Saving Seafood

Fishing regulators shoot down scallop leasing plan

September 28, 2022 — In a ballroom overlooking Gloucester Harbor, the council regulating New England’s fisheries rejected a controversial proposal on Tuesday to develop a leasing program in the region’s lucrative scallop fishery after failing to agree on the presented motions.

The New England Fishery Management Council deliberated on three motions for more than two hours, with all three failing. The final motion during the meeting failed with 15 votes against, one in favor and one abstention — with leasing supporters viewing it as too narrow.

The latest leasing push comes 12 years after a proposal to allow it was defeated in a close 9-to-7 council vote, with one member abstaining.

Current regulations in the limited access scallop fishery allow one permit per vessel, which entitles a vessel to a certain number of days at sea, as well as a given number of access area fishing trips. A leasing program would have enabled a permit-holder (and his or her vessel) to lease and fish additional days or trips from another permit.

The third motion, put forward by Michael Pentony, regional administrator for the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, proposed initiating an amendment to develop a days at sea leasing and access area trip transfer program with some specific features.

During discussion of this motion, Jeffrey Pike of the Scallopers Campaign (the group behind the latest leasing effort) communicated a late shift in stance. He told the council the campaign wanted to “take the word ‘leasing’ out of the lexicon” and promote only internal transfers of allocations — noted in the motion as transfers within a company — stating he took the advice of the New Bedford Port Authority.

He said it was a hard decision as it would not help single-vessel owners who would not have another vessel to internally transfer allocations to.

Pike said internal transfers would mean no lease fees or broker fees. Leasing critics — many of them crew members — said they believed crew would bear the brunt of a leasing program, just as crew in the groundfish fishery, for example, pay a leasing charge.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

New England Fishery Management Council nixes proposed scallop license leasing program

September 28, 2022 — After months of efforts by proponents, the New England Fishery Management Council chose not to move forward with the development of a scallop license allocation leasing program for the limited access fishery at its September meeting.

Around 100 were in attendance Tuesday at the Beauport Hotel, mostly scallopers, many of whom were from New Bedford, including Justin Mello.

“I’m obviously happy,” Mello, who spoke against the leasing program before, said after the move died.

“The Council did its job,” said Tyler Miranda, another New Bedford scalloper. “I actually have faith in the process again.”

Leasing would have allowed owners of limited access scallop licenses to sell portions of their days at sea to other boat owners.

“This leasing would be great for me,” said Paul Weckesser, owner of six scallopers and multiple shoreside enterprises. “I’m pretty vertically integrated.”

Read the full article at South Coast Today

Regulators to vote on controversial scallop leasing plan Tuesday

September 26, 2022 — After months of heated debate between scallop fleet owners, captains andcrew, fisheries regulators are set to decide on a proposal to allow leasing in New England’s lucrative scallop fishery.

The New England Fishery Management Council will vote on the contentious issue in Gloucester on Tuesday. Days ahead of the vote, the council’s scallop advisory panel passed a motion recommending the council proceed with developing a leasing program in the limited access component. However, exemplifying how divisive the issue is, the scallop committee could not reach a consensus — failing to pass any recommendations to the council in two split votes.

Supporters say leasing of fishing allocations will improve efficiency, cut operational costs, minimize emissions amid climate change, ameliorate port congestion and increase flexibility in the event a vessel fails. Opponents say it’s a means of furthering consolidation, with crew and independent shoreside businesses likely to bear the cost.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTES: Rising seas threaten Mass. South Coast and prosperous fishing port, report finds. Here are 5 takeaways

September 20, 2022 — A new report from an environmental nonprofit finds that Massachusetts’ southern coast will see increased flooding and erosion, as well as more destructive bombardment from storms. The report, from the Trustees of Reservations, says that sea levels along the South Coast are projected to rise over two feet by 2050.

The Trustees is the largest private owner of coastal land in in Massachusetts, overseeing 120 miles of coastline. In 2020, after seeing increased flooding and erosion on their properties, the group began to produce annual reports on the current and expected effects of climate change on the Massachusetts coast.

Their first report looked at the North Shore; the 2021 report covered Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Gosnold; this year’s focuses on the 14 South Coast towns that border Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay.

Like previous reports, the latest predicts big climate change impacts on these towns over the next few decades. Here are five takeaways:

New Bedford has a hurricane barrier that works really well.  But that ain’t gonna last.

After being battered by hurricanes in 1938, 1944 and 1954, engineers built a harbor barrier to protect the Port of New Bedford, the most prosperous seafood port in the country. The barrier keeps water in the harbor at a level that protects infrastructure from flooding; when a storm threatens high water, the Army Corps of Engineers closes the gates. In 2019, they closed the barrier 26 times.  With projected 2050 sea level rise, they’ll have to close the barrier at every high tide — that means 1-2 times a day.

