Saving Seafood

Menhaden steamer launches from Mississippi; Maryland builder makes oyster boat with a bed

July 20, 2020 — Omega Shipyard at Moss Point, Miss., delivered the 180′ x 40′ x 7′ menhaden steamer Little River to the Omega Protein plant in Reedville, Va., to fish the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

The vessel was motored in April from Moss Point, up the Atlantic Coast to the plant and now Omega’s corporate headquarters in Reedville. The firm started fishing the vessel in May.

The steel hull vessel was converted from an offshore oil supply vessel on the Gulf of Mexico named Black Diver II. Little River is powered by two 399 Caterpillar Diesel engines rated together at 2,250 hp, working through 4:1 ratio Caterpillar marine reduction gears.

There are two generators on the boat powered by two new John Deere 6068 Tier III engines, 150 kw. The vessel will travel at 12 knots consuming 100 gallons of fuel per hour. Little River has a fuel capacity of 9,000 gallons.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Wicker and Palazzo announce $21.3M Fishery Disaster Relief Fund for Mississippi

May 19, 2020 — U.S. Senator Roger Wicker and Rep. Steven Palazzo announced the allocation of $21,311,804 in federal fishery disaster relief funds to Mississippi. The U.S. Department of Commerce aid is being distributed in response to a prolonged period of freshwater inundation into the Gulf of Mexico that devastated Gulf Coast fisheries last year. The funds will be distributed by the state to cover losses by fishermen, aquaculture businesses, and seafood processors.

“These funds are welcome news for the many fishermen who suffered through last year’s unprecedented opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, but our state deserves a long-term solution to disasters like these. I am working to reform the disaster relief process so that funds can be distributed quickly and directly to the people who need them most. I am also pushing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consider alternatives to opening the Bonnet Carré Spillway so that we can minimize the risk of these disasters in the future,” said Wicker.

“These funds will begin supporting the ongoing recovery efforts from the devastation caused by the extended opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway last year. While we appreciate this assistance in our recovery, we must reform the way federal fisheries disasters are evaluated and approved,” said Palazzo. “As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I remain committed to allocating resources that will help restore our way of life in south Mississippi.”

Read the full story at WJTV

Disaster funding granted to Gulf of Mexico fisheries hit by spillway opening

May 18, 2020 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the allocation of USD 88 million (EUR 80.6 million) in disaster-relief funding to Gulf of Mexico fisheries in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi to counter the impacts of the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway.

The Bonnet Carre Spillway is a flood control system for the Lower Mississippi Valley, with its opening releasing massive amounts of freshwater from the river into the Gulf of Mexico. In April, the spillway was opened for the third straight year, something that has never happened in the spillway’s history.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

What’s in Trump’s seafood order?

May 13, 2020 — Today we’re talking about the president’s May 7 executive order that is getting widespread support from fishing companies and processors, but also some criticism from small-scale fishermen and groups that support localized wild-capture fisheries.

Joining us is Ryan Bradley, executive director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, a commercial fisherman, vessel owner, seafood dealer and business owner, and a National Fisherman Highliner.

Bradley shares with us how he hopes the EO will pave a path toward breaking down some unnecessary regulatory barriers, help enforcement fight IUU fishing — including illegal sales of recreational catch — and bolster fair trade that benefits American fishermen.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Statement From Glenn Cooke Commending President Donald Trump On His Executive Order That Will Improve US Aquaculture Competitiveness and Economic Growth

May 8, 2020 — The following was released by Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Seafood:

Glenn Cooke, CEO of the Cooke family of companies, provided the following statement after President Donald Trump signed the first ever Executive Order that includes provisions to improve U.S. aquaculture competitiveness and economic growth on Thursday.

“I am very pleased President Trump has recognized that domestic farmed production of aquaculture seafood is vital to help correct the severe trade imbalance and strengthen local food security. This should be viewed as a call to State and local governments that the country is in dire need of domestically produced seafood protein and that they should find ways to support, promote, and expand this essential food sector as other countries have.

As a family company, with marine fish farming operations in Maine and Washington and shellfish farming in North Carolina, and wild fisheries in other states including Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alaska, we are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that our people put in every day to produce healthy seafood meals for families across the USA. Cooke Aquaculture USA in Maine was very proud to have been chosen as the supplier of sustainably farmed Atlantic salmon for the President’s 2017 inauguration. Our strong operations have shown that aquaculture presents a tremendous opportunity to create thousands of jobs and build vibrant working waterfronts co-existing with traditional fisheries in rural coastal communities.

