Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford advocates for fishing industry compensation in response to offshore wind impact

March 2, 2023 — With offshore wind farms moving in, the fishing community faces the real possibility of a financial burden from revenue loss, officials say.

A proposed fisheries compensation fund has the potential to alleviate that burden from the likely physical and economic damages they will incur, including gear loss, habitat degradation, loss of essential fishing grounds and other impacts that will cause serious economic challenges to the fishing industry.

The New Bedford Port Authority supports the establishment of a common set of rules and procedures that would apply to the nine Atlantic Coast states that are working together to establish a framework that requires offshore wind developers to offer compensation.

Read the full article at Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford mayor has a plan to capitalize on the economic benefits of offshore wind

March 2, 2023 — The whaling industry put New Bedford on the map long ago by bringing the city commercial success, but in this day and age the focus has turned to offshore wind, in combination with the fishing industry as a way to drive New Bedford’s economy.

Civic and business leaders are joining Mayor Jon Mitchell in asking that investment in offshore wind be made a priority in Gov. Maura Healey’s statewide economic development plan as New Bedford strives to be a leader in both the offshore wind and fishing industries.

“We’ve been committed to the proposition that the two industries can coexist successfully, but we also know that it has taken a lot of work and will continue to take an awful lot of work,” he said. “We’re convinced that it’s in the interests of our city that we preserve our leading role as America’s leading fishing port and that we also lead on offshore wind.”

In a letter to Healey and legislators from committees focusing on climate and jobs, Mitchell recommends policies and approaches to strengthen the state’s ability to compete for investment the offshore wind industry with other states further ahead.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Webinar tackles concerns about wind farm projects

February 28, 2023 — At the nascent stage of wind farm development in the Gulf of Maine, a webinar last week looked at the possible impacts to marine life, coastal communities and fisheries while acknowledging there are many unknowns to such projects.

The webinar was hosted Thursday by the UMass Amherst Gloucester Marine Station at Hodgkin’s Cove, the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and the Cape Ann Climate Coalition, with about 90 participants taking part on Zoom.

At one point, the panel was asked about the use of floating turbines out in Gulf of Maine that would be anchored to the seabed, how they might be interconnected and how the power might be cabled ashore.

When asked why wind farm developers were looking at using floating turbines, panelist Tom Nies, executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council of Newburyport, said: “My understanding is the main reason they are looking at floating turbines in the Gulf of Maine is the depth of water, that it’s difficult to create a fixed structure in the deeper water of the Gulf of Maine.”

Nies said it’s presumed such turbines would be designed to withstand nor’easters and regular storms.

Fishing concerns

Capt. Al Cottone, a commercial fisherman and executive director of the Gloucester Fisheries Commission, said the industry has “a ton of questions that haven’t been answered yet. And I don’t think these questions will be answered in the time frame that was shown earlier in the presentation and it’s very concerning to the industry.”

Cottone presented a map from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of the Gulf of Maine showing the draft “call area” where wind farms might be sited. He showed that area side-by-side with a NOAA Fisheries “heat map” showing fishing activity taken from the vessel monitoring system tracking commercial groundfish vessels in the Northeast fishery. He said areas shown on the VMS heat map overlap with where wind farms might go.

Read the full article at Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New legislation aims to bolster the blue economy. Here’s how it will impact New Bedford.

February 21, 2023 — Coastal lawmakers presented several pieces of legislation Thursday that would advance Massachusetts’ marine industries while also focusing on wildlife conservation and habitat protection.

The state’s blue economy entails a wide spectrum of jobs from fishermen to tech workers. It’s currently valued at $8.2 billion, according to lawmakers, and between 2009 and 2019, Massachusetts’ blue economy grew by 38%.

The legislation was introduced with the support of the New England Aquarium in Boston, indicating a slightly new and involved role in state policy for the 54-year-old institution.

“Right now, the commonwealth is at a pivotal moment where the blue economy is projected to grow even further,” said Vikki Spruill, president and CEO of the Aquarium, at a press conference to unveil the legislative package. “But the growing industrialization of the ocean combined with the warming waters in the Gulf of Maine is threatening, and in some cases causing significant changes, to our coastal ecosystems.”

Read the full article at South Coast Today

‘This is the war’: New Bedford at center of conflict between fishing, wind industries

February 16, 2023 — New Bedford is the top commercial fishing port in the country, but it’s also emerging as an epicenter of conflict between the fishing industry and the growing wind industry.

“This is the war, and we’re going to lose,” said Cassie Canastra, director of operations at Base Seafood, an electronic seafood auctioning company that her father and uncle founded in 1994.

While Canastra is accustomed to dealing with federal regulations on fishing, which she described as frustrating and unpredictable, she said navigating the wind industry feels different.

