Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Dunkin’ gift cards available to all New Bedford vaccine recipients; waterfront site to close

May 27, 2021 — On May 30, the waterfront vaccination clinic at Hervey Tichon Avenue will distribute its last doses of COVID-19 vaccines for walk-up appointments.

According to a press release from the city, the site operated by CIC Health will close this weekend. Vaccines will be available this weekend including Saturday, May 29, and Sunday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some second-dose appointments are also scheduled for June 1.

The waterfront site was a mobile vaccination site in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide additional doses to hardest-hit communities.

CIC Health will now offer vaccinations at the Andrea McCoy Recreation Center at 181 Hillman St. on Mondays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting June 7. Mobile vaccine clinics are available at grocery stores, schools and community partners. A full schedule of supermarket and community-based walk-up vaccination clinics will be announced.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New fishing tech may pose risks to fisheries

May 25, 2021 — New developments in recreational fishing technology — from the use of aerial drones and social media scouting reports to advances in hook design — are creating challenges for fisheries management and effective policy making, according to a new study.

With the opening of the spring fishing season, millions of recreational fishing aficionados across North America are dusting off their tackleboxes, fitting together their rods, and heading to the bait and tackle shop to purchase the latest in fish-catching gear. But what impact does all that new technology have on the fish themselves?

“There are still so many unknowns,” says Andy Danylchuk, professor of fish conservation in the UMass Amherst department of environmental conservation, and co-author of a new paper that investigates the relationship between fishing technology and fish ecosystems. “There’s more attention paid to products we use with our pets than to what we use to try to catch fish in our streams, lakes and oceans.”

Fishing technology has come a long way since the days of hook and worm. Today one can buy battery-powered, artificial lures that wriggle like minnows and are slathered in fish-attracting scent. Underwater cameras and fish finders help anglers not only seek out their targets but also observe as fish either approach or reject the bait. Aerial drones scan for fish and even deliver lures to them. Social media helps pinpoint, in real time, what fish are biting where. Even the seemingly simple hook has been completely redesigned to better reel in the big one. And it’s not as if recreational fishing in streams, lakes, and in the ocean is a niche-activity — it is the second most popular leisure activity in North America, falling just behind gardening.

Read the full story from the University of Massachusetts Amherst at Science Daily

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford’s trash skimmer ‘Walley’ picked up about 500 pieces of this type of litter in one week

May 25, 2021 — Greg Pimentel and Shay Ribeiro bent over a folding table set on the dock at Pier 3. Covering it was a brown pile of organic matter speckled with the bright, artificial colors of plastic.

For more than one hour, they sorted with gloved hands through multiple piles  counting cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic fragments and other pieces of human waste. When they were done, they dumped everything into a barrel.

“If more people took care or properly disposed of trash, we would only have organic material here,” Pimentel, director of community outreach at the Community Boating Center, said.

The material they pulled came from the trash skimmer first installed in 2019. For 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the floating box gobbles up harbor water and all its detritus.

The skimmer is named Walley and much like the Pixar robot, Wall-E, that cleans Earth one piece of trash at a time, the water skimmer sucks up human waste to make the New Bedford Harbor a bit cleaner.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Vineyard Wind paying UMass scientists to survey ocean area it’s leasing

May 24, 2021 — The company that intends to build a $2.8 billion offshore wind project south of Martha’s Vineyard is paying the UMass Dartmouth and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association about $2 million a year to survey the sea floor before, during and after construction and see what impact the project has on the ocean.

Vineyard Wind has contracted with the School for Marine Science and Technology to send scientists out on local lobster and fishing vessels to measure, tag and count the lobsters and fish they catch before releasing them back into the ocean. The data they collect will establish a baseline of what sea life inhabits the 167,000 acres of ocean that the company is leasing, as well as an adjacent area for comparison.

“We have a strong interest in using local mariners with local knowledge as much as possible,” said Andrew Doba, a Vineyard Wind spokesman.

