Saving Seafood

Many fishermen aren’t on board with wind industry’s new plan

November 20, 2019 — The fierce competitors in the local offshore wind industry probably hoped to make a big splash with this news: They teamed up to propose a grid that creates uniform spacing between each tower and a similar orientation for the various wind farm proposals south of Martha’s Vineyard.

One of the chief goals was to assuage concerns among fishermen who worry that an uncoordinated array of hundreds of towers would make the waters hard to navigate — effectively displacing them from rich fishing grounds.

However, plenty of fishermen aren’t taking the bait. For many of them, the one nautical mile distance proposed between each giant turbine tower simply isn’t enough — especially for boats that are dragging big nets behind them.

Persuading fishermen to toe the line could be crucial to the nascent industry’s survival. Construction was about to begin on what would have been the first major offshore wind farm in the US until Interior Secretary David Bernhardt dragged out the permitting in August. Bernhardt ostensibly wants a study of the cumulative impact from all the wind farms in the pipeline, before allowing the first one to proceed.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

From Sea to Table: New Bedford fishery using tech to let customers track seafood

November 20, 2019 — We’re used to tracking our packages every step of the way. Now new technology is making that possible with seafood, and a local fishing company is right on the cutting edge.

IBM recently announced it is partnering with a New Bedford fishing company to implement new technology that lets customers scan a QR code on their smartphone and track their scallops from sea to table.

IBM and Raw Seafoods Inc. say it’s a new level of collaboration connecting global sourcing partners, retailers, restaurateurs and, most importantly, customers.

Starting Tuesday, a fleet of scallopers owned by Captain Danny Eilertsen of New Bedford will begin uploading data about their catch onto the platform, allowing distributors and retailers to identify exactly when and where scallops were harvested.

The platform will also track when the boat landed port side, and when each scallop lot was hand-graded, selected, packed and shipped to its final destination.

Read the full story at WPRI

Flood Prediction Helps People and Fish

November 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In the last 50 years, as the northeast has gotten significantly rainier, flood prediction has become increasingly important. In addition to helping the public, town planners, and emergency responders, understanding flooding is also important for fishway operators and fisheries managers. Floods can affect the timing of fish migrations. For example, as spring rains swell rivers, some sea-run fish swim upstream—sometimes for many miles—to spawn. American eels are known to migrate to the ocean during fall floods. Knowing what’s coming can help biologists and dam operators work together to create the best conditions for migration at dams and fishways.

While some watersheds flood quickly when it rains, others have natural or human-built storage. Reservoirs behind dams, as well as naturally occurring ponds and wetlands, can reduce flooding by delaying runoff into streams and rivers. Knowing which kinds of rain events will lead to flooding in particular river systems is key for communities in the watershed.

A Tale of Two Rivers: The Mystic and the Charles

The Mystic River watershed is a relatively small urbanized basin north of Boston, home to more than 20 communities. The Charles River drains an area approximately four times larger than the Mystic River watershed. It contains 23 Boston-area communities, including some to the west and southwest of the city.

In a recent study, researchers found that almost 90 percent of Mystic River flooding is immediately preceded by one to two days of large rainfall. In contrast, only about half the flooding events for the Charles are preceded by large rainfalls.

The researchers considered whether other factors besides large rainfalls could be associated with Charles River flooding. They found that flooding tends to happen when the watershed is “primed” for maximum streamflow. For example, if rainfall, soil moisture, and snowmelt increase for a month, the Charles watershed is more likely to flood. Since the Charles watershed contains more upstream storage, it is less likely than the Mystic to flood because of large rainfalls alone.

Read the rest of the story on our website or read the paper on which the story is based.

MARY NEWTON LIMA: Impact of offshore wind on fisheries unknown

November 18, 2019 — I write in response to “Economic, environmental benefits power offshore wind” (My View, Nov. 5). Offshore wind is an exciting, viable and potentially productive source of electricity. But building these wind farms may significantly affect the existing blue economy, and the job numbers the authors cite are misleadingly high.

Fishing is an integral part of the blue economy, but the planned offshore wind development will affect over 100,000 acres of ocean currently used by fishermen to sustain the very industry the authors applaud. Once the Rhode Island/Massachusetts wind energy area is fully built out, an area of roughly 1,418 square miles – vastly larger than Cape Cod – will be covered in turbines roughly a mile apart. How this will affect fisheries is unknown. Many commercial fishermen in Europe will not, or cannot, fish within the farms because of safety hazards and the potential damage to or loss of gear.

Additionally, the full baseline studies that are desperately needed to examine the impacts on the ocean environment and the fishing industry are neither being presented by the developers nor required by the federal government. Placing hundreds of turbines in the ocean floor will no doubt change the ecology of the area and could either chase away commercially important species or make it so fishermen can no longer catch the species they’ve relied on for generations.

