Saving Seafood

Lawmakers demand accounting for shortchanged Blue Harvest fishermen, vendors

February 15, 2024 — Massachusetts members of Congress are demanding an explanation of Bregal Partners’ liquidation of Blue Harvest Fisheries in New Bedford, Mass., in a letter listing how the international investment firm walked away from an estimated $100 million in debts.

The Feb. 12 letter from Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey and Rep. William Keating, all D-Mass., presented a list of itemized questions to Charles Yoon, a managing partner at Bregal’s New York City office.

“After years of putting private equity profits ahead of workers and small businesses, Bregal Partners – which owned and stripped Blue Harvest of its assets – owes the community an explanation,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your actions have harmed New England’s fishing industry and left over 1,000 independent contractors, businesses, and other creditors saddled with debt.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSAHCUSETTS: USCG responds to fishing vessel that ran aground

February 5, 2024 — The United States Coast Guard responded to a fishing vessel that ran aground on Friday at Ballston Beach in Cape Cod.

The incident happened around 2:30 a.m. when USCG Sector SE New England was notified by the fishing vessel Miss Megan. There were three people onboard a the time.

USCG Station Province Town, USCG Air Station Cape Cod and USCG inspections and pollution response staff were called to the scene.

Read the full article at WPRI

New round opens for testing pop-up lobster gear

February 3, 2024 — A new series of testing ropeless lobster gear got underway Feb. 1 in waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island, a cooperative effort with up to 30 commercial lobster crews working with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

The fishermen are testing  on-demand (also called ropeless) fishing gear  in state and federal waters that are otherwise closed to lobster and Jonah crab fishing with static vertical lines, seasonal closures aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales from danger of entanglement.

“Participating vessels will fish trap trawls without any surface gear marks in the ‘potential on-demand testing areas.’ The fixed gear involved in this research will not be visible at the surface since it has no surface buoys,” according to a NEFSC advisory.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Why Vineyard Wind is a legal test case for US clean energy

January 21, 2024 — Three lawsuits down, at least three appeals to go.

So it goes for Vineyard Wind, the 62-turbine offshore wind farm under construction south of Massachusetts. The three cases — which all challenge the project’s federal permits — are now in front of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

How those lawsuits fare will help determine whether the Biden administration can meet its goals to boost renewable power generation while satisfying traditional environmental laws meant to protect wildlife and ecosystems. President Joe Biden has committed to permitting 16 offshore wind projects by the end of this year — a build-out opposed by commercial fishing interests and conservative groups who argue installing wind turbines harm marine ecosystems and endangered species.

Read the full article at E&E News

MASSACHUSETTS: Officials press to end child labor in New Bedford seafood plants

January 18, 2024 — The photograph was passed from one top official to the next. It was passed first to Police Chief Paul Oliveira, then to City Councilor Shane Burgo, then to schools Superintendent Andrew O’Leary and to state Rep. Chris Hendricks.

The 8×11 print showed scabbed, purple boils forming a ring around the wrist of a child who had been burned by chemicals while working an overnight shift at a New Bedford seafood processing plant.

“The chemical went through the glove and burned his hand,” explained Dax Crocker, of labor activist group Centro Comunidad de Trabajadores (CCT), which on Monday hosted a meeting with civic leaders to address the issue of child labor in New Bedford’s fish houses.

The picture was an example of a quiet but pervasive problem in New Bedford — illegal child labor in the city’s seafood processing plants and the risks that the dangerous jobs pose to undocumented, underage workers with little protection or other options for work.

In November, the U.S. Department of Labor launched a sweeping investigation into child labor and other potential labor law violations at multiple New Bedford seafood processing plants. The Labor Department has levied fines at meatpacking and food processing companies across the country for violating child labor laws. But with no action or fines yet imposed here, local officials have stepped up, saying it’s time to end the exploitative and often illegal labor trend.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Ocean Cluster Has a New Project on the Horizon

January 11, 2024 — In its second full year, the New Bedford Ocean Cluster continues its focus on the four industries that reflect the blue economy in New Bedford as momentum picks up in terms of increasing the visibility of the Port of New Bedford and the region and its potential.

