Saving Seafood

Coast Guard investigating fisherman overboard from New Jersey boat, found dead when brought to New Bedford

January 24, 2020 — Details are few about the loss of a commercial fisherman who reportedly went overboard off the coast of Nantucket and wasn’t recovered until some 40-50 minutes later. The name of the fisherman hasn’t been released yet and it is not known if he was local.

The fisherman was reported by the U.S. Coast Guard to have gone overboard from the Lady Brittany, a clammer, some 50 miles off the coast of Nantucket on Jan. 21 before sunrise.

Lt. Jordan Ortiz, the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Detachment Supervisor for New Bedford, said a call was received on Jan. 21 at 5 a.m. for a person in the water. He said the crew was able to recover the fisherman and the Lady Brittany then traveled to Sea Watch International in New Bedford where the fisherman was found to be dead. He would not confirm whether the fisherman had died prior to being recovered and would only say that the incident is being actively investigated.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Fisheries Closes Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I Closure Areas to Gillnet Gear

December 16, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In compliance with a recent Federal District Court Order, NOAA Fisheries is implementing a closure of the Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I Groundfish Closure Areas for gillnet gear only.

This rule is effective tomorrow. All gillnetters must remove their gillnet gear from these areas as soon as possible, consistent with safe vessel operations.

Background

The October 28, 2019, Court Order prohibits NOAA Fisheries from allowing gillnet fishing in the former Nantucket Lightship Groundfish Closure Area and the Closed Area I Groundfish Closure Areas (see map below) until NOAA Fisheries has fully complied with requirements of the Endangered Species Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, consistent with the Opinion.

After the Order was issued, we notified gillnetters in these areas on November 1 that all gillnet gear needed to be removed from these two areas and that we would be issuing a formal rule closing these areas. That formal rule has now been issued.

Read the full release here

NEFMC approves scallop framework, projects 52 million pounds in 2020

December 11, 2019 — The New England Fishery Management Council has approved Framework Adjustment 32 to the Atlantic Scallop Fishery Management Plan, giving the first look at what the 2020 scallop season in New England could look like.

The new specifications will most likely result in 52 million pounds of projected landings in 2020, lower than 2019’s projection of more than 62 million pounds. While lower than 2019, the projection is still higher than average, with an expected ex-vessel value of USD 487 million (EUR 438.9 million), according to a release from the council.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

What To Do With ‘Peter Pan’ Scallops

December 6, 2019 — They have a name: Peter Pan scallops.

And why?

Because like the famous character, they won’t grow up.

But these scallops don’t live in Never Never Land. They reside in a place called Nantucket Lightship South, roughly 20 miles east and 60 miles south of the elbow of the Cape; take the Great South Channel (rather than the second star to the right), and straight on until morning.

Why won’t they grow up?

Scientists and fishermen have more than one theory, but most agree on a few factors:

These scallops, all born as part of the 2012 year class, settled in water much deeper than typical scallop grounds, around 35 fathoms (210 feet) down, which means that they might not be getting as much nutrient to feed on. Plus, the set that year was phenomenal; packing many animals close together might be another reason why they are stunted.

When researchers say “many animals,” they really mean it. In 2019 surveys, it appears that the biomass of scallops in this one area about 10 square miles (though the big concentration is in roughly four square miles), is more than 35,000 metric tons, a weight that doesn’t include shells, only the little round bodies we eat. That translates into more than three billion animals – with a ‘b’.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Turbine spacing unites offshore wind executives

November 21, 2019 — Executives representing the offshore leaseholders off Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket announced their joint support for a one-nautical-mile width between all their proposed wind turbines.

The executives also announced agreement on an east-west orientation of the wind turbine rows. Orsted North America president Thomas Brostrom, Equinor Wind US president Christer af Geijerstam, Eversource Energy-enterprise energy strategy executive vice president Leon Oliver, Mayflower Wind president John Hartnet, and Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Thaaning Pedersen signed a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard advocating for the one-nautical-mile spacing and east-west configuration. The letter was accompanied by a report executed by W.F. Baird & Associates Ltd. that concludes such distancing and orientation of turbines is advantageous.

For Vineyard Wind, the width is a mile short of what it previously supported. As The Times reported in December 2018, Vineyard Wind was in support of two-mile transit corridors, while fishermen pushed for four-mile corridors. However, the executives contend in their letter that the widths are “responsive to fishermen’s requests.” Among other reasons, fishermen in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have pushed for wider navigation spaces between wind turbines for safety reasons, due to the length of mobile gear some fishing vessels trail. The executives state the width they propose addresses mobile gear concerns.

