Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Vaccine site for seafood workers to open next weekend in New Bedford

April 1, 2021 — Meat processing plants have experienced some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks of any workplace in the country. Officials feared the same would be true of the New Bedford’s fish houses.

Last spring, Mayor Jon Mitchell’s administration passed an emergency order that set strict safety protocols for seafood companies and other manufacturers, threatening fines of $300 per day against companies that fail to provide PPE and enforce social distancing.

And on Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the mayor and other public officials introduced plans for a new vaccine clinic targeting the workers who kept America’s most valuable fishing port operating during the pandemic.

“This center is about protecting our essential workers,” Warren said. “It is about treating our fishermen with respect. It is about treating our food workers with respect.”

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: Sen. Warren returns to New Bedford, touting $3.9M for waterfront vaccines

April 1, 2021 — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren made her first visit to New Bedford in more than two years on Wednesday, touring a new federally funded vaccination center and expressing gratitude to essential workers in the food sector.

Warren joined Mayor Jon Mitchell to inspect a waterfront building that the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center is turning into a vaccination site designed to serve employees in the nearby fish processing plants. It will begin offering Johnson & Johnson doses on April 10.

“This center is about protecting our essential workers,” Warren said. “It is about treating our fishermen with respect. It is about treating our food workers with respect.”

The Community Health Center has received a $3.9 million grant under the newly enacted American Rescue Plan Act that will help cover the cost of the vaccination site. The building where the shots will be administered is on Hervey Tichon Avenue, and was recently given to the city by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which had been using it for the Superfund cleanup of New Bedford Harbor.

“This center is a way of saying thank you, and opening up vaccinations so they are here, for the people who have been here for the rest of America over the past year,” Warren said.

Read the full story at WPRI

Extended and New Slow Zones South of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard to Protect Right Whales

April 1, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces the extension of Slow Zones set to expire south of Nantucket and south of Martha’s Vineyard and establishes another Slow Zone south of Nantucket. On March 31, 2021 several aggregations of right whales were detected south of Nantucket, MA and south of Martha’s Vineyard, MA by the NOAA North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey. These three right whale Slow Zones are in effect immediately through April 14, 2021.

Mariners are requested to route around these areas or transit through them at 10 knots or less.

Slow Zone Coordinates:

South of Nantucket, MA, March 30 – April 14, 2021 *NEW*

41 01 N
40 19  N
069 50 W
070 46 W

South of Nantucket, MA, February 26 – April 14, 2021 *Extended*

41 23 N
40 40 N
069 39 W
070 35W

South of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, March 7 – April 14, 2021 *Extended*

41 21 N
40 41 N
070 15 W
071 06 W

See the coordinates for all the slow zones currently in effect.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Nearly 90 endangered right whales spotted off Cape Cod in single day in March; Boaters urged to slow down to avoid injuring endangered animal

March 31, 2021 — The federal government is urging boaters off the coast of Massachusetts to slow down to avoid injuring right whales, as dozens of the endangered mammals were spotted off Cape Cod in a single day earlier this month.

Eighty-nine North Atlantic right whales were sighted in Cape Cod Bay on March 21, the most documented in a single day in the 2021 season, according to the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), a nonprofit dedicated to preserving marine mammals and ecosystems. That sightings included three mother-calf pairs, the organization noted.

The nonprofit began its day surveying the south of the bay from the air and found a large group of right whales offshore of Sandy Neck. All three mothers were seen feeding near the surface, maintaining contact with their calves nearby, the organization said.

Further north, more groups of right whales were discovered, one of whom, named Marlin, “appeared to be having the time of his life, tail-slapping at the surface,” according to the CCS.

Read the full story at MassLive

CFRF March 2021 Newsletter

March 31, 2021 — The following was released by the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation:

Project Update: South Fork Wind Farm Fisheries Monitoring — Beam Trawl Survey

The South Fork Wind Farm beam trawl survey is well underway with six months of data collected on the benthic communities of the South Fork windfarm development area and two nearby reference areas. The beam trawl is designed to primarily target scallops and groundfish, however it is outfitted with a 2.4 cm knotless nylon liner to document all sizes of the benthic species present. The catch from each monthly survey has been relatively consistent with the eastern reference area dominated by crabs and skate and a handful of flatfish; the western reference area was rocky with many small invertebrates with high catches of scallop and skate with a few summer and winter flounder; and finally, the wind farm proposed area was predominantly little skate, scup, sea robins and a few scallops. In the colder months, with a few big storms moving though the area, we have seen a slight downturn in catch, particularly in finfish through the winter. Stay tuned to see what the warmer waters bring this spring as well as the beginning of our gillnet, ventless trap, and fish pot surveys each designed to target slightly different fisheries species in this area Visit the project webpage at www.cfrfoundation.org/sfwf-beam-trawl-survey to stay up to date with the catch information from this survey.

Project Results: River Herring Bycatch Avoidance Program

After over a decade of collaboration the River Herring Bycatch Avoidance Program has come to an end. The program, representing the work of CFRF, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the commercial fishing industry, and contributions from several other organizations, fundamentally improved the understanding of river herring bycatch and how to reduce it in the Atlantic herring and Atlantic mackerel fisheries. It increased portside sampling of relevant vessels in Massachusetts and Rhode Island by over 100% at times. The data collected though portside sampling supported scientific publications, management decisions, and was the primary information source for near-real time communications of river herring bycatch. These communications positively influenced fishing habits and played a role in the approximate 60% decrease in total bycatch and 20% decrease in the bycatch rate prior to the establishment of river herring catch limits. Once river herring catch limits were established, the program helped the industry stay under these limits more often than what was expected by managers. Through the course of the project 26 vessels contributed data. This included 8 fishing companies and their 13 mid-water trawl vessels, representing the majority of Atlantic herring and mackerel catch in U.S., that were cornerstones of the program. The program was started with funding from the National Fisheries Wildlife Foundation, strengthened with funding from The Nature Conservancy, and then sustained by the Atlantic Herring Research-Set Aside Program. Cuts to the Atlantic herring quota made funding through the Research-Set Aside Program untenable and, along with the closure of near shore areas, reduced the need for the program. Thank you to all who supported and contributed to this program. More information can be found at www.umassd.edu/smast/bycatch/.

Read the full release here

RODA says it’s being ignored

March 31, 2021 — With America’s first industrial-scale offshore wind farm poised to receive final approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), fishermen continue to have reservations about potential impacts.

Vineyard Wind 1, an 84-turbine wind farm to be situated in the Atlantic 15 miles south of Aquinnah, is expected to get that final approval — a record of decision — from BOEM within a month.

Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), a coalition representing fishing interests, has taken issue with the project from the get-go, notably the transit corridors. These are the lanes between turbine towers vessels would navigate through. Vineyard Wind and other developers that have leased sections of New England ocean for wind development have agreed to 1-nautical-mile transit lanes. RODA has long demanded wider lanes, preferably four miles wide.

That stance hasn’t changed, RODA’s executive director, Annie Hawkins, told The Times. Hawkins said a recommendation for wider lanes could have emerged from the project’s environmental impact statement, but that didn’t happen. Hawkins said the safe passage of fishing vessels, especially those towing any sort of mobile gear, is in question with the current spacing layout. It’s unknown if insurers will allow fishing vessels to travel inside Vineyard Wind 1 or the farms that will follow, Hawkins said.

Read the full story at the MV Times

Biden administration aims for vast offshore wind expansion

March 30, 2021 — Top Biden administration officials on Monday outlined new goals for building 30,000 megawatts off offshore wind energy generation by 2030, including another wind energy area covering nearly 800,000 acres in the New York Bight.

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management announced it will initiate its environmental impact statement process for the Ocean Wind project, Ørsted’s planned 1,100 MW array off New Jersey, as the agency recently started an EIS for the South Fork wind development south of Rhode Island and just weeks after finalizing its analysis for the 804 MW Vineyard Wind project in southern New England waters.

Environmental reviews could start for as many as 10 more projects this year, the agency said.

The waters between the New Jersey beaches and Long Island already include federal lease held by developers intending to build the Atlantic Shores turbine array off Atlantic City, and the Empire Wind project close to the New York Harbor approaches. BOEM has been gauging potential developer interest in areas farther offshore and said it will now begin an environmental assessment of those areas.

With 20 million inhabitants in the region, it’s “the largest population center in the United States” with an enormous energy market, said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who spoke of the opportunity for U.S. shipbuilders and other industries in a new energy sector.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

SEAN HORGAN: Chief Justice Roberts Takes Aim At Antiquities Act

March 30, 2021 — It sounds as if Supreme Court Justice John Roberts thinks the practice of presidents abusing the Antiquities Act, to accomplish what they never could in the usual three-corner offense of American democracy, has gotten old.

Last week, the Supreme Court rejected a petition, with the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association as lead plaintiff, that challenged then President Barack Obama’s legal use of the 1906 Antiquities Act to designate the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of Massachusetts.

Viewed through the narrowest of prisms, the Supreme Court no-call was a victory for marine conservationists and another blow to the commercial fishing industry. But viewed with a wider lens, it could also serve as the starting gun for even more challenges to the presidential use of the Antiquities Act to designate monuments and landmarks when all other political measures fail.

The chief justice, according to a Bloomberg Law story, questioned how much scope presidents actually should have under the law “that was intended to protect prehistoric Indigenous artifacts and the smallest area compatible with protection.

“Somewhere along the line, however, this restriction has ceased to pose any meaningful restraint,” Roberts wrote. “A statute permitting the president in his sole discretion to designate monuments ‘landmarks,’ ‘structures,’ and ‘objects’ — along with the smallest area of land compatible with their management — has been transformed into a power without any discernible limit to set aside vast and amorphous expanses of terrain above and below the sea.”

Court watchers and the legal community were agog. This, they said, almost never happens. Color us agog, too.

“Fishing groups opposed to the Northeast canyons monument are disappointed the court refused to hear the case,” the Bloomberg Law story stated, adding though that Roberts’ statement was being viewed by the industry (well, its lawyers) as a silver lining.

“It’s a big deal for the chief to file a statement like that,” Jonathan Wood, senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, who represented the fishing interests. “I read it basically inviting similar cases. It’s trying to send a signal to the Supreme Court bar of, ‘This is an issue I’m interested in. Start bringing me the cases’.”

We here at FishOn have never been to the Supreme Court bar, but we too would like them to start bringing us some cases. Start with the Jameson and we’ll work our way around the dial.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times

What Biden’s New Offshore ‘Wind Energy Area’ Means for NJ, NY and US Clean Energy

March 30, 2021 — The Atlantic Ocean off of New Jersey and New York will become the epicenter of a national effort this decade to energize its power grid with renewable sources like wind and solar after President Joe Biden named the continental shelf off the two states as a “wind energy area.”

The White House’s announcement Monday locks in the federal government to an already all-in race by Mid-Atlantic coastal states to build thousands of skyscraper-sized turbines.

The efforts to build wind farms from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Cape Cod off of Massachusetts are already nearly a decade in the making, with 17 current projects in development up and down the coast. Several are in planning stages for the waters off of New Jersey and New York. All involve European power companies, including the Danish developer Ørsted, which in 2019 won New Jersey’s first bid for a farm.

For years, the projects languished in a federal queue or permitting processes at the state level. But recently, governors like Phil Murphy in New Jersey have established ambitious goals for renewable energy production from wind farms. Biden’s announcement all but cements offshore wind’s place in the future of American power production.

Only seven wind turbines currently rotate in American waters, but more than 1,500 are in planning or development stages from North Carolina to Massachusetts, according to an NBC10 Philadelphia analysis of the federally leased areas and the 17 projects currently in development.

Read the full story at NBC Washington

MASSACHUSETTS: Virtual Fisherpoets Round Robin from New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center

March 30, 2021 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center will host a virtual event, Women in the Workplace, Women on Deck: A Fisherpoets Round Robin, on Thursday, April 8th at 7:00pm. This event will be live-streamed to the Center’s Facebook page. These fisherpoets will share stories, poems, and music related to their experiences in the fishing industry and community. This event will be led by Moe Bowstern and will feature Tele Aadsen, Meezie Hermansen, Alana Kansaku-Sarmiento, Meghan Gervais, Billie Delaney, and Melanie Brown plus others to be announced. For more details on this event including performer bios, please visit the Center’s online calendar at fishingheritagecenter.org/programs/calendar.

This event takes place on the Fishing Heritage Center’s Facebook page as a Facebook Live event. Watch by visiting the Center’s Facebook page at 7:00pm EDT on Thursday, March 8th, facebook.com/NBFishingHeritageCenter.

Women in the Workplace, Women on Deck: A Fisherpoets Round Robin is supported by a Bridge Street Scholarship from Mass Humanities. This program is part of Women’s Work, the Center’s series about women’s roles in commercial fishing which is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Women’s Fisheries Network, Mass Cultural Council, and the New Bedford, Fairhaven, Dartmouth, Westport, and Mattapoisett Cultural Councils.

The program takes place on April’s AHA! Night and is free and open to the public.