Saving Seafood

New buoy line changes benefit whales

June 11, 2021 — Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission unanimously approved a proposed plan for new buoy line marking rules for lobster and crab fishermen. The buoy line markings proposal was first introduced to the commission in January, which took recommendations from a public hearing in May.

According to Bob Glenn, a member of the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), these markings are important for the protection of the North Atlantic right whales in Massachusetts waters. In 2020, DMF provided comments to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) saying Massachusetts should have its fisheries, specifically lobster and crab fisheries, listed separately, based on its “very conservative” management program to protect the whales. The list is usually published in September or October, which is why the buoy line markings proposal is being pushed for this year. However, the NMFS was not willing to provide a separate designation, because the gear Massachusetts fishermen use was not different enough from other states in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.

The Center for Coastal Studies spotted 89 right whales in March in the Cape Cod Bay area. The whales had migrated elsewhere by May 13, allowing fisheries to open a little earlier than usual. Daniel McKiernan, director of the DMF, said these whales are routinely photographed via aerial surveys within a range from Plymouth to Provincetown. McKiernan said in the past 12 years, there have been only two nonlethal, off-season entanglement cases in Massachusetts. According to a risk reduction model DMF received from NMFS called a decision support tool, the estimates say DMF’s efforts since 2015 have helped reduce marine life mortality by 85 to 95 percent.

Read the full story at MV Times

Fisheries Survival Fund: Change Wind Energy Areas to Protect Scallops

June 11, 2021 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), representing the vast majority of the limited access Atlantic scallop fishery, is calling for the federal government to change its proposed lease sale boundaries for wind farms off the coast of New York to better protect the region’s fisheries from harmful development. These changes are necessary because the government’s current proposed lease sales, announced today, fail to incorporate any of the recommendations made by FSF or the city of New Bedford, the nation’s most valuable fishing port.

The sea scallop fishery is one of the most valuable in the country: in 2019, commercial landings totaled more than 60.6 million pounds, valued at approximately $570 million. In the New York Call Areas alone, there were $268 million worth of scallops landed over a five year period, from 2012-2016. Atlantic sea scallops are, in fact, the nation’s most valuable federally managed fishery.

FSF is requesting that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is responsible for leasing areas for offshore development, incrementally change its lease plans for the New York Bight. Currently, two BOEM Wind Energy Areas (WEAs), Hudson South and Central Bight, are located in particularly sensitive areas for scallops. In their current form, these areas, including hundreds of thousands of acres of ocean, will have a serious negative impact on the fishery.

BOEM’s proposed eastern-most lease areas in Hudson South are directly adjacent to the Hudson Canyon Scallop Access Area (“Hudson Canyon SAA”). The Hudson Canyon SAA is one of the most important scallop grounds in the Northeast. From 2001-2018, over 60 million pounds of scallops, valued at well over $600 million, were harvested directly from the area. Further, a recently published paper principally authored by the lead federal scallop scientist concluded that successful management of the Hudson Canyon SAA resulted in a sevenfold increase in scallops in the nearby Elephant Trunk Scallop Access Area, and benefited scallops in the Delmarva Scallop Access Area.

Altogether, the Hudson Canyon SAA has been worth well over a billion dollars directly to the scallop fishery in the past two decades, not to mention the multiplied indirect community economic benefits of these fishery landings. The Hudson Canyon SAA’s ecological and economic benefits explain why FSF has requested that BOEM operate under the well-recognized “precautionary principle” to create a buffer between wind farms in the Hudson South and this critical scallop area.

The Central Bight is in the middle of prime, historic scallop habitat, and represents tens of millions of dollars of scallop catches over the past decade. Leasing of the Central Bight should be delayed, just as BOEM delayed, for view-shed reasons, leasing of the two Fairways lease areas in the northern New York Bight.

Read the full release here

Whale rescuers free humpback from fishing gear entanglement

June 11, 20221 — A three-day effort to free a humpback whale from entanglement in fishing gear ended in success this week, marine mammal experts said Thursday.

The whale, identified as a mature female named Valley, was first spotted Monday by a whale watch boat on Stellwagen Bank northeast of Provincetown, according to a statement from the Center for Coastal Studies.

The center’s entanglement response team found that the whale had a heavy line lodged in its mouth, but because sea conditions were poor, it could not be freed.

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

U.S. explores wind energy potential in Gulf of Mexico

June 9, 2021 — The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will explore the potential of offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico, part of its goal to supercharge growth in clean energy over the next decade.

“This is an important first step to see what role the Gulf may play in this exciting frontier,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

While the Gulf of Mexico is a major hub for offshore oil and gas production, it has had little renewable energy development. President Joe Biden has made the expansion of clean energy, especially offshore wind, a cornerstone of his fight against climate change.

Biden faces criticism in Gulf Coast states after putting a pause on federal drilling auctions. States including Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama sued in March to restore the sales, which are on hold pending a government review.

The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will publish a Request for Interest (RFI) on June 11 to see if there is any interest in offshore wind development in the Outer Continental Shelf.

Read the full story at Reuters

Gentrification pressures Northeast fishing communities

June 9, 2021 — Longtime small fishing ports in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts top the endangered list in a new NMFS social sciences study of how gentrification pressure is bearing down on those communities.

Barnegat Light, N.J., Montauk, N.Y., and Chatham, Mass., have history as home ports dating back to the 1700s, but transformed into high-priced resort towns in the 20th century. Inflating real estate values, tax burdens, development pressure, population growth are converging at a time when fishermen are facing regulatory and environmental challenges in their profession, the report shows.