Read the full article at WPRI

Lobster fishers sued federal government over closure to help whales

February 13, 2023 — A group of Massachusetts lobster fishers has sued the federal government over an emergency closure of fishing grounds that are designed to protect a vanishing species of whale.

The closure, enacted Feb. 1, blocked off about 200 square miles (518 square kilometers) of Massachusetts Bay from lobster fishing until the end of April. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the closure was necessary to protect North Atlantic right whales from dangerous entanglement in fishing ropes.

Read the full article News Center Maine

Northeast ropeless gear experiments start off Massachusetts, Rhode Island

February 10, 2023 — In the coming weeks, up to 30 New England commercial trap and pot fishing vessels will be involved in testing experimental on-demand gear systems – so-called ropeless gear that the National Marine Fisheries Service hopes could be one long-term solution to reduce the danger of whale entanglement in vertical trap lines.

The cooperative program with NMFS and its Northeast Fisheries Science Center began on Feb. 1 and continues through April 30, in areas closed to vertical lines and buoys to reduce entanglement risk.

The federally permitted trap vessels will fish up to 10 trawls each, using different designs of on-demand gear, activated by acoustic signals for retrieval, in federal waters of the South Island Restricted Area and the Massachusetts Restricted Area while those areas are otherwise closed to lobster and Jonah crab gear that use vertical lines.

“During this time, on-demand trap/pot gear set on the bottom will not be marked at the water’s surface because on-demand gear does not have surface buoys,” according to a fisheries science center summary of the experiment plan.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA Testing Ropeless Lobster Fishing Gear

February 10, 2023 — Ropeless lobster fishing gear is being tested by federal officials off the coast of Massachusetts.

NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center has partnered with dozens of commercial lobster fishing boats permitted by the government to assess the ropeless gear, which is also referred to as on-demand gear

The testing will take place in federal zones that are typically not open to fishing with vertical lines. Inspections are also being conducted off of Rhode Island.

Read the full article at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest acquires new 90-foot groundfish dragger

February 9, 2023 — Blue Harvest Fisheries in New Bedford, Mass., recently completed its purchase of the newly-christened Nobska, a 90’x30’ trawler built in 2019.

Designed by Farrell & Norton Naval Architects and built in 2019 at Fairhaven Shipyard, Mass., the dragger was originally known as the Francis Dawn and based in Maine.

It is one of the newest groundfish vessels operating in New England “and represents the first step in implementing the company’s plans for the future of its groundfish operations,” according to a statement from Blue Harvest Fisheries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Port Authority submits comments in support of offshore wind fisheries mitigation and compensation

February 8, 2023 — The following was released by the New Bedford Port Authority:

On February 7th, 2023, the New Bedford Port Authority (“NBPA”) released remarks aimed at providing in-depth commentary on the (9) State Framework for Establishing a Regional Fisheries Compensation Fund Administrator for Potential Impacts to the Fishing Community from Offshore Wind Energy. 

Nine Atlantic Coast states are working together to advance and ultimately implement a consistent regional approach for administration of financial compensation (Regional Fund Administrator) paid by developers to address adverse effects of offshore wind energy development on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard’s commercial and for-hire recreational fishing industries.

The NBPA underscored that there is no port in the United States that has more interest, or more at stake, than the Port of New Bedford relative to this Regional Fund Administrator. It also emphasized that to have a truly legitimate and sustainable fisheries compensation fund program, any proposed framework, and the corresponding administrative process to distribute the funds, must be codified in federal law through an act of Congress.

The NBPA comments focused on the fact that potential losses to the fishing industry should not be based on geographic proximity to offshore wind projects, but instead should be based on losses incurred at landing ports. Therefore, it is imperative that shoreside income loss determinations be analyzed on a port-by-port basis based upon the actual losses incurred.

The NBPA believes a regional or cumulative approach to mitigation and compensation is essential. Cumulative impacts of multiple offshore wind developments across our entire coastline will produce collective impacts to fishing industries and the communities supporting them. A common set of rules and procedures established by this process will not only minimize the burden of fishermen seeking compensation but will give offshore wind developers clear expectations for their planning and development purposes. 

“We appreciate this opportunity to assist policymakers in better understanding the unique interests of New Bedford as the nation’s leading commercial fishing port,” said New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell. “In our view, the two most important mitigation considerations for a Fund Administrator are ensuring access to mitigation funds for affected shoreside businesses in addition to vessels; and the importance of allocating funds commensurate with the value of the landings associated with respective ports. We look forward to a collaborative effort to establish a fair and equitable policy framework that addresses these concerns.”

As impacts from offshore wind will only grow in scope and intensity as more projects are built out, any framework must include ongoing scientific and economic analyses, technical aspects of fishery management and ecosystems, and socio-economic values, all with direct and substantial participation and collaboration with our fishermen.