Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA restricts fishing cod along part of Massachusetts coast

August 1, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries has placed commercial fishing regulations for cod along the Gulf of Maine for the next month due to nearly reaching the maximum of allowable catch.

According to NOAA, fishermen have reached 90 percent of the allowable amount of cod fished along the northern coast of Massachusetts as well as in New Hampshire and Maine. Areas 513 and 514, in the image below, will stay closed to fishing for the remainder of Trimester 1, beginning Thursday, July 27, and reopening on September 1.

Read the full article at WWLP

MASSACHUSETTS: Bullard shares his life of public service with readers in “Hometown”

July 31, 2023 — With deep roots embedded in the Whaling City, former mayor of New Bedford and descendant of its founding family, John Bullard, shares tales of his hometown in a new memoir. His story “Hometown” highlights his journey as a federal leader and New Bedford’s plight to survive and thrive.

Who is John Bullard?

Bullard served as mayor of New Bedford from 1986 to 1992 during which he brought the city into compliance with the Clean Water Act by building a secondary wastewater treatment plant at Fort Rodman and paving the way for offshore wind to be located at the former Standard-Times Field.

He led the charge to save New Bedford’s suffering historic whaling district, alongside members of WHALE, who established the National Whaling Historic Park, the rescue of the Zeiterion Theatre, and the establishment of the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum.

Read the full article at South Coast Today

Cape Cod is one of the world’s largest white shark hotspots, study finds

July 30, 2023 — A first-of-its-kind study found that Cape Cod is one of the world’s largest hotspots for great white sharks.

The new research from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, UMass Dartmouth and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries determined about 800 white sharks paid a visit to Cape waters between 2015 to 2018. It’s the first time scientists have estimated “white shark abundance” in the North Atlantic Ocean, according to the study.

The numbers from Cape Cod are “comparable to but larger than” previous estimates of white shark populations around South Africa, central California, south Australia and Guadalupe Island in Mexico.

The researchers collected nearly 3,000 videos of shark sightings from 137 trips to Cape beaches.

The shark population peaks on Cape Cod around late summer and into early fall when ocean temperatures are the warmest, findings show.

Read the full article at CBS News

MASSACHUSETTS: Greater New Bedford Waterfronts Awarded $830,000 in Grants

July 30, 2023 — The City of New Bedford and the surrounding towns of Dartmouth and Mattapoisett have been awarded $830,000 in state Seaport grants for waterfront development projects.

In a release on Thursday, State Senator Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford) announced the Seaport Economic Council voted to approve $3 million in grants for 10 projects, four located in the Greater New Bedford area.

Established in 2015, the Seaport Economic Council consists of 18 members that award grants to municipal waterfronts to bolster maritime economies.

Read the full article at WBSM

 

MASSACHUSETTS: State sets bio-medical quota on horseshoe crabs

July 24, 2023 — They’re prized by the biomedical community for their life-saving blue blood, but the increasing demand for horseshoe crabs is raising concerns about the well-being of the prehistoric species, prompting state regulators to set new harvesting limits.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has rolled out new regulations for the state’s horseshoe crab fishery that include a first-ever biomedical harvest quota.

Under the regulations, the biomedical catch quota would be set at 200,000 horseshoe crabs annually, and will be divided evenly among the handful of Massachusetts companies that process their blood for biomedical research and drug development.

“Capping total horseshoe crab harvest and mortality is the single most important conservation measure the state can take this year,” DMF said in a statement on the new regulations. “This eliminates the potential for uncontrolled growth in the biomedical fishery which could negatively impact the resource moving forward.”

Read the full article at Salem News

Fishing industry reps raise concerns about wind energy areas

July 20, 2023 — A recent webinar on the impacts of offshore wind energy had some members of the Gloucester fishing community sounding off on their concerns to officials of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

The webinar, hosted by the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and the UMass Amherst Gloucester Marine Station, drew about 50 participants to listen to BOEM Project Coordinator Seth Theuerkauf and BOEM Fisheries Biologist Brandon Jensen outline the planning process for siting offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine.