What’s really upsetting is the authors are misrepresenting the number of jobs coming to Massachusetts. The authors state “nearly 10,000 jobs will be created during the construction phase” of Vineyard Wind and the next three wind farms to be built. This sounds like nearly 10,000 permanent jobs are coming to Cape Cod and the South Coast. This is not the case. While the authors don’t identify the “recent report” they cite, the 2018 Massachusetts Offshore Wind Workforce Assessment estimated a range of 6,878 and 9,852 job-years (not jobs) would be created during the construction phase (which includes the design and permitting, not just construction). Let’s break this down.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

U.S. senators call for review of Canadian protections of endangered right whales

November 18, 2019 — Two U.S. senators from Massachusetts, including presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, are calling for an investigation of Canada’s regulatory measures to protect the North Atlantic right whale.

Democrat senators Edward Markey and Warren sent a letter this week to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration arguing Canadian rules for protecting the endangered whales are less strict than those in the United States.

Their request notes New England lobster fishermen are currently responding to a federal plan that reduces the amount of rope in the water and requires lines that break more easily.

Read the full story at CTV

Top climate hawk bashes first big offshore wind project

November 15, 2019 — For the past seven years, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has given a weekly address about the dangers of climate change. Increasingly, some greens wonder if he is full of hot air.

The Rhode Island Democrat, one of the Senate’s top climate hawks, has emerged as a leading critic of Vineyard Wind, an 84-turbine offshore wind project proposed in federal waters 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Whitehouse has questioned the federal government’s review of the project, the first large-scale development of its kind in the United States, and criticized Vineyard Wind for failing to adequately consult fishermen.

His barbs have raised eyebrows in climate circles and in Massachusetts, where Vineyard Wind has the enthusiastic backing of the state’s political establishment, and comes as the Trump administration weighs the future of the project.

In August, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt called for an additional round of environmental review of the project (Climatewire, Aug. 12). A division of Interior, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, is currently conducting a cumulative impact study of other offshore wind projects proposed for the area.

In an interview, Whitehouse said he was simply pushing for improvements to BOEM’s permitting process to better accommodate the concerns of fishermen and other ocean users.

He argued that Vineyard Wind had already settled on the design of its project with investors before taking input from fishermen. And he cited the Block Island wind farm, a five-turbine project built by Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind, as an example of how wind developers should approach fishermen’s concerns.

Keating said he appreciates the difficulty Whitehouse faces in balancing the concerns of fishermen next to the economic potential of offshore wind. He represents New Bedford, Mass., America’s largest commercial fishing port, and has heard similar concerns about offshore wind from some constituents. But he added: “I really feel an urgency and I feel an imperative that we have to go forward on this. This is gonna be great for our economy.”

Read the full story at E&E News

Group Discusses Potential Gear Restrictions At North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium

November 15, 2019 — An international group of scientists, conservationists, fisheries managers and others are gathered in Portland this week for the annual meeting of what’s called the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.

Federal regulators told the group that they are looking at a wide slate of measures to protect the endangered whales from entanglement in fishing gear. Some measures include reductions in the amount of lobster-trap rope allowed in the water and in the strength of that rope. The feds say they are also considering having a part of Cape Cod Bay that is now closed February to April closed to endlines but open to ropeless gear in the future.

Read the full story at Maine Public

NOAA to implement new regs on Jonah crab fishery

November 14, 2019 — The profile of the humble Jonah crab, once considered mere bycatch in the lobster fishery, continues to rise.

On Dec. 19, NOAA Fisheries will implement new regulations that will sharpen the scope and definition of the Jonah crab fishery in federal waters by establishing permitting requirements and setting size and possession limits.

The new federal measures closely replicate Jonah crab fishery management plans already enacted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates Jonah crabs on an interstate level, and many East Coast states — including Massachusetts.

“The federal regulations that are being issued mirror those set in place by ASMFC when they released the Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan in 2015,” said Derek Perry, a crab biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. “More than 99% of Jonah crabs are caught in federal waters, so this is mostly a federal waters fishery.”

So, beginning on Dec. 12, only vessels with a federal American lobster trap or non-trap permit may retain Jonah crab in federal waters. The minimum size will be the same as set by Massachusetts for state waters — 4.75 inches across the carapace.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Gorton’s, riding high on celebrity chef partnership, launches new products

November 14, 2019 — After growing sales and awareness of its brand via a partnership with a celebrity chef and the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP), Gorton’s is unveiling new products that appeal to millennials and other key demographic groups.

Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Gorton’s partnered with restauranteur Antoni Porowski, star of Netflix’s “Queer Eye,” earlier this year to create new recipes for Gorton’s and buzz for wild Alaska pollock. GAPP helped fund the partnership with a portion of USD 1 million (EUR 909,000) from its North American Partnership Program, which awarded 12 seafood suppliers in its second round of funding.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Marine Animal Deaths Attributed to Low Oxygen Levels

November 13, 2019 — Fishermen in Cape Cod Bay recently discovered a large number of dead animals in their traps, including lobsters, flounders, and eels.

After an investigation conducted by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, it was determined they died due to low levels of oxygen at the ocean’s floor, otherwise known as hypoxia.

Beth Casoni, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said that the warm water temperatures over the summer as well as the current state of Cape Cod Bay lead to the deaths.

“This area in the Cape Cod Bay has very low current flow, so it was the perfect storm for something like this to happen,” she said.

Cold water in the bay gets trapped at the bottom of the ocean underneath layers of warmer water, causing oxygen to wane.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com