Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Feeling the pinch, state regulators double down on horseshoe crabs

June 11, 2026 — At 2 a.m., the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is shrouded in darkness, save for the headlamps of the two volunteers trudging through the dusky sand. Their mission is simple: count the horseshoe crabs who have gathered at the shoreline to spawn.

Drawn in by the light, a lone crab, the size of a dinner plate, scuttles up and lingers by the volunteers’ boots.

“I didn’t expect them to be so friendly and gentle,” one volunteer said. “They’re like sea Roombas.”

Each year, dozens of volunteers descend on Southeastern Massachusetts’ beaches to survey the horseshoe crabs during their mating season, over the full and new moons in May and June. The surveys began as a way to keep tabs on the species’ adult population, but in recent years, they have taken on new significance.

Horseshoe crab blood is a premier ingredient in vaccine development. That puts the state’s biomedical industry and conservationist groups at odds. Amid increased scrutiny from both sides, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries is restructuring three full-time roles to focus more on monitoring the ancient moonlighting crab.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: Chatham, feds reach truce on disputed fishing rights

March 10, 2021 — With the keystroke of an electronic signature, the Select Board signaled an end Monday night to seven years of bitter wrangling with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over control of fisheries in the waters off Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

The board signed a memorandum of understanding that codified the relationship that exists now between the town and the federal agency in which Chatham continues to manage fisheries for clams, oysters and scallops in the disputed area — and the two parties agree to work together on future changes as new fisheries or fishing technologies emerge.

“This memorandum of understanding creates a process to ensure the sustainable management of fishery resources that have been so important to our town and ensures our town will continue to manage these fisheries consistent with past practices,” board Chair Shareen Davis said. The agreement does continue a ban on harvesting mussels, which are eaten by migrating waterfowl.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Thanks for all the fish!

August 16, 2016 — It can sometimes be difficult, depending on the choppiness of the waves, for pilot Wayne Davis to spot from his two-seater plane the dark silhouettes of great white sharks swimming off the coast of Chatham during research expeditions with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

But there was no missing a giant school of fish this week as he flew near the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

The conservancy, a non-profit based on Cape Cod, shared a photo Friday taken by Davis from his Citabria earlier in the week of what looks to be hundreds — if not thousands — of menhaden, or forage fish.

The fish are gathered together not far from a lurking great white, forming a shape like a pinpoint on a Google map. The collection of fish creates a striking black dot in the middle of the blue-green Cape waters as though a shadow were cast over the sea.

The conservancy’s nearby boat is dwarfed by the mass of menhaden, which can live to be 12 years old and are known to swim in large schools close to the water’s surface during the spring, summer, and fall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Rep. Bill Keating to file bill to resolve dispute between Chatham and feds

June 17, 2016 — CHATHAM, Mass. — U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., has agreed to file legislation that town officials hope will end a dispute over who owns and manages the ocean off the Nantucket Sound side of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

“We think, once and for all, it will put to bed any contention about the boundary issue and we can continue as we have for over a hundred years to manage that area,” Chatham Selectman Seth Taylor said Wednesday after he and town manager Jill Goldsmith left a meeting with Keating and his staff.

When it released its draft management plan for the refuge in April 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed it owned more than 717 acres of beach on the Atlantic side that the town believed it owned instead. Service officials also argued the refuge includes waters that fall within what it considers its western boundary.

The Fish & Wildlife Service and the town were able to agree on most of the disputed portions of the management plan. They settled on a boundary on the Atlantic side that returned much of the 717 acres to the town; the service decided to allow almost all of the fishing activities it had originally claimed were detrimental to the protection of shorebirds and wildlife.

But the two sides couldn’t find common ground on the western boundary.

The town and the state contended the legal documents that took the property in 1944 to establish the refuge, and a subsequent wilderness declaration in the 1970s, defined the boundary as the mean low water mark. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey threatened litigation, arguing the refuge never controlled anything below the mean low water mark.

Read the full story in the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Chatham, state officials contest federal right to control fishery

December 9, 2015 — CHATHAM — The state, town and federal governments are fighting over ownership of the ocean within the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

Unless something changes dramatically in the next few months, a court will have to decide who can manage fisheries in the area, according to Chatham officials and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed ownership and management of the 3,000 acres of water and ocean bottom west of North and South Monomoy islands in its final draft of a new plan meant to guide management of the wildlife refuge for the next decade or more. The comment period on the draft expired Monday and the state attorney general’s office, the state Department of Fish and Game, and the town of Chatham all filed comments, along with an additional two dozen or more letters and emails submitted as of early Monday, according to Elizabeth Herland, Fish and Wildlife project director.

In the comments, the town and attorney general disputed the service’s claim that it was granted ownership and control over the disputed area in a 1944 court decision that established the refuge through a land taking. In her comments, Healey called the assertion erroneous and threatened legal action unless the federal agency revises its stance.

The town is also contemplating legal action, said Jeffrey Dykens, chairman of the selectmen.

“We would like to avoid litigation but we are keeping all our options open,” Dykens said.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times