Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: 15 shoreside businesses to receive disaster aid

August 25, 2015 — In this case, for Gloucester and 15 of the city’s shore-side businesses, the glass is decidedly half-full.

Those Gloucester businesses comprise precisely half of the 30 Massachusetts businesses that will receive groundfish disaster aid.

Collectively, they will receive by far the largest portion of the $750,000 set aside to assist shoreside businesses affected by the federally declared ground fish disaster now grinding through its third year.

The 15 Gloucester fishing-related enterprises — the most from any single Bay State groundfishing community — will share $380,360, or 50.7 percent of the $750,000 included in the second phase, or Bin 2, of the federal groundfish disaster relief distribution plan.

Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said the city’s success in garnering more than half of the available aid earmarked for businesses underlined the city’s prominence at the epicenter of the groundfish disaster, both on the water and on the waterfront.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

‘The Long Haul’ looks at the future of Cape Cod fishing

August 23, 2015 — PROVINCETOWN, MA — Eight years ago, Pedro Verde, captain of the dragger F/V Blue Ocean, stood on MacMillan Pier and blasted scientists and fisheries regulators for allowing him to fish only 52 days the previous year. He was talking to Sean Corcoran, a reporter at public radio station WCAI who was investigating the decline of the Provincetown dragger fishery.

“We catch tons and tons of the dogfish here,” Verde told Corcoran. “So the guys close up the dogfish for 17 years. Endangered species. The guys don’t even know what they are talking about.”

Eight years later, the dogfish fishery is not just open but is booming, and it is a sustainable local species of whitefish, though you will be unlikely to find it in many local markets or on local tables.

The complex issues surrounding the decline of the Cape Cod fishing industry, the tensions between fishermen and regulators, changing people’s attitudes about which fish they want to eat, and the future of fishing here were the subjects of a gathering at the Provincetown Public Library last week. Corcoran, now news director at WCAI, and Heather Goldstone, the station’s science editor, presented some of the findings of a series of reports broadcast over the last two years.

Read the full story at the Provincetown Banner

State leaders express concern about NOAAs “oppressive” observer funding decision

August 19, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, MA — Public officials statewide are criticizing a recent decision by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association requiring fishermen in the groundfishing industry to pay for federally mandated observers.

The Baker-Polito administration sent an letter to federal partners Monday expressing “serious concern” about the requirement, and urging their support in covering the costs of the At-Sea-Monitoring (ASM) program for the Northeast fishery, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

“While we, too, respect the importance of proper fisheries management, we question the fiscal and programmatic decisions that the agency has made of late with regards to the Northeast Fishery,” states the letter, which was sent to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and members of the U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees.

Read the full story at South Coast Today

Granddaughter of Massachusetts ship cook to speak at service

August 19, 2015 — Carol Figurido of Gloucester never knew her grandfather.

Thomas Isaac Moulton and five other Gloucester men “went down to the sea in ships” aboard the fishing vessel Mary E. O’Hara in 1941, before Figurido was even born.

But through speaking with relatives and tracking down her family history, Figurido says she’s learned a good deal about Moulton, who was lost at sea at the age of 48. So, come Saturday, she will speak of her grandfather — and the 5,383 other Gloucestermen whose names grace the Fishermen’s Memorial Cenotaph — at the annual Fishermen’s Memorial Service.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

Coast Guard rescues disabled fishing vessel off Nantucket

August 17, 2015 — Coast Guard crews aboard the cutters Escanaba and Hammerhead brought a disabled fishing vessel safely to shore early Monday.

Watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England Command Center, in Woods Hole, received a phone call from the captain of the vessel Challenger Sunday morning, stating a line had fouled their propeller, and they were disabled and adrift 70 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Search-and-rescue coordinators from the Sector Southeastern New England command center diverted the Coast Guard cutters Escanaba and Hammerhead to assist.

The crew of the Escanaba arrived on scene and took the vessel, loaded with 650 pounds of scallops, in a stern tow at 9:30 a.m., Sunday. Later, at about 1 p.m. the crew of the Hammerhead relieved the Escanaba and continued to bring the fishing vessel toward shore.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

 

DAVID GOETHAL: Fishermen’s anger justified

August 18, 2015 — Recently, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker called the requirement for fishermen to pay $710 per day for catch monitoring “the most perfect example of an unfunded mandate” and continued on to call the policy “ridiculous” and “outrageous.” As a fisherman with close to 50 years experience in the fishery, I could not agree more but think your readers and editors need more context to understand the fishermen’s anger.