Read the full story at the Boston Herald

Massachusetts fishermen fear ‘dead zones’ as massive wind farms loom

May 24, 2021 — Vineyard Wind, the company given federal approval this month to build the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind project, could be the harbinger of a new age of wind energy in the U.S. — but some fear it also could irreparably harm Massachusetts fishing and lobstering industries where it will be built.

The 62 wind turbines will be located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and generate enough electricity to power approximately 400,000 homes by the time the project is completed in 2023, Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said. He also said it also will create about 3,600 jobs — half of them permanent, the other half construction jobs.

But what worries Ed Barrett of Marshfield is what it might do to his livelihood. A commercial fisherman and lobsterman for 43 years, Barrett fears the project and others like it that are still in the planning stage, such as Mayflower Wind 20 miles south of Nantucket, could change the seasonal migration of many fish or even create “dead zones.”

Read the full story at the Boston Herald

Fishermen Rescued in Gloucester After Being Swept off Rocks

May 24, 2021 — Two fishermen were rescued from the water in Gloucester after a wave swept them off the rocks, according to officials.

Several people were fishing at Rafe’s Chasm Saturday when two men were knocked off by a wave. Two other people with them dove in the water to help, and managed to bring one of the victims safely back to shore.

The second man, however, was pushed further into the ocean, prompting a response from authorities.

Read the full story at NBC Boston

MASSACHUSETTS: Pandemic, new NOAA rules sink tuna tourney

May 21, 2021 — The COVID-19 restrictions on personal protections and public gatherings are easing. They just didn’t ease in time to save this summer’s Bluefin Blowout tuna fishing tournament.

The organizers of the popular Gloucester-based tournament, which raised $366,000 in charitable donations in the last year the tournament was held in 2019, have canceled the 2021 tournament that was to run July 29 to 31 at the Cape Ann’s Marina Resort off Essex Avenue.

It would have been the ninth year the tournament was held. Now, it is the second consecutive year it has been canceled because of the pandemic and its impacts.

“As restrictions to the COVID pandemic loosen up, it is apparent that we have to make a decision based on current conditions facing the tournament,” Warren Waugh, the producer and driving force behind the Bluefin Blowout, said Wednesday in a statement. “Presently, we understand that NOAA regulations are very restrictive for a weekend tournament and there are changes proposed that would make the tournament very difficult to pull off.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

US landings flat in 2019, while seafood trade deficit continued to increase

May 21, 2021 — Commercial fishermen in the United States landed 9.3 billion pounds of seafood products worth a total of USD 5.5 billion (EUR 4.5 billion) in 2019. That’s according to one of two reports NOAA Fisheries released on Thursday, 20 May.

The reports, Fisheries of the United States 2019 and the agency’s Annual Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries, indicate that the country saw slight increases to the number of stocks that were either overfished or subject to overfishing. However, the production from U.S. commercial fishing businesses dipped slightly from 2018.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: Upcoming New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center Program Postponed

May 21, 2021 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

Due to circumstances beyond our control, our Virtual Dock-u-mentaries program that was scheduled for tonight, Friday, May 21st has been postponed. We apologize for this last minute change. Please stay tuned for an updated date for this program. Thank you for your understanding!

Please contact programs@fishingheritagecenter.org with any questions.

MASSACHUSETTS: Harbors hold challenges for fishermen

May 20, 2021 — Gloucester remains the state’s second-most valuable commercial fishing port by landings despite the decline of its groundfisheries and the challenges facing its aging waterfront and fleet.

A new analysis of the Massachusetts commercial fishery ranked Gloucester second among Bay State commercial ports with $53.2 million — or 8.2% — of the $647 million in state seafood landings in 2018.

For that year, America’s oldest commercial seaport trailed only the scallop-fueled ex vessel dominance of New Bedford ($431 million, or 66.6%), while more than doubling the value of landings from No. 3 Chatham ($19 million).

But the analysis also warns of storm clouds on the horizon for Gloucester and the state’s other commercial fishing ports, particularly related to shrinking access to harbors and deteriorating waterfront infrastructure.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times