Saving Seafood

Effort to Support North Atlantic Right Whales Gets $4.6 Million Grant

January 2, 2024 — More than $4.6 million dollars is being awarded to the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Marine Fisheries from a congressional appropriation through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to enhance the conservation program for endangered North Atlantic right whales.

DMF will use the funding and an additional $475,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), to help development of innovative fishing gear technologies, increase ongoing research and monitoring, and provide fishing gear to lobster industry participants to reduce harm to the right whales.

As part of a 5-year program, DMF anticipates receiving more than $23 million from NOAA Fisheries between now and the end of 2028 subject to annual congressional appropriations.

The following was released by CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts gets more than $4 million for new lobster fishing gear to protect right whales, other measures

December 31, 2023 — The feds are shellin’ out millions of dollars to the Bay State for new lobster fishing gear in the hopes of protecting North Atlantic right whales.

The Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Marine Fisheries on Friday announced that it will receive more than $4.6 million from a congressional appropriation to boost DMF’s conservation program for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

DMF will use part of this funding from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to provide new lobster fishing gear that’s designed to protect right whales.

Massachusetts near-shore waters host up to 80% of the total population of North Atlantic right whales in late winter and early spring — as the whales migrate north and feed in the nutrient-rich waters of Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay. The two greatest threats for the endangered species are entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes, according to advocates.

Read the full article at the Boston Herald

Filmmaker Helgeland drew on his New Bedford fishing past for ‘Finestkind’

December 26, 2023 — In a final scene of the film “Finestkind,” as the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge slowly pivots open, a father and son cross paths for what might be the last time. One is handcuffed in the back of a police van. The other is outward bound on a fishing trip.

Most in New Bedford know the bridge as little more than a morning traffic jam. But for Brian Helgeland, the 62-year-old New Bedford-raised screenwriter who returned to his hometown to shoot his newest film, the bridge is a symbol of his childhood and his development as a writer.

As a boy, Helgeland rode his bicycle over the bridge. As a young man working on scallop boats, he passed through the bridge as the first leg of a long voyage out to sea. And now, three decades later, the same bridge is also a set in his own film.

“That bridge is a memory, a movie location and a metaphor,” Helgeland told a local audience at an unofficial premiere of the film at the New Bedford Whaling Museum earlier this month.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

SENA Panel: Artificial Intelligence for Smarter Fisheries Management: The What, How, Who, and When

December 19, 2023 — The 2023 Seafood Expo North America, which took place 12 to 14 March in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., and the 2023 Seafood Expo Global, from 25 to 27 April, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain, featured a comprehensive conference program of live panel events focusing on topics chosen to be of vital interest to the seafood industry.

The 28 individual presentations from SENA and the 21 sessions from SEG featured exclusive information and insight from seafood industry experts, including economic forecasts and analysis on the trends and topics impacting the global seafood industry as it navigates issues of trade, food safety, traceability, aquaculture, sustainability, and consumption trends. Now, a video recording of each of these sessions is available for on-demand replay.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MA lobstermen want to invent a better lobster trap

December 7, 2023 — Patrick Flanary: For years, right whale advocates and engineers have been trying to develop new lobster fishing gear designed to prevent whales from entanglements. But most local lobstermen say they’re against this so-called “on demand” fishing gear that’s been created. Now, as CAI’s Eve Zuckoff reports, lobstermen have decided to come up with their own technology. Eve, you were the first to report this, thanks for being here this morning.

Eve Zuckoff: Thanks for having me.

Patrick Flanary: So the Massachusetts lobstermen’s association has just been awarded a $1.2 million grant to develop new fishing gear. What’s their proposal?

Eve Zuckoff: Over the next year they’ll be working with an engineer to develop a “pinger” inside a lobster trap that sends satellite signals to show where traps are on the seafloor. So whenever a lobsterman is ready to collect his catch, he or she will go wherever the pinger says, throw a grapple — these metal hooks — down into the water, and haul up the traps.

All of this eliminates the need for a traditional buoy marking where their gear is, and an extra rope called an “end line” that’s known to entangle whales.

But to be clear: lobstermen don’t want to use this gear year round — just during closures — specifically an upcoming 3-month-long period where they have to be out of local waters to protect the whales.

Patrick Flanary: What would this pinger/grappling system replace exactly?

Eve Zuckoff: In recent years, engineers have developed “on demand gear,” sometimes called “ropeless gear.” Here’s how that works: when lobstermen set their traps, there is an inflatable bag and compressed air tank — or something similar — inside one of them. And when a lobsterman is ready to haul up their gear, they hit a button on an app, which triggers the bag to inflate, and the bag floats up to the surface where the lobsterman can haul it all in. But Beth Casoni, head of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s association said her group is not a fan.

“The current systems are cost prohibitive,” she said. “Even if the government was to buy them, which would be ludicrous, the price tag would be insane for the entire lobster fishery.”

So the on-demand technology is similar to the pinger and grappling hook in that there’s no more buoy and stagnant rope just waiting in the water, ready entangle a passing whale, but the pinger eliminates the need for a costly inflatable bag, air tank, and other tech.

Patrick Flanary: So cost is obviously a factor. Are the pingers cheaper?

Eve Zuckoff: Ding, ding, ding! For now, as Casoni said, on demand gear is being subsidized by the federal government, but at some point, the cost could fall in fishermen to the tune of $3,000-7,500 for one line of traps. And lobstermen typically fish many lines of traps. The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association hopes pingers will cost just $300-$400 per line of traps.

