Saving Seafood

Solar co sues feds over offshore Vineyard Wind farm approval

July 20, 2021 — A solar energy company has sued the Department of the Interior over its approval of the nation’s first major offshore wind farm, alleging that the project off the coast of Massachusetts threatens the area’s fishing industry and imperiled marine life.

In a complaint filed Sunday in Boston federal court, Allco Renewable Energy Ltd accuses the DOI of overlooking risks that the Vineyard Wind project could pollute nearby waters and jeopardize endangered species should the turbines fail to withstand strong hurricanes.

Allco develops and invests in solar projects, making it a competitor to the planned wind farm in the renewable electricity market.

DOI spokesperson Giovanni Rocco declined to comment.

Read the full story at Reuters

Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes Now Available

July 20, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On June 17, 2021, NOAA Fisheries along with partners, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, released the Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes.

Prior to pervasive dam construction in the late 18th and early 19th century, diadromous fish were abundant in the Merrimack River watershed including American shad, river herring (alewife and blueback herring), sturgeon (Atlantic and shortnose), American eel, striped bass, Atlantic salmon, and sea lamprey. The present day abundance of diadromous species remains a small percentage of historical levels. Restoration efforts during the past 40 years have improved the habitat and connectivity conditions resulting in a modest increase in diadromous fish abundance.

The purpose of the Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes is to create a framework to balance diadromous fish restoration efforts with other water resource uses and ecosystem services in the Merrimack River watershed.

To read the complete plan visit the website and search for Merrimack River Watershed Comprehensive Plan for Diadromous Fishes.

Questions?

Ben German, NOAA Fisheries, 978-281-9353

Ben Gahagan, MA Division of Marine Fisheries, 978-282-03038 ext 140

Marion Larson, MA Division of Fish and Game, 857-303-0239

Matt Carpenter, NH Fish and Game Department, 603-271-2612

Laurie Munroe, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 413-588-1005

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘Pathway for the future’: Sea Lab exposes students to real-life marine science applications

July 19, 2021 — Kids are getting down and dirty with hands-on activities through Sea Lab’s summer program.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from Woods Hole Laboratory arrived at the school in the South End with a truck load of fish for advanced levels to dissect. Ranging from flounder to mackerel to butterfish, students learned to look at both the external and internal characteristics to determine its diet based on stomach contents.

“Based on how big the mouth is, and how sharp the teeth is, the bigger the diet,” said Mia Colangelo, a rising ninth-grader.

Simone Bourgeois, Sea Lab facilitator, was thrilled to include NOAA in the curriculum.

“To offer Sea Lab opportunities to measure, weight and analyze contents, it’s a pathway for the future, to have our students participate in the analysis of fish on Buzzards Bay,” Bourgeois said.

Two biological science technicians, Christine Kircun and Josh Dayton, were helping students identify difference between fish. Kircun said NOAA is a large part of the fishing industry, and New Bedford a large fishing port.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Scallop harvest to decline again this year, but still strong

July 15, 2021 — Fishermen are harvesting fewer scallops off the East Coast as the population of the valuable shellfish appears to be on the decline.

Sea scallops are one of the most profitable resources in the Atlantic, and the U.S. fishery was worth more than $570 million at the docks in 2019. Fishermen harvested more than 60 million pounds that year.

But fishermen harvested about 43.5 million pounds in 2020 after a projection that they would collect more than 51 million pounds, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. They’re expected to harvest about 40 million pounds this year, NOAA said.

NOAA officials cautioned that the scallop population is not in peril, and 40 million pounds is still a lot of scallops. That is a higher number than any year from 2013 to 2015.

The decline in scallops stems from slowing growth in key fishing areas such as Georges Bank and the mid-Atlantic, and some disappointing production in the Nantucket Lightship Area off Massachusetts, said Teri Frady, a NOAA spokesperson. She said the fishery is still well within overfishing limits.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Seattle Times

Scientists seeing an increase in shark sightings off the New England coast

July 13, 2021 — While you’re enjoying the beach, something unexpected could be lurking close by.

“Just on the other side of here, I’ve encountered multiple sharks. [You have?] Yep, you know, eight to ten feet of water. [Like while you’re just out working?] Yep, the last one I encountered was in under eight feet of water off the beach just on the other side,” Capt. Kelly Zimmerman of the Got Stryper Fishing Charter tells us.

Kelly has been a captain for the Got Stryper Fishing Charter out of Chatham, Massachusetts on Cape Cod for six years now.

Early on, people who went fishing with Captain Kelly would catch big striped bass. Not so much now.

“The seal population has increased and the more seals that I see, the less of those big bass are sticking around,” Zimmerman explained.

He’s right. The seal population has increased noticeably, thanks in part to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

More seals comes more sharks, most notably great white sharks that average about fifteen feet in length.

Read the full story at WFSB

MASSACHUSETTS: Count finds more elvers visiting Rockport

July 12, 2021 — The numbers, brought to you by Eric Hutchins and his volunteers from their annual census of eel movement along the Mill Brook, have been down for several years.

Not in 2021. This summer, the mighty Mill Brook has exploded into the eel-formational super highway.

The year began promisingly, with 350 eels counted from April 1 to the second week of June. But no sooner had the first wave abated than another began and the Mill Brook was en fuego.

Hutchins, a NOAA Fisheries biologist and Gulf of Maine restoration coordinator, said the streak included several hundred-eel days. As of June 29, the total count was 985 — including a jump of 402 eels in a single week.

Eel-lectrifying!

Now the really important stuff: The Eel Raffle fundraiser, where ticket buyers tried to get closest to the pin on the final number of eels counted between April 1 and Columbus Day.

“Of the original 58 raffle tickets sold, only 14 are left viable with total count guesses over 1,000,” Hutchins wrote in a June 29 email. “The next closet ‘guess’ is 1,033. But that might fall later today. Things are fast and furious this year at the eel trap.”

Where they always respect their elvers

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Haddock chowder a winner for small boat fishermen — and the hungry

July 7, 2021 — When the pandemic hit last winter, restaurants and fish markets were among the first businesses to shut down.

The combination hit the region’s fishing fleet really hard, said Seth Rolbein, director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. May starts the new fishing year and summer is by far the industry’s busiest season.

“It took the legs out from under the fleet,” said Rolbein.

Additionally, fish processors in ports like New Bedford and Gloucester had the same issues as meat packing plants in the Midwest, Rolbein said. With employees working in close proximity, the fish processing plants weren’t built to contain the spread of the virus, said Rolbein, and they shut down too.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Meet the women of New Bedford’s Waterfront: Scientists analyze data to support fisheries

July 7, 2021 — Scientist Kevin Stokesbury pulled up a digital presentation in his New Bedford office at the School for Marine Science and Technology. Across from him sat fisheries consultant Cate O’Keefe with a notepad and pen in hand.

For about an hour, O’Keefe asked Stokesbury (her former doctoral advisor) a series of questions about scallop surveys, the potential impacts of offshore wind development on data collection, and the ways in which survey collaboration could improve.

She will meet with other researchers in the region in the coming weeks for a project with the New England Fishery Management Council — the organization that regulates fisheries in federal waters from Maine to Connecticut. The working group O’Keefe is involved with expects to issue a set of recommendations to improve scallop surveys by next summer, which will ultimately inform the future management of New Bedford’s most lucrative fishery

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: 40 rescued when charter fishing vessel catches fire in Gloucester Harbor

July 7, 2021 — Forty people had to be rescued from a charter fishing boat that caught fire in Gloucester Harbor on Wednesday morning, but there were no reported injuries, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard as well as local harbormasters responded to the fire aboard the Yankee Patriot II, the Coast Guard posted on its official Twitter feed.

The vessel returned to its home berth under its own power using its port engine due to a fire in the starboard engine, the Coast Guard said.

No other information, including the cause of the fire, was immediately available.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

New slow zone to protect right whales off Martha’s Vineyard

July 7, 2021 — The federal government is implementing a new “slow zone” for boaters south of Martha’s Vineyard to try to protect rare whales.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday that the new slow zone will be in effect until July 18. It’s designed to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 360.

The agency is asking mariners to route around the area altogether or travel through it at 10 knots (11.5 mph) or less. The zone went into effect on July 2.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times