Authors Matthew Cutler, a social scientist with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and Rose Jimenez, at the NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technology, applied a scoring matrix to assess social and economic changes in 29 Northeast ports from Virginia to Maine where commercial fishing is an important social and economic part of the community.

“We selected all the fishing communities in the Northeast region with ‘high’ fishing engagement scores in 2009–2018, which resulted in these 29 communities,” the authors explain in the report, published online in story map format.

“Then, for each year in each community, we added up the scores (ranging from 1 to 4) for the three gentrification pressure indices: retiree migration, urban sprawl, and housing disruption.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Count of elvers visiting Rockport high

June 9, 2021 — Consider the full life of the American eel and what it takes for the wee critters to find their way from their birthing grounds in the Sargasso Sea to the town’s historic Mill Brook.

Once born, eel eggs float to the surface of the salt water spawning grounds northeast of the Bahamas and southwest of Bermuda. They hatch into transparent larvae. If they had thumbs, this is when they would stick them out. No appendages mean no thumbs. Still, they manage to hitch a ride.

Largely left to the whims of wind and currents, the larvae begin a year-long journey to fresh water portals. Some land as far south as the north coast of South America. Others travel as far north as Greenland.

And some hit the sweet spot, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Mill Brook and from there up into Rockport’s Mill Pond and Loop Pond, and perhaps as far away as Briar Swamp in Dogtown. In all, they swim more than 1,000 miles.

Waiting for them is Eric Hutchins and his merry band of volunteers, nature’s own census takers for the eels that have by now matured from larvae into translucent elver stretching roughly 2 to 4 inches.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Here’s what local activists, experts say you can do to protect the ocean on World Oceans Day

June 8, 2021 — The ocean covers about 70% of the planet, produces at least 50% of oxygen and absorbs about 30% of human-produced carbon dioxide, according to the United Nations. It feeds the world and is expected to employ 40 million people in ocean-based industries by 2030.

For Greater New Bedford, the Atlantic Ocean and its coastal waters are the places where boaters recreate and local fishermen catch millions of pounds of fish, promising food and paychecks for countless people. The National Marine Fisheries Service last month announced New Bedford, for the 20th consecutive year, was the nation’s top-earning port.

While the ocean continues to support many industries and communities, it is also under significant threats due to climate change and other human activities.

The ocean covers about 70% of the planet, produces at least 50% of oxygen and absorbs about 30% of human-produced carbon dioxide, according to the United Nations. It feeds the world and is expected to employ 40 million people in ocean-based industries by 2030.

For Greater New Bedford, the Atlantic Ocean and its coastal waters are the places where boaters recreate and local fishermen catch millions of pounds of fish, promising food and paychecks for countless people. The National Marine Fisheries Service last month announced New Bedford, for the 20th consecutive year, was the nation’s top-earning port.

While the ocean continues to support many industries and communities, it is also under significant threats due to climate change and other human activities.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Lobster lovers feeling the pinch of high prices

June 8, 2021 — Summer weather has arrived, and New England tourists are hungry for a lobster roll or a whole cooked lobster – but they’re going to have to pay up.

Lobster is more expensive than usual this season due to a limited supply, high demand and the reopening of the economy as the nation moves past the coronavirus pandemic. Consumers are headed back to seafood restaurants and markets for the first time in months, and the lobsters there to greet them are at a premium.

Some Maine stores charged $17 or $18 per pound for live lobster in May, and that was about twice the price a year ago. Prices are lingering in the $13 or $14 range this month. Lobster is usually expensive in late spring, but this season has seen prices that are higher than typical.

The wholesale price for live, 1.25-pound lobsters in the New England market was $9.01 per pound on May 1, business publisher Urner Barry reported. That was about $2.70 per pound more than the previous May 1, and the highest price for that date in at least five years, the company reported.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Baker, guvs urge Biden to keep offshore wind a priority

June 7, 2021 — Gov. Charlie Baker and governors from eight other states poised to benefit environmentally and economically from the emerging offshore wind sector sent President Joe Biden a letter on Friday outlining their thoughts and recommendations for keeping the momentum going in the fledgling field.

Biden’s administration has moved quickly to advance offshore wind projects, namely the Vineyard Wind I project that last month got the federal go-ahead it had been waiting about two years to receive, and Baker’s administration has cheered the president’s swift action.

Vineyard Wind, which is expected to deliver 800 megawatts of wind-generated power to Massachusetts by 2023, is on track to be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the United States. Mayflower Wind, an 804-MW project, is also under contract to deliver power to Massachusetts. And an upcoming state solicitation seeks a project of up to 1,600 MW that can come online by the end of the decade.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Museum To Host Conversation On Woods Hole Fisheries’ 150th Anniversary

June 4, 2021 — “Celebrating 150 Years of Science at the Woods Hole Fisheries Lab” will be the topic of Woods Hole Historical Museum’s online Conversation on Wednesday, June 9, at 7 PM with Jon Hare, science and research director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, founded as the U. Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1871, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The Woods Hole Laboratory is the nation’s first marine research station, and is the founding laboratory of NOAA Fisheries, formally called the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Jon Hare has been the science and research director of the Woods Hole Fisheries since October 2016. He oversees science activities related to the Fisheries mission in the northeast region, including fisheries, aquaculture, protected species, habitat, and ecosystem science. He received a PhD in coastal oceanography from State University of New York Stony Brook. He was awarded a National Research Council Research Associateship in 1994 to work at NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory and was hired by the agency in 1997.

Read the full story at The Enterprise