Read the full story at NHPR

 

New Bedford Pols Call for More Transparency with Test Turbine

December 6, 2023 — Local legislators are not pleased with the way they and residents found out about a research project in New Bedford’s Clark Cove that features the installation of a temporary scale model of a floating offshore wind turbine.

“The energy bubbles up from the constituency, especially when they’re pissed off, and this one bubbled up with us organically on our own, but exactly what I would have predicted (is what) happened,” Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford) said in an appearance on WBSM’s SouthCoast Now Tuesday morning.

“There is no excuse for it,” he said.

Montigny is referring to the rumors that began Monday morning regarding what was being installed in Clark’s Cove. Some believed it was going to be a 300-foot-plus full-sized wind turbine, and potentially the first of many that were being erected without any public hearing.

Read the full story at WBSM

SENATORS MARKEY, SULLIVAN INTRODUCE BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION TO PROTECT PHYSICAL AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH IN COMMERCIAL FISHING INDUSTRY

December 5, 2023 — The following was released by the office of Senator Ed Markey:

Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) introduced the Fishing Industry Safety, Health, and Wellness Improvement (FISH Wellness) Act, bipartisan legislation that would build upon the success of the Commercial Fishing Occupational Safety Research & Training Program to better address the range of occupational safety and health risks facing fishermen in this highly strenuous and dangerous industry, including worker fatigue and substance use disorder. This legislation would also increase the authorized funding for the program and make these research and training grants more accessible on every coast by eliminating the match requirement.

“Every day, our fishermen are faced with demanding and dangerous working conditions that take both a physical and mental toll, all while they work to bring food to the tables of families across the country,” said Senator Markey. “The FISH Wellness Act will provide much needed funding to ensure that fishermen are getting the information and resources they need to stay safe and healthy on the job.”

“Fishermen contend with extreme weather, long distances and periods away from shore and family, and often strenuous working conditions—factors that contribute to the industry being consistently ranked among the most dangerous in the country,” said Senator Sullivan. “I’m glad to introduce the FISH Wellness Act with Senator Markey, which would expand job safety training opportunities to support our fishermen as they sustainably harvest a world-class renewable resource and strengthen our coastal economies.”

Read the full release at the office of Senator Ed Markey

New Bedford South End Wind Turbine Just a Temporary Research Project

December 5, 2023 — There was some concern Monday morning regarding an offshore wind project happening down in the Clark’s Cove area of New Bedford’s South End, with rumors that a wind turbine was being erected off the shores of West Beach without any notification to the public.

However, what is being launched today is actually a prototype of a floating offshore wind turbine. The aluminum and fiberglass structure weighs 1,500 pounds and sits on a 19 foot-by-19 foot square platform, with a hub height of 27 feet off the water.

The blades on the turbine are 12 feet long, so when a blade is in the 12 o’clock position, the entire height of the structure will be 39 feet. It is 1/16th scale of a full-sized turbine.

The structure is being launched as a prototype demonstration by T-Omega Wind to study the effect of the wind and waves on the anchors for these floating offshore wind turbines. It is expected to last roughly 60 days, depending on the weather.

Read the full story at WBSM

 

The collapse of fishing giant Blue Harvest exposes the weakness of catch share policies

December 2, 2023 — In October 2023, wrecking crews finished scrapping the last of a dozen fishing boats that had once owned by the notorious New England fishing magnate nicknamed “The Codfather.” Carlos Rafael, who started out as a fish gutter in New Bedford, Massachusetts, aggressively worked — and sometimes cheated — his way up the ladder, eventually coming to dominate New England’s groundfish fishery (which includes cod, hake, flounder and other white fish) before a 2017 court decision sent him to prison for nearly four years and forced him to sell off his fleet. The sale, completed during his prison sentence, would earn him another $100 million. It was a profitable end for a fishing empire built on seafood fraud, tax evasion and consolidation.

So when the private equity-backed Blue Harvest Fisheries announced in 2020 that it was buying most of Rafael’s fleet and putting the boats back to work, some welcomed it as good news for the port of New Bedford, the hub of Cape Cod’s fishing industry. But others were alarmed that Blue Harvest’s majority equity holder was the Dutch-owned firm Bregal Partners — and that most of the money would ultimately move through a Swiss holding company and into the hands of a family of European billionaires, with only a tiny fraction going to the local fishing community. Now, only three years after assuming control and becoming the dominant player in the New England groundfish fishery, Blue Harvest has suspended its operations and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving many fishermen unemployed once again.

In filing for Chapter 7, Blue Harvest may be leaving as much as $100 million in outstanding debts — many of them to local vendors who performed maintenance and upgrades on its fleet. An investigation by the New Bedford Light has found that the bankruptcy is likely an avenue for Bregal to avoid paying those debts and maximize the cash it could extract.

The following was released by salon

MASSACHUSETTS: Representative Dylan Fernandes Grants Cape Fishermen $500,000 to Boost Local Fishing Industry

December 2, 2023 — Massachusetts state Rep. Dylan Fernandes presented $500,000 in funding to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance (CCCFA) at the Chatham Fish Pier yesterday.

The funding was earmarked for the Alliance in the state’s 2024 budget for their efforts in modernizing and maintaining sustainable fishing and was part of $1.2 million in funding Fernandes secured for the Cape and Islands during the FY2024 budget process. Of that, $940,000 in funding was devoted to protecting oceans and combating climate change.

“Fishing is not just an industry on the Cape and Islands; it’s woven into the very culture and fabric of our communities,” said Fernandes. “These funds are a pathway toward adaptive fishing practices, healthier oceans, and a sustainable industry that can be passed down to future generations of fishing families.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman