Saving Seafood

Nantucket Group Sues To Stop Massive Wind Farm, Claiming Threat To Endangered Right Whales

August 27, 2021 — A federal lawsuit is aiming to stop the construction of thousands of wind turbines off the Massachusetts coast.

The “ACK Residents Against Turbines” who filed the lawsuit said the proposed Vineyard Wind project poses a threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale.

“The whales belong to all of us and with fewer than 400, of which there are fewer than 100 breeding females left, each one is worth protecting. The people of Nantucket have a long history with these whales and we have done so much recently to protect this species,” said group co-founder Mary Chalke in a statement. “It would be a tragedy to see all of them lost in order to build an industrial offshore development.”

The project is set to be the first utility-scale wind power development in federal waters.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which are named in the suit, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Vineyard Wind, a joint project of a Danish company and a U.S. subsidiary of the Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola, also declined to comment.

But the American Clean Power Association, a group that represents renewable energy companies, stressed the project has undergone a lengthy environmental review, permitting and public comment process.

Read the full story at CBS Boston

MASSACHUSETTS: Commercial black sea bass season expanded

August 27, 2021 — The state has approved an in-season adjustment to the commercial black sea bass fishery that will provide more open fishing days and higher catch limits.

The in-season adjustments, approved by the state Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission based on recommendations by the state Division of Marine Fisheries, represent the first adjustments in commercial fishing limits for the directed hook and line and pot fishery for black sea bass since 2017.

Since 2017, Massachusetts’s share of the annual commercial black sea bass quota, allocated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, has increased 32%.

Effective Aug. 30, according to DMF, Mondays and Wednesdays will be added as open commercial fishing days for the directed commercial black sea bass pot and hook and line fisheries.

The additional days will allow anglers to fish for black sea bass Sunday through Thursday.

On Oct. 1, the schedule will be expanded even more when Fridays and Saturdays are added to allow commercial harvesters to fish for black sea bass seven days per week.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Fishery agencies seeking stakeholder input on climate change impacts and concerns

August 26, 2021 — In 2020, a Cape Cod Canal fisherman wrote a letter about the need for federal laws to address shifting fish stocks and maintain sustainable levels amid climate change.

In 2019, a researcher concluded that climate variation and warming waters in the Gulf of Maine contributed to a decline in New England fishing jobs from 1996 to 2017.

In 2021, a Massachusetts fisheries analyst and consultant said researchers are seeing changes they haven’t seen before and are trying to determine the exact causation as it relates to climate change. Over the years, the analyst said they have seen a change in the distribution, productivity, spawning and mortality of fish species.

Such concerns are about to be closely considered under a new federal initiative that will draw representatives of every coastal state from Maine to Florida to strategically plan for future fisheries management amid climate change. The East Coast Climate Change Scenario Planning Initiative is a multiyear effort that will culminate in the creation of a few likely scenarios that will inform future decision-making by regional fishery councils.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Is it Cape Wind all over again?

August 26, 2021 — Two Nantucket Residents,  backed by a network of think tanks and beachfront property owners along the East Coast, set in motion what appears to be a Cape Wind strategy for derailing the nation’s first industrial-size offshore wind farm and others that are lining up behind it.

Vallorie Oliver, a home designer on Nantucket, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block construction of Vineyard Wind until federal regulatory agencies can assure the safety of North Atlantic Right Whales and other endangered species. She and Mary Chalke, a physical therapist and the co-director of Nantucket Residents Against Turbines, said their priority is protecting the right whale, but also indicated they oppose the industrialization of the ocean off of Nantucket with turbines close to 900-feet tall.

“Can you think of a worse place to put the first-in-the-nation, largest-in-the-world wind power plant?” Chalke asked. “We are playing Russian roulette with our environment.”

David Stevenson, policy director at the Delaware-based Caesar Rodney Institute, a “nonprofit committed to protecting individual liberty,” joined Oliver and Chalke at the press conference in front of the State House. He said he is helping to coordinate a fundraising operation for the Vineyard Wind lawsuit and other wind farms that may follow elsewhere along the coast, reaching out to individuals and groups up and down the coast who are opposed to offshore wind for a variety of reasons. He said $70,000 has been raised so far and the immediate goal is $500,000. He said the names of donors will not be disclosed.

Read the full story at the Commonwealth Magazine

Slow Zone Extended South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

August 26, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces an extension to a voluntary right whale Slow Zone South of Nantucket. On August 25, 2021, the New England Aquarium aerial survey team sighted the presence of right whales south of Nantucket, MA. The Slow Zone is extended immediately through September 9, 2021. Reminder there is another Slow Zone in effect Southeast of Nantucket through August 31. Please visit www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/shipstrike for coordinates of all current Slow Zones.

Extension of VOLUNTARY Right whale “SLOW Zone”  

Mariners are requested to continue to avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside the following areas where persistent aggregations of right whales have been detected.

Slow Zone Coordinates

South of Nantucket Island, MA (EXTENSION)

41 24 N

40 40 N

069 32 W

070 30 W

Southeast of Nantucket Island, MA

41 05 N

40 26 N

069 11 W

070 04 W

Read the full release here

Concern about endangered whales cited in suit over wind farm

August 25, 2021 — The construction of dozens of wind turbines off the coast of Nantucket threatens the survival of a dwindling number of endangered Northern Atlantic right whales that inhabit the waters, a group of residents on the affluent resort island in Massachusetts argue in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

ACK Residents Against Turbines said Vineyard Wind’s proposed project of some 60 turbines 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of the island is located in a crucial area for foraging and nursing for the species, which researchers estimate number less than 400.

