Saving Seafood

US FDA recalls more shrimp after discovering radioactive contaminant

August 22, 2025 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a voluntary recall of frozen shrimp products due to possible contamination with Cesium-137 (Cs-137), a man-made radioisotope that can elevate cancer risks through longer term, repeated low dose exposure.

The announcement comes shortly after U.S. Customs and Border Control (CBP) detected Cs-137 in shipping containers at the Ports of Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami, with agents finding evidence of the radioisotope in a single shipment of frozen bread shrimp. The discovery led the FDA to issue an alert for frozen shrimp supplied by Indonesia-based PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati to Walmart and sold under the “Great Value” brand name.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: Work underway to expand New Bedford fishing wharf

August 22, 2025 — Work is progressing on a huge $44 million infrastructure project in New Bedford.

The Leonard’s Wharf right along the state pier will be expanding.

“It’s one of our most important infrastructure projects, that we kicked off earlier this year,” said Gordon Carr, the executive director of Port Authority. “We want to reconstruct and extend one of our largest fishing wharfs in the harbor.

Leonard’s Wharf has a long history in the city. In the 19th century it originally began as a whaling pier and then continued to expand into a large commercial fishing port.

Read the full article at NBC 10 NEWS

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts commercial fisherman finds success at bottom of sea with new frozen dish

August 19, 2025 — The quality of seafood in New England is well-renowned across the country and the globe.

Now, a Massachusetts fisherman with almost half a century at sea has decided to combine his knowledge of one tasty item from the sea floor and produce a unique dinner item that you can buy in the frozen food section of your store.

“I make seafood pies with clam meat. And I make these clam dinners. Three different dinners,” said Capt. Al Rencurrel, the owner of Nantucket Sound Seafood, based in Fall River, Massachusetts.

For more than 40 years, Rencurrel has been dragging for clams in the waters surrounding Cape Cod and the Islands. He would then take his catch and sell it to seafood distributors. Three years ago, he decided to chart a new course for his clams and company when he started the frozen seafood dinner company.

Read the full article at WCVB

MASSACHSUETTS: Introducing the Scallopalooza festival in Massachusetts’ ‘scallop capital of the world’

August 18, 2025 — The following transcript is by WKU:

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

New Bedford, Massachusetts, calls itself the scallop capital of the world, and on Thursday, the city celebrated Scallopalooza. It’s an event close to the city’s working waterfront that celebrates the Atlantic sea scallop and the people who work on the boats. Caroline Losneck has this audio postcard.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: So while we’re setting up for our scallop shucking contest, which is…

CAROLINE LOSNECK: Like most festivals, Scallopalooza’s fun, but scallops are serious business here. They’re central to the city’s identity and culture. The highlight is a raucous shucking contest where over a dozen local scallopers face off in heats, all up on a stage, to see who can remove the meat from the shell the cleanest and fastest. And spectators in the front rows probably even get some scallop parts on them as a memento.

JOE RITTER: We certainly hope people are going to have a shucking good time at this event.

LOSNECK: Joe Ritter works at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and helped organize Scallopalooza.

RITTER: And the top fisherman from each round is going to go up in the finals, and they’re going to compete for the title of New Bedford’s best shucker. They’re going to get a trophy, and they’re going to get bragging rights, too.

LOSNECK: The impact of the species here is massive. About 80% of the seafood by value that arrives on the docks are from scallops.

RITTER: I would say scallops are to New Bedford like corn and soybeans are to Illinois or Indiana.

Lobstermen Seek Injunction to Fight a New Rule

August 14, 2025 — Since 1997, lobstermen along the Eastern seaboard have had to throw back lobsters with a “V-notch” — a triangular cut in the tail of an egg-bearing female that establishes it as uncatchable breed stock.

Until last month, the notch rules differed depending upon whether a fisherman had a federal permit or a state one. Federal permits allow lobstermen to fish farther offshore but have a tighter notch size restriction. Federal permit holders could harvest only lobsters with notches measuring 1/8-inch or less — the idea being that these lobsters had more time to grow, molt, and reproduce by the time they were taken. State permit holders could take lobsters with notches of up to ¼-inch.

As of July 1, an addendum to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) lobster management plan calls for the smaller notch size for all lobster permit holders.

The change is meant to expand protection of the spawning stock, according to the text of the addendum. The measure also seeks to “resolve discrepancies between the regulations for state and federal permit-holders,” the document says.

But the Outer Cape’s lobstermen who hold state permits say that the rollover to the federal permit holders’ rule should not apply to them. That’s the majority of lobstermen here: there are 64 commercial lobster permits issued to Outer Cape fishermen, and 41 are state-only permits, according to Julia Hopkins, a spokesperson for the Mass. Dept. of Fish & Game.

Outer Cape lobstermen say they worked out an exception years ago that promised them that V-notching would be optional for fishermen working in this area in exchange for their having a larger minimum size requirement. They say this was agreed with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission because it made for better conservation in local waters.

Read the full article at The Provincetown Independent

MASSACHUSETTS: Local fishermen vie for title of top scallop shucker. A look at contest’s legacy, past winners

August 13, 2025 — Fifteen local scallop fishermen will compete Thursday night, Aug. 14, for the title of New Bedford’s top shucker.

The 2025 Scallopalooza champ will receive a trophy, but being known as the fastest shucker of the resurgent contest this year will start a new tradition of winners to keep track of for posterity.

Only scallop fishermen are participating in the shucking contest — last held in 2017 — and a total of 900 scallops will be shucked when all is said and done.

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center Executive Director Laura Orleans said it’s the scalloper’s job while out at sea to process the scallops, but they will be on land for this contest in the New Bedford Seaport Historic District.

The shucking contest will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 14 in the Fishing Heritage Center parking lot at 38 Bethel St. during the August AHA! Night, which will take place from 5 to 8 p.m.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times

MASSACHSUETTS: Don’t miss scallop shucking, link squeezing competitions at Scallopalooza. What to know

August 12, 2025 — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is bringing back a favored tradition with its revival of a scallop shucking competition.

It will be hosting the inaugural Scallopalooza, a scallop celebration and shucking contest and free public event that will be held during the August AHA! Night from 5 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 14.

Over the years, the scallop shucking contest has been a landmark waterfront event in New Bedford and a showcase of New Bedford’s commercial scallop fishery from the Scallop Festival of the 1950s to the Working Waterfront Festival of the 2000s.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times

Endangered fin whale and calf sighting is a “rare occurrence,” New England Aquarium scientist says

August 7, 2025 — New England Aquarium researchers recently documented what they say was a rare sighting of an endangered fin whale and its calf.

Scientists on a July 24 aerial survey flew over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod. They observed more than 1,000 marine animals, including seven fin whales, one endangered sperm whale, one humpback whale, two minke whales and more than 900 dolphins.

“Seeing an endangered fin whale and its calf is a rare occurrence,” assistant research scientist Kate Laemmle said in a statement Wednesday.

Read the full article at CBS News

MASSACHUSETTS: Nantucket Officials Blast Vineyard Wind, Deliver List Of Demands

August 4, 2025 — Nantucket officials called Vineyard Wind on the carpet Tuesday, claiming the offshore wind developer had failed to live up to its agreements with the town, and telling the company to “lead or leave.”

In a press conference Tuesday morning held on Zoom, the Nantucket Select Board made 15 demands of Vineyard Wind, setting a two-week deadline for the offshore wind company to reply. If no reply is forthcoming, or if the Select Board deems Vineyard Wind’s responses inadequate, the town is leaving all of its options open -including legal action.

The statements by town officials marked the strongest rebuke yet of Vineyard Wind since the July 2024 blade failure that littered Nantucket’s beaches with fiberglass and foam debris, and prompted federal authorities to shut down the project for nearly six months.

“This is not the first time that Vineyard Wind has seen many of these demands, so we expect two weeks is plenty of time for them to confirm their agreement, or to explain publicly why they should not be held accountable in these basic ways,” said Select Board member Brooke Mohr, who was the board’s chair during the July 2024 blade failure.

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current