“That’s clearly not doable for a working port, it’s not sustainable,” said Cynthia Dittbrenner, director of Coast and Natural Resources at the Trustees of Reservations.

The New Bedford Port Authority and the Town of Fairhaven are looking at ways to make critical infrastructure in the harbor more resilient to flooding, either by raising, moving or replacing it.

Read the full article at WBUR

MASSACHUSSETS: Cape Seafoods nets nearly $500K to grow and diversify

September 16, 2022 — The predominately family-owned and -operated Cape Seafoods Inc., a major presence on Gloucester’s working waterfront, has received nearly $500,000 in loans from MassDevelopment as its business hires and diversifies.

The company has received a $395,542 loan from the CARES Act Revolving Loan Fund and an $86,458 equipment loan from MassDevelopment, the agency said in a prepared statement.

Cape Seafoods’ sprawling Atlantic mackerel and herring processing plant, cold storage facility and wholesale bait shop dominate much of the Everett R. Jodrey State Fish Pier where Western Sea Fishing’s midwater trawlers FV Endeavour and FV Challenger are tied up. Western Sea Fishing is Cape Seafoods’ fishing partner.

With the funding, MassDevelopment said Cape Seafoods plans to create an additional eight full-time jobs and 10 part-time jobs over the next three years. The company will use the funding to build and equip a new seafood processing room enabling it to process groundfish such as flounder, hake, halibut, and cod.

Read the full article CNHI

New Bedford officials say BOEM must demand mitigation, monitoring from wind developers

September 9, 2022 — The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management must make a stand on requiring offshore wind developers to commit to mitigation and monitoring to safeguard the $5.5 billion U.S. commercial fishing industry, the New Bedford Port Authority says in a detailed, insistent new commentary to the agency.

“BOEM has the clear statutory authority to require certain actions and hold developers to standards as part of” granting permits for offshore wind projects, the Port Authority says in its nine-page Aug. 22 missive to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton, signed by port authority interim executive director George Krikorian Jr.

“Any ability left to the wind developers to choose their own procedures will always result in them taking the least expensive path most favorable to them, not commercial fishing.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

 

Fishing Industry Calls for Additional Review of Offshore Wind Industry

September 7, 2022 — One of the U.S.’s leading commercial fishing ports has joined a growing list of stakeholders demanding greater protection of the fishing industry from possible threats emanating from the rapidly expanding offshore wind industry. The New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA) in a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is calling for the federal government to increase protections for the commercial fishing industry. They are cautioning that current policies for offshore wind development could greatly underestimate the shoreside impacts on seafood processors and fleet operations in ports.

In a letter to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton, NBPA says that the ongoing plans to advance offshore wind must safeguard the viability of commercial fishing enterprises. The letter addresses BOEM’s draft guidelines for Offshore Wind Fisheries Mitigation and supplements comments the NBPA submitted in January advocating for efforts requiring offshore wind developers to commit to mitigation measures for the fishing industry.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

MASSACHUSETTS: Gordon Carr named New Bedford Port Authority executive director

August 29, 2022 — Gordon Carr will be the next executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority, coming on as the Massachusetts South Shore port undertakes extensive modernization to expand its fishing, processing, offshore wind energy and other maritime industries.

Currently deputy director of real estate strategy and policy at the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) in Boston, Carr has more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors in the areas of public policy, economic development, and enterprise strategy.

His career has already included New Bedford projects.

“As an independent consultant in 2014-15, Carr conducted a comprehensive assessment of both the New Bedford Economic Development Council and the city’s Harbor Development Commission, which has guided the strategy of both organizations in the years since,” according to a statement from Mayor Jon Mitchell’s office.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Gordon Carr selected as the New Bedford Port Authority’s new executive director

August 26, 2022 — Gordon Carr, current deputy director of Real Estate Strategy and Policy at the Massachusetts Port Authority, has been selected as the next executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority.

Carr has more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors in the areas of public policy, economic development, and enterprise strategy, including on projects related to the city, according to a press release. As an independent consultant in 2014-15, Carr conducted a comprehensive assessment of both the New Bedford Economic Development Council and the City’s Harbor Development Commission, which has guided the strategy of both organizations in the years since.

At Massport, Carr has worked in a variety of capacities and leadership roles, each of which closely involved and supported the diverse operations of the Port of Boston. Importantly, he served as the primary lead on a range of topics advocating for the working port, maritime industrial/seafood interests, and freight networks, including leading an in-depth study and analysis of the future of the seafood cluster in Boston.

Read the full article at South Coast Today