President Trump and his Executive Agencies are to be commended for their leadership to address the regulatory challenges with establishing seafood farms by revising the National Aquaculture Development Plan and implementing a Nationwide Permit authorizing finfish, seaweed or multi-trophic culture in federal marine waters.”

Read the full release here

Coast Shrimpers Cling to Legacy Through the Industry’s Choppy Waters

May 4, 2020 — Danny Ross, an Ocean Springs shrimper, has been on a boat for as long as he could walk. He remembers driving the family vessel as a kid, having to climb onto the dashboard to see over the steering wheel. “Two spokes to the left,” his dad would direct. He remembers, back on land, getting bad grades in art class because he would only draw one thing.

“I’d draw a pretty good boat too,” he said. “Me and my brothers were always on the boat. The rigging, the pipes – that was our jungle gym. And our swimming pool? The boat would be shrimping and we’d be diving off the bow, catching ropes on the outrivers.”

Ross, 55, recently tied up his boat after a disappointing season that saw fresh water kill 56 percent of Mississippi’s shrimp. The plummeting price of shrimp has made it difficult for Ross to find crew members, and instead he’s gone to work on another captain’s boat. After following five generations of fishermen into the business, he’s worried about the direction the industry is headed in.

“All these people, they came over here as immigrants, and they built fishing boats. Now, there’s nobody left to step into my shoes,” Ross said.

Read the full story at the Pulitzer Center

A Flood of Catastrophe: How a Warming Climate and the Bonnet Carré Spillway Threaten the Survival of Coast Fishermen

May 1, 2020 — On a warm, sunny September morning, bait salesman Roscoe Liebig scanned the harbor’s vacant piers and shook his head in disgust. Liebig recalled his usual surroundings: a full parking lot, a line of fishermen hooking their bait, and oysters peaking out in a low tide. That day, all of it was gone.

In a typical year, he’d be outside peddling his shrimp and croakers, a type of bait fish, to fishermen passing by.

“This is catastrophic,” he said. Referencing another historic disaster, Liebig put 2019 in perspective: “BP could blow up a well and you’d do better than this. It’s a dying freaking industry, and this is just the icing on the cake.”

Inside “Roscoe’s Live Bait Works,” sitting on a barge in the Mississippi Sound, Liebig grows restless as he reviews his finances. Sales are down sharply from the previous year, and he worries that making even a small repair or upgrade to his boat could break the bank.

Read the full story at the Pulitzer Center

How to maximize coastal ecosystem recovery 10 years after BP spill: report

March 12, 2020 — As the 10th anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill approaches, state and federal agencies should consider nine strategies aimed at advancing ecosystem restoration, maximizing use of fine and settlement money stemming from the spill, and ensuring that local communities are involved in decisions affecting their future, according to a report released by a coalition of environmental groups Wednesday.

The report, “A Decade After Disaster,” was developed by the Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition, which was created in 2008 to support coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana. It includes the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Audubon Society, and two Louisiana-based groups, the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.

While the BP spill was an unprecedented catastrophe, it provided an equally unprecedented opportunity to Louisiana and other coastal states in the form of more than $16 billion in settlement money for coastal restoration efforts, said Steve Cochran, campaign director for the Restore the Mississippi River Delta coalition and a vice president with the Environmental Defense Fund.

“Louisiana has made significant progress since the Gulf oil disaster, and we can honor these losses by continuing to act with urgency on ongoing recovery and in the face of land loss and climate change,” Cochran said.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

Long road to relief: Mississippi oystermen slated for $1 million in disaster checks

February 21, 2020 — Oysters are having a moment, if you haven’t noticed. Even small towns are getting oyster bars, and national demand has skyrocketed.

But down on the Gulf Coast, oystermen (and blue crab fishermen) have spent the last decade struggling to stay afloat in the face of massive freshwater runoff events when the Army Corps of Engineers opens the Bonnet Carré Spillway to spare New Orleans infrastructure from floodwaters.

“The spillway openings had a devastating effect on our fisheries in 2011, 2016, 2018, and two in 2019,” says Ryan Bradley, executive director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United and a 2018 NF Highliner. “And the only time disasters were declared was 2011 and now 2019.”

A freshwater spillover shocks nearshore oyster stocks with a sudden and deadly change in salinity. That water quality change also affects young crab. Fisheries advocates were able to win a congressional disaster declaration for the 2011 losses to the oyster and blue crab fisheries.

Read the full story at National Fisherman