Mary Chalke, a Nantucket resident and member of the opposition group, said the lawsuit isn’t just about Vineyard Wind, but other turbine projects also in the pipeline up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Bob Vanasse, who heads the fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood, said Vineyard Wind and other projects proposed in the region could impact a range of significant fisheries, including squid, clams and scallops.

“There are a number of groups in various fisheries who have raised concerns about the insufficiency of the planning and review effort,” he said Wednesday. “This group is far from alone in that.”

Vineyard Wind also comes years after the infamous Cape Wind project, which failed after bitter litigation from another group that included Nantucket property owners.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Legit Fish partners with Mission Driven Meat & Seafood, hires new staff

August 25, 2021 — Legit Fish is partnering with Mission Driven Meat & Seafood and Big Easy Foods as the company continues to expand the species covered by its full-chain traceability program.

Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based traceability company Legit Fish first launched its new traceability technology at Seafood Expo North America in 2019, and went on to work with ButcherBox to provide fully traceable sea scallops to e-commerce customers. In its latest partnership with Big Easy Foods and Mission Driven Meat and Seafood, the company is planning to offer fully traceable wild-caught Gulf of Mexico shrimp to e-commerce customers this summer.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: “Women’s Work,” a new exhibit opens September 9 at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center

August 25, 2021 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is pleased to announce the September 9 opening of its new exhibit, Women’s Work: At Sea, On Shore, At Home, In the Community. The exhibit will shine a light on the many roles women play in commercial fishing communities.

The public is invited to meet the featured photographers at an opening reception from 6:00-8:00 pm September 9; the exhibit will remain on view in the Center’s gallery through March 2022.

Through photographs and oral histories, the exhibit profiles more than sixty women from fishing communities in Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island, and amplifies the voices and experience of women who work in what is often perceived to be a male-dominated world. The exhibit features the photography of Shareen Davis, Markham Starr, and Phil Mello, and draws on oral history interviews conducted over the past 15 years.

Visitors will meet women who work on deck as fishermen and scientists, on shore as welders and electricians, women who own businesses and boats, and women who advocate on behalf of the fishing industry. In addition, the exhibit explores topics ranging from “What do You Call a Woman who Fishes?” to “Women in Myths and Marketing.”

Photographer bios
Shareen Davis is a commercial and fine art photographer, a former photo editor and commercial fisherman and advocate. Her photography conveys political and environmental messages addressing issues of coastal fishing community workers as well as capturing the history, environment, and beauty of Chatham’s coastline. She is a 13th generation Cape Codder and resides in Chatham. Davis and her husband Ernie Eldredge owned a weir fishing business now owned by their daughter.

Markham Starr is a documentary photographer working in New England. Author of more than a dozen books and numerous documentary films, his photographs have been featured in magazines such as LensWork, Yankee, Vermont Magazine, and Rhode Island Monthly, and can be found in numerous museums in New England. His major projects are in the permanent collection at the Library of Congress.

Phillip Mello has worked on the New Bedford waterfront in a variety of capacities for 40+ years and has been taking photographs of fellow waterfront workers since 1975. As an insider with direct knowledge of the fishing industry he has access to what is often a closed community. He was the photographer for the Fishing Heritage Center’s 2016 Archie Green project, Workers on the New Bedford Waterfront. His images for that project are presently on display at the American Folklife Center and archived at the Library of Congress.

The Center is also presenting a year-long series of films, talks, performances, and demonstrations in conjunction with the exhibit, which are designed to engage visitors in exploring the lives, skills, and experiences of women who work in the fishing industry as well as those who are connected through family. Learn more about these programs on the Center’s online calendar, fishingheritagecenter.org/programs/calendar.

Women’s Work: At Sea, On Shore, At Home, In the Community is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Women’s Fisheries Network, the Mass Cultural Council, and the Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, and Westport Cultural Councils.

Please contact programs@fishingheritagecenter.org with any questions.

MASSACHUSETTS: Investigation continues into fisherman who went overboard on New Bedford scalloper

August 24, 2021 — Blue Harvest Fisheries CEO Keith Decker told the Standard-Times last week that crew members met with Coast Guard officials when they returned to port on Tuesday. He said they were waiting for the investigation to determine what happened.

There were seven crew members on the vessel, including the captain and the man who went overboard. Decker said the man was a first-time crew member with Blue Harvest who had never fished with them before. However, he had heard the man was an experienced fisher.

The man was woken because he had the next watch, but never showed up, according to the Coast Guard. The agency said the man was not wearing a life jacket, which is only required under federal law for children under 13 years of age while the vessel is underway.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New Bedford Ocean Cluster incorporated as nonprofit

August 24, 2021 — The New Bedford Ocean Cluster (NBOC) has announced its official incorporation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

The NBOC aims to enhance the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.’s maritime industries while “advancing new programs, start-ups, and technology partnerships with a primary focus in four different industry areas,” NBOC said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source