coral canyons, four submarine seamounts, and an underwater mountain range known as Cashes Ledge–in the New England region of the Atlantic Ocean.

As the Chairman of the New England Fisheries Management Council discussed in his statement at NOAA’ s September 15111 public listening session in Rhode Island, the Council has long recognized the unique habitats of the deep canyons, seamounts and Cashes Ledge. The Council has had in place protections for Cashes Ledge for more than a decade and ultimately supported the continuation of protections for it in the Essential Fish Habitat amendment they adopted earlier this year. The Council is also currently considering management actions to protect Deep Sea corals in the region. Stakeholders not represented on the Council also conveyed their recognition of the conservation values of these areas.

While you have clear authority under the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments, we ask that you engage stakeholders further before making a final decision. We ask you to build on last month’s listening session in Rhode Island by expanding your stakeholder engagement efforts to include additional opportunities for our Massachusetts constituents to express their views on the potential designations in the context of ongoing conservation efforts. We also ask that you provide more information on the potential designations, especially the objectives, geographic scope, and possible limits to activities, to help inform these additional discussions.

Thank you for your attention to these requests. We look forward to further discussions with you and your administration about these designations and other actions important to support the economies of our Massachusetts’s coastal communities.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Markey

United States Senator

Elizabeth Warren

United States Senator

Stephen Lynch

Member of Congress

William Keating

Member of Congress

Seth Moulton

Member of Congress

Read the letter here

 

MASSACHUSETTS: 15th Annual Wellfleet Oysterfest

Saturday and Sunday
October 17 & 18 2015
10 a.m – 5 p.m. 

The 15th annual Wellfleet OysterFest is next weekend. Come join us for a weekend full of hometown flavor and big time fun!

Highlights this year include:

  • 84 Artisans, 32 food vendors and 17 marine, environmental non-profits and community organizations.
  • Live Music performed by CrabGrass; The Daggers; the Rip it Ups with special guests like Steve Shook, Jordan Renzi, Rayssa Rabeiro, Sarah Burrill and Mac Hay; The Catie Flynn Band; Chandler Travis Philharmonic; and Sarah Swain and the Oh Boys.
  • The Family Fun Area will feature educational activities, crafts, moon bounces, clowns, face painting and performances geared for the young at heart – Cape Cod African Dance and Drum, Treavor the Juggler, The Elbows, the Keltic Kids and fortune teller Sufi Lin!
  • The event’s signature tasting program,  Taste the Terroir and Merroir, and cooking demos by local chefs such as Philippe Rispole and Sarah Chase, and featuring the beloved oyster will be held at Wellfleet Preservation Hall.
  • Educational programs will be held at the Wellfleet Public Library and offered by our partners, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service, Green Harbors Boston, and Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
  • Walking tours will be offered by Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary staff. A tour of the Wellfleet Oyster Propagation site will also be offered by the lead research scientist.
  • Thanks to a partnership with Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) and the Woods Hole Film Festival, film screenings will be held at WHAT on Friday and Saturday evenings.
  • The Wellfleet Recreation Department will host activities such as the popular Shuck n’ Run, the Tennis and Pickle Ball Round Robin, the SK8 Competition and a sunset a dance party.
  • And of course, the Annual Oyster Shucking Competition!

Admission is $5 for one day, $8 for two days and children 12 and under are free. Tickets may be purchased at the event or in advance online. Click here to purchase tickets now!

Click here to register for one of the exciting culinary programs or for a detailed Schedule of Activities.

Learn more about the Wellfleet Oysterfest

New Bedford, Mass. waterfront development sparks optimism — and skepticism

October 7, 2015 — Could the former NStar site be home to the East Coast’s first flume tank for fisheries, a New Bedford Harbor Hotel or a state-of-the-art center and tech museum? What if State Pier had retail shops mixed in with a busy farmers and fish market to draw in tourists?

These ideas were among those floated at a public meeting Wednesday night on the future of New Bedford’s waterfront as part of a master planning process that is designed to help residents envision where growth should happen.

While there were some positive ideas, planners also were met with skepticism as some residents said they doubted progress would be made.

The planning process began last fall and will culminate at the end of this year with draft plans followed by several public meetings and approvals at the city level.

“This whole process is about the whole waterfront from Coggeshall Street to Cove Street. It is a plan that is about the future vision of the waterfront,” said Ed Anthes-Washburn, acting port director for the Harbor Development Commission.

The public meeting was the second of two meetings following a year’s worth of planning and public interviews along the waterfront by a waterfront steering committee and representatives of Boston consulting firm Sasaki Associates.

While residents and community members filled the conference room at the Fairfield Inn & Suites’ Waypoint Event Center to weigh in on the future of the waterfront, there was clearly skepticism. Many people said they already considered the prospects of development unlikely, questioned where money would come from and others speculated that the entire process was a Nov. 3 election stunt.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times