In a statement to The Times, Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Rhode Island’s Seafreeze Ltd. and a board member of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), found the executives’ announcement foreseeable, and as evidence they may not be taking fishing industry input to heart.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times

Federal judge renews ban on gillnet fishing in Nantucket area to protect whales

October 30, 2019 — A federal judge in Washington, DC, on Monday ruled that the US’ National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the Endangered Species Act, Magnuson Stevens Act, and other federal laws when it removed a roughly 20-year-old ban last year on gillnet fishing within a 3,000 square mile area south and east of the Massachusetts island Nantucket.

US District Court judge James Boasberg has renewed the ban in order to protect North Atlantic right whales, the Boston Globe reports. He said, in his 32-page ruling, that his decision was “not a close call” and quoted Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”.

“Demonstrating that ‘there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men’ … humans have brought the North Atlantic right whale to the brink of extinction,” he wrote.

Boasberg’s ruling does not apply to the scallop industry, which will be allowed to continue using its dredging equipment in the area, as it has not been found to harm the marine mammals.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Federal judge requires fishing areas off Nantucket closed to protect right whales

October 29, 2019 — In a ruling that could create greater protections for North Atlantic right whales, a federal judge ruled Monday that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws when it made the controversial decision last year to reopen long-closed fishing grounds off Nantucket.

The ruling, which was a major victory for conservation groups, requires the agency to renew the ban on gillnet fishing in about 3,000 square miles of water south and east of Nantucket. Gillnets, walls of netting that rise vertically in the ocean to catch many fish at a time, present a major risk to right whales, whose numbers have plummeted by about 20 percent since 2010. Scientists say there are fewer than 400 left, and the main threat to their survival has been entanglements in fishing gear.

Boasberg’s ruling, however, does not apply to the scallop industry, which has been allowed to fish in the area. The lawsuit did not contest the right of scallopers to use their dredging equipment in the area, as they have not been found to harm the marine mammals.

“It reaffirms that the scallop industry is not at issue with regards to right whale conservation,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney at the Fisheries Survival Fund in Washington, D.C., which represents the scallop industry.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Federal Regulators Take Heat From Both Sides Of The Right Whale-Gear Debate

October 4, 2019 — Federal fisheries regulators are taking heat from both sides of the debate over protections for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The latest salvo comes from a conservation group representing public employees, which says the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) ignored its own scientists when it reopened groundfishing areas that had been closed for decades.

Earlier this year, NMFS reopened 3000 square miles of ocean south of Nantucket to groundfishing, allowing the use of gillnets and rope. The agency said that based on previous regulatory reviews and some more recent scientific articles, it could not find sufficient evidence to conclude that fishing gear alone causes a decline in the health of large whales — and that further review was not necessary.

Conservationists say the agency cherry-picked the evidence.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Nantucket group protests draft authorization for Vineyard Wind

July 11, 2019 — A Nantucket group wants to delay a key permit needed by Vineyard Wind to construct its 84-turbine wind farm south of the Islands.

ACK Residents Against Turbines, a group of more than 100 citizens, claims that federal regulators favor offshore wind over commercial fishing and intend to allow serious harm to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

“This process is moving too fast, and everyone needs to slow down and make sure we aren’t creating problems for the North Atlantic right whale that can’t be reversed,” Vallorie Oliver of ACK Residents Against Turbines said Tuesday. “This particular animal is clearly struggling, yet it appears that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, in their rush to clear the path for Vineyard Wind, are forgetting their obligation to protect the whale.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Fishermen say Vineyard Wind’s turbine relocation makes no difference

June 28, 2019 — Vineyard Wind’s decision to move three turbines farther away from Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket makes no significant difference to the preservation of fishing grounds, fisheries sources say.

The offshore wind company announced Monday that it had removed three of the 84 planned turbines from the north end of the grid and placed them elsewhere among its 106 approved turbine locations.

The south side of the Islands, where the change was made, is a prime squid fishing ground.

Katie Almeida, fisheries policy analyst for Rhode Island squid dealer The Town Dock, told The Standard-Times the move will do little to help the industry.

“The removal of the turbines gives a very small portion of our traditional fishing grounds back, however we still don’t know how construction and operation are going to affect squid in and around that lease area,” she said.

With spacing of Vineyard Wind turbines starting at eight-tenths of a mile apart, the space represents a few square miles. The wind farm is about 14 miles from shore.

The company said it moved the turbines to limit visibility from the Nantucket Historic District and Chappaquiddick and reduce the impact on fishing.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times