Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: What belongs on New Bedford State Pier? Here is what’s proposed.

May 14, 2024– A new “boat-to-table” seafood restaurant proposed for State Pier would employ 125 at peak season and bring thousands of people downtown.

That’s according to Servedwell Hospitality owner Steve Silverstein, who is proposing the new 6,500-square-foot restaurant that would seat 300, and feature roof-deck dining and two bars.

It would represent a $5 million investment by Servedwell Hospitality.

Silverstein made one of the seven presentations Monday night of what’s being proposed for the eight-acre State Pier’s redevelopment.

Meeting was held at New Bedford Whaling Museum

The meeting at the New Bedford Whaling Museum was hosted by MassDevelopment, the state’s development finance agency and land bank, which manages the state-owned property.

A MassDevelopment review committee will review the proposals and make recommendations.

The committee could recommend accepting the proposals in total or partially – none of which are mutually exclusive – or reject them all. Leases for successful RFPS could run up to 35 years.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Sewage related restrictions will hurt oyster growers

May 13, 2024 — After a storm wiped out Luke Sebesta’s Dartmouth aquaculture business in 2022, he was looking forward to purchasing 20,000 seed oysters this spring to get it back up and running. But this March, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries announced new restrictions on shellfish beds in parts of Buzzards Bay. Now, his re-opening of his Nonquitt oyster farm — Buzzards Bay Oysters — is at a “standstill.”

“It’s making me question whether it’s even worth it,” he said.

On March 12, the state announced new regulations of the shellfish beds surrounding the New Bedford and Fairhaven wastewater treatment plant outfalls — the main discharge pipes for treated sewage. These changes are part of a statewide effort to expand the areas around these pipes that are closed to shellfishing — called “buffer zones” — to comply with requirements in the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.

These buffer zones are based on computer modeling of how treated sewage flows from treatment plants out of these pipes, and dilutes and disperses into its receiving waters near shellfish beds. They are meant to protect consumers from the risk of getting sick when eating shellfish grown near a wastewater treatment plant, if it fails and dispenses untreated sewage into the water.

Roughly 90,000 acres of Buzzards Bay shellfish beds, stretching from Dartmouth to Mattapoisett, changed from fully approved to conditionally approved as a result of the computer modeling. That means oyster growers using these beds could now be shut down for seven to 21 days after episodes of “rainfall or seasonally poor water quality or other predictable events.”

State officials say the change is a necessary concession. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended closing down more than 103,000 acres of beds across Buzzards Bay, based on its modeling. The state says the new classification plan protects public health, keeps growers open, and complies with requirements in the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

U.S. Proposes 8 Wind Energy Areas in Gulf of Maine

May 10, 2024 — Offshore wind is key to Massachusetts meeting its decarbonization goals, particularly the state’s Clean Energy and Climate plan, which commits to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Mass. Clean Energy Center, a state agency established to boost the clean energy sector, anticipates that nearly 60 percent of all electricity in the state will be generated by wind by that year.

Cape Cod fishermen are watching the developments closely, according to Aubrey Ellertson Church, policy manager at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. In an email to the Independent, she said that local fishermen’s primary concern is whether the location of the wind farms would push them out of their traditional fishing areas and into other already-fished areas, increasing competition among boats.

Read the full article at The Provincetown Independent

MASSACHUSETTS: Improvements on the horizon in New Bedford Harbor. Feds see what their money is buying.

May 8, 2024 — On a tour of New Bedford Harbor on Tuesday, the administrator of the federal department that oversees federal programs to improve and modernize the nation’s maritime network saw for herself the progress on the city’s North Terminal and plans for Leonard’s Wharf.

Rear Admiral Ann C. Phillips, U.S. Navy (Ret.), administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, met with Mayor Jon Mitchell, New Bedford Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr and other officials for an update on the federally funding projects.

The North Terminal is nearly completed, and Mitchell said work on Leonard’s Wharf has started with actual construction expected to begin in January 2025.

Phillips said it’s exciting to see that the North Terminal is almost completed, and welcomed the opportunity to tour the harbor and see for herself how the federal funding is making a difference.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

South Coast oyster growers say sewage-related restrictions will hurt

May 7, 2024 — After a storm wiped out Luke Sebesta’s Dartmouth aquaculture business in 2022, he was looking forward to purchasing 20,000 seed oysters this spring to get it back up and running. But this March, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries announced new restrictions on shellfish beds in parts of Buzzards Bay. Now, his re-opening of his Nonquitt oyster farm — Buzzards Bay Oysters — is at a “standstill.”

“It’s making me question whether it’s even worth it,” he said.

On March 12, the state announced new regulations of the shellfish beds surrounding the New Bedford and Fairhaven wastewater treatment plant outfalls — the main discharge pipes for treated sewage. These changes are part of a statewide effort to expand the areas around these pipes that are closed to shellfishing — called “buffer zones” — to comply with requirements in the National Shellfish Sanitation Program.

These buffer zones are based on computer modeling of how treated sewage flows from treatment plants out of these pipes, and dilutes and disperses into its receiving waters near shellfish beds. They are meant to protect consumers from the risk of getting sick when eating shellfish grown near a wastewater treatment plant, if it fails and dispenses untreated sewage into the water.

Roughly 90,000 acres of Buzzards Bay shellfish beds, stretching from Dartmouth to Mattapoisett, changed from fully approved to conditionally approved as a result of the computer modeling. That means oyster growers using these beds could now be shut down for seven to 21 days after episodes of “rainfall or seasonally poor water quality or other predictable events.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Light

Feds reveal Outer Cape locations for offshore wind

May 6, 2024 — Locations for offshore wind development have been selected off the Outer Cape.

The Biden administration this week published the location of eight areas proposed for lease in the Gulf of Maine, a body of water that runs from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia.

Wind energy developers will have the opportunity to bid on the leases in a future auction.

Six of the areas lie off the coast of Massachusetts and two off New Hampshire and Maine.

The closest to Cape Cod starts 25 miles off the Outer Cape. For comparison, that distance is about the same as the distance from Hyannis to Nantucket Harbor.

Read the full story at New Hampshire Public Radio

 

8 Gulf of Maine sites picked for possible commercial offshore wind leases

May 2, 2024 — The federal government is proposing eight areas in the Gulf of Maine as possible sites for commercial offshore wind farms.

The proposed lease areas cover about 1 million acres and have the potential to generate 15 gigawatts of energy, enough to power five million homes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Tuesday.

Two of the sites, encompassing nearly 254,000 acres, are off the Maine coast. The remaining six are located off Massachusetts.

In choosing the lease sites, BOEM said it wanted to avoid offshore fishing grounds and transit routes for ships. The eight proposed sites represent about half of the 2 million acres that BOEM chose as its “final wind energy area” for the Gulf of Maine, which the agency announced last month.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MASSACHUSETTS: Offshore wind expansion will rely on ports, including New Bedford

April 30, 2024 — The federal government’s announcement last week of up to 12 more lease sales on both coasts by 2028 means more demand (and potential work opportunities) for vessels and ports, including the Port of New Bedford.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland made the announcement at a wind industry conference in New Orleans, where she and other federal officials also shared the news of millions in funding for offshore wind research, and the streamlining of rules governing how the government holds auctions and reviews projects.

“This is so exciting because it means that developers and communities can expect predictability and transparency as they plan for future projects,” Haaland said. “It also means that all stakeholders from tribes to states to fisheries to academia have more time to weigh in on the process.”

The closest lease sales to Massachusetts will be the Gulf of Maine this year, and the New York Bight, in 2027 (the last one was in 2022 with six areas going to bid). There were no announced lease sales for the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Right Whale Day in Mass. marked during tough year for species

April 25, 2024 — Today marks the second annual Right Whale Day in Massachusetts.

The public is invited to spend it at the New England Aquarium, where beginning at 11 a.m. officials will discuss conservation efforts with Calvin, a 42-foot-long inflatable right whale, in the background.

The event falls just weeks after one of the critically endangered whales, a male known to researchers as #4143, was seen entangled off Rhode Island with rope coming out of both sides of his mouth.

Entanglement is a leading cause of death for North Atlantic right whales, whose population has fallen to around 350.

Erin Burke, the state’s protected species specialist, said her office is working with the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown to find #4143 before it’s too late.

Read the full article at Vermont Public Media