Commercial fisherman Al Cottone, executive director of the Gloucester Fisheries Commission, and Angela Sanfilippo, executive director of the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership and president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, outlined the fishing industry’s concerns with offshore wind development.

“First of all the construction process, the areas that are going to be used will probably be lost forever for commercial fishing,” Cottone said. “We are going through that right now locally with the LNG terminals that were put in that are going to be decommissioned.” He worried the bottom where the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are located might be lost to fishing when these facilities are decommissioned.

“This is going to be on a much larger scale and it’s going to be a vast area of bottom that’s going to be lost forever to commercial fishing, basically,” he said.

Read the full article at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: The Cape’s Scallopers Ride Out a Perfect Storm

July 20, 2023 — This summer, a perfect storm — combining sky-high fuel costs, a scarcity of experienced crew members, low wholesale prices, sharp declines in what scallop fishermen are allowed to take, and costly quota — has been keeping Cape Cod’s small-boat scallopers off the water.

“There are a quite a few changing over to do other kinds of fishing because they can’t afford to go scalloping right now,” said Max Nolan, a scalloper from Eastham who owns the F/V Outlaw. Nolan fishes out of Provincetown, Hyannis, and New Bedford and has come to rely on the work-intensive practice of selling his catch directly to consumers, including from a truck parked near the former T-Time property on Route 6, a strategy he hopes will make up for low wholesale prices.

“I don’t know how anyone is making it,” said Chris Merl, a Wellfleet scalloper and captain of the F/V Isabel & Lilee, who does the same, selling his catch at the Orleans Farmers Market, the Bass River Farmers Market, and at Cape Cod Beer in Hyannis.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

147-turbine offshore wind project suffers another setback

July 16, 2023 — A significant Massachusetts offshore energy project faces additional headwinds following a decision Thursday by a Rhode Island state agency to not issue an approval for power transmission lines to run from the turbine farm through Ocean State waters.

SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC, formerly known as Mayflower Wind Energy LLC, wants to develop an offshore lease area in federal waters about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The company intends to build 147 giant turbines that will generate more than 2,400 megawatts of power for Massachusetts. SouthCoast is a joint venture comprised of Shell Renewables and Energy Solutions and Engie and EDP Renewables.

SouthCoast had proposed two transmission cable corridors to run from the turbines off the Vineyard. One of the cable corridors runs through Rhode Island waters before making landfall in Massachusetts at Falmouth and Brayton Point, while the other corridor is Massachusetts waters.

SouthCoast needed approval from the R.I. Energy Facility Siting Board before it could proceed with construction of the transmission cable corridor that would snake through Rhode Island.

Read the full article at PBN

MASSACHUSETTS: Aquinnah negotiating offshore wind impact fees

July 13, 2023 — Aquinnah is in negotiations with the developers of several offshore wind farms to help mitigate the impacts that hundreds of turbines will have on the view from the Aquinnah Cliffs.

The town has already reached agreements with some developers, but others, like Ørsted, could compensate the town with significant impact fees.

Aquinnah climate and energy committee member Bill Lake told town officials this week that the Natural Historic Preservation Act requires federal and federally authorized developers of projects that impact places within the National Register of Historic Places to provide some form of mitigation.

In Aquinnah’s case, funding could go to landmarks like the Gay Head Lighthouse and the Aquinnah Cliffs, the shops, and the Vanderhoop Homestead. In particular, the lighthouse has been eyed to be a major beneficiary of monetary compensation for needed repairs.

Read the full article at MV Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind energy impacts subject of upcoming webinar

July 12, 2023 — For those looking to learn more about offshore wind energy’s potential impacts on the waters and communities of Cape Ann, an informational webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, July 12, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

The webinar, entitled “Gulf of Maine Offshore Wind Energy and Impacts on Ocean Habitat, Fisheries, and Coastal Communities,” is part of a program meant to bring together a range of professional and promote an exchange of information and dialogues with the audience on topics related to renewable energy, ocean ecosystems, and communities along the shore, according to the webinar’s flyer.

Read the full article at Gloucester Daily Times