Philosophically, we are opposed to this idea because other industries do not pay for their monitoring. The airlines do not pay for the TSA, agribusiness does not pay for meat inspection, and pharmaceutical companies do not pay for the FDA, to name a few. These are considered functions of government and so is catch monitoring.

Read the full letter at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

Fishermen’s Steering Committee Meeting – Monday, August 24th – 10:00 am

August 17, 2015 — The following was released by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST):

We will be holding the Fishermen’s Steering Committee meeting on Monday, August 24th at 10:00 a.m.  The meeting will be held in room 157, on the second floor of the ATT building (200 Mill Road, Fairhaven MA).

At this meeting we will be holding the lottery for the RSA compensation trips associated with the scallop program awards, and the SMAST Bycatch Avoidance program. Participants in the SMAST Bycatch Avoidance program have been automatically entered into the Bycatch Avoidance RSA lottery.

To be entered into the lottery for the RSA compensation trips, associated with the scallop program, please email your name and vessel names, to ekeiley@umassd.edu no later than Thursday, August 20th, close of business day.

 

MA Gov. Baker backs fishermen’s call for NOAA to pay for monitors

August 13, 2015 — With a crystalline portrait of America’s oldest seaport serving as the backdrop, Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday attacked NOAA’s plan to force fishermen to pay for at-sea observers on their boats and reiterated his pledge to help convince the federal fishing regulator to consider science other than its own.

Baker, speaking to a crowd of about 100 near the Fishermen’s Wives Memorial on Stacy Boulevard, with the city’s Outer Harbor sparkling in the background, called the federal at-sea observer proposal “the most perfect example of an unfunded mandate I think I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“I think it’s ridiculous and it’s outrageous,” Baker told the audience of fishermen, fishing advocates, Gloucester officials and members of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association. “If they want to send observers out on the boats, they should pay for them with their own money.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has told the commercial fishermen in the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery that it expects to run out of money to fund the at-sea observer program by Oct. 31 and then will shift the responsibility for funding it  — estimated at $600 to $800 per day for each boat that carries an observer — to the fishing permit holders.

“It’s insult to injury as far as I’m concerned,” Baker said. “And I’m sure that most of the people in the fishing industry feel the same way.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

MA Governor Baker meets fishermen in Gloucester

August 13, 2015 — Gov. Charlie Baker will journey to Gloucester this afternoon for a private meeting with fishermen and fishing stakeholders to hear concerns and address recent and pending regulations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the governor’s office confirmed.

Baker’s press office said the the event is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Memorial on Stacy Boulevard, and that his private meeting with the fishing stakeholders will be followed by a press availability session.

The governor also is scheduled to meet with the editorial board of the Gloucester Daily Times during the day.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

A Handy New Use for Drones: Collecting Whale Snot

August 10, 2015 — A spouting whale is a majestic sight, spraying everything around it with minuscule droplets of whale snot. (Okay, so it’s not technically snot—it’s more like lung mucus.) But aside from being pretty, that spray, which scientists call “blow,” is a coveted substance in marine biology. Rich with DNA, hormones, viruses, and bacteria from the whale’s respiratory tract, the goo can give researchers clues about a whale’s stress levels and overall health. So, naturally, scientists decided they needed to try collecting the stuff with drones.

Last month in Stellwagen Bank, Massachusetts, scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NOAA used a hexacopter to collect blow samples and snap photos of 36 humpback whales, gathering data to compare the pod to their brethren in more pristine Antarctic waters. And that’s just one of the conservation research groups that’s decided to capitalize on drones. Ocean Alliance, a nonprofit in Gloucester, Mass., recently launched a Kickstarter for their “Snotbot,” which proposes to collect data from whales off the coasts of Patagonia, Mexico, and Alaska.

These multi-coptered machines are driving a small renaissance in biology and conservation research, allowing researchers—marine scientists especially—to study subjects and places they can’t typically reach. Drones are getting better at carrying scientifically useful payloads: things like more complex sputum samplers, and heavier, better-quality cameras. And as those high-quality drones get cheaper and easier to outfit, they’re helping to answer ecological questions that scientists couldn’t even begin to ask before.

Read the full story at Wired