The four marine pillars are offshore wind and renewable energy, commercial fishing and processing, aquaculture, and innovation and technology.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Massachusetts lobstermen drop lawsuit against California aquarium that told people to stop eating lobster

January 10, 2023 — The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has ended its fight against a California aquarium that says people shouldn’t buy and eat lobster because of the risks the fishery poses on the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

A federal judge in the Northern District of California on Monday dismissed a class action lawsuit that four Bay State lobstermen filed last March against the Monterey Bay Aquarium after the two sides agreed to end the months-long dispute with prejudice.

Monterey Bay in September 2022 gave the American lobster a “red rating” on its Seafood Watch, recommending consumers to avoid the species caught by trap from the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England and Georges Bank stocks.

The action prompted the four lobstermen to file the suit months later, seeking $75,000 in damages for disparagement of their aquaculture product and interference with their proprietary rights.

“After lengthy discussions among the named individuals in the suit, they agreed to dismiss the Class Action Suit as a win in the California court is highly unlikely and extremely costly,” the MLA said in a statement to the Herald on Tuesday. “The laws in California would ultimately hold these individuals financially responsible for the defendant’s legal fees should they prevail.”

The aquarium had asserted that trapping lobsters had contributed to the depletion of the population of Northern Atlantic right whales, an endangered species at high risk of extinction. There are fewer than 340 such whales today, and the aquarium says entanglement in fishing gear is the leading cause of injury and death.

Read the full article at the Boston Herald

Power up: Vineyard Wind sends electricity to the grid

January 7, 2024 — New England’s first large offshore wind farm has delivered electricity to the grid.

In a test Tuesday, shortly before midnight, Vineyard Wind sent about five megawatts of power ashore in Barnstable from a single turbine, according to project officials.

More testing needs to be done before the turbine can be fully operational, according to the project’s two parent companies, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. They said they expect the first five turbines, which were completed in early December, to be running in the early part of this year.

When fully built, Vineyard Wind 1, located about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, will have 62 turbines of 13 megawatts each and generate enough power for more than 400,000 homes.

Maggie Downey, administrator of renewable energy provider Cape Light Compact, said the powering-up of Vineyard Wind represents a turning point in meeting the state’s climate goals.

“I think it’s a huge moment for everybody that lives in Massachusetts,” she said. “We need the electrons on our grid. We are all seeing the impacts of climate change, and this is a giant step forward to helping us and the Commonwealth achieve their state goals.”

Vineyard Wind hoped to deliver power by the end of 2023, but missed that mark.

Read the full article at GBH

Offshore power flows 14 years after Cape Wind won federal approval

January 4, 2024 — About 7½ years after state policymakers began seriously pursuing the cleaner generation source and following a bumpy road full of delays, the grid that powers Massachusetts received the first electrons generated by offshore wind late Tuesday night.

One turbine of the Vineyard Wind 1 project delivered about 5 megawatts of power at 11:52 p.m. Tuesday, project co-owners Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) announced Wednesday morning. Eventually, the wind farm about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard is expected to have 62 turbines capable of generating just more than 800 MW of power. The project’s energy comes ashore at a grid interconnection point in Barnstable.

The transmission of “first power,” as limited as it was and coming later than had been expected, was roundly celebrated Wednesday by elected officials, clean energy advocates and others. Gov. Maura Healey called Wednesday’s announcement “a historic moment for the American offshore wind industry.”

“Soon, Vineyard Wind will be producing power equivalent of over 400,000 Massachusetts households,” she said. “As we look ahead, Massachusetts is on a path toward energy independence thanks to our nation-leading work to stand up the offshore wind industry.”

Massachusetts now is the second state in the country, following New York, to get electricity from a major offshore wind development.

Read the full article at State House News Service

MASSACHUSETTS: Mass. receives $4.6 million in federal funds to help protect North Atlantic right whales

January 3, 2024 — Massachusetts is receiving more than $4.6 million in federal funds to support an array of conservation efforts for the endangered North Atlantic right whale, state officials said.

In a recent statement, the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs said the money, coupled with a separate $475,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, will help “bolster development” of fishing gear technology that can reduce entanglements, a leading cause of death for large whales.

The funds will also support the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries’ “ongoing research and monitoring” of right whale migratory patterns and the distribution of fishing gear to lobstermen that can mitigate harm to right whales.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe