Saving Seafood

New England Council Finalizes 2019-20 Scallop Plan, Landings Will be 60 Million lbs or Higher

December 7, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The New England Fishery Management Council has finalized the scallop plan for 2019-20, the fishing year beginning on April 1st.

NMFS staff estimates that catches will be similar to this year, which are expected to be around 60 million lbs.

However, the plan adds one additional closed area trip for each of the approximately 310 full time vessels in the fishery.  At 18,000 lbs per trip, this has the potential to increase landings by around 5.5 million lbs.

Open access days will remain the same, meaning that the resource scientists expect to see a lower volume landed from the same number of days at sea.

Part of this is due to projected changes in size of scallops landed.

Bristol Seafoods, in Portland, has excellent customer facing information on Scallops, and CEO Peter Handy offered his take on the 2019 season.

Handy said that if the season plays out as the council expects, Bristol’s customers should see the same volumes of 10-20’s and 20-30’s as last year, but there may be a decline in U-10’s and U-12’s.

Whether such a decline materializes will depend on the size of the scallops in some of the closed areas now being fished for the second year.  Last year, says Handy, the area that produced the largest amount of U-10’s and U-12’s were from Closed area 1 and the Nantucket lightship.   This year, those areas will only be accessed once if at all, as part of a ‘flex’ trip allocated by the council.  Handy says “Overall, it looks like the trips to areas that have the most plentiful big scallops was reduced from two down to one.”

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Scallops hold steady for New England, but sizes could shrink

December 7, 2018 —  The New England Fishery Management Council yesterday released information on the upcoming scallop season, including an estimated 60 million pounds in landings.

The council approved Framework Adjustment 30 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, which still needs to be approved by NMFS before the season kicks off on April 1, 2019.

Peter Handy, president and CEO of Bristol Seafood, speculated that a reduction in trips to Nantucket Light Ship South and Closed Area 1 may also reduce the volume of U10 and U12 product on the market.

Last season, about half the catch in these areas were larger scallops.

“Overall, it looks like the trips to areas that have the most plentiful big scallops was reduced from two down to one,” Handy reported in a press release. However, he added, it is important to note that scallop sizes can change year to year within the same area.

The Northern Gulf of Maine TAC increased about 5,000 pounds to 205,000. However, last year the council’s prediction for the 2019 season was 135,000 pounds. The default for 2020 is set at 170,000.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NEFMC recommendation could pave way for another big scallop year; 60m lbs projected

December 6, 2018 — New England scallop landings in 2019 could reach as much as 60 million pounds (27,215 metric tons), a similar result to 2018, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) projects.

The new season will begin on April 1.

At its meeting held today, Dec. 5, the NEFMC voted unanimously to approve a set of rules known as “Framework 30”, which, if the projection by the council’s plan team holds true, could lead to the 60m lbs harvest.

The framework will allow vessels with “full-time limited access” scallop permits to fish during 24 open-area days-at-sea and seven 18,000-pound access area trips.

That includes three trips to a zone called “Nantucket Lightship-West”, three to the “Mid-Atlantic Access Area”, and an additional “flex” trip that can be used in either of those areas or a more northerly zone, “Closed Area I”.

For the “part-time limited access fleet” in 2019, vessels will be allocated 9.6 open-area days-at-sea and three 17,000-pound trips. One trip will be used in Nantucket Lightship-West, another in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area and the third in either of those areas or in Closed Area I.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Vineyard Wind draft report released

December 6, 2018 — While local community members still need to comb through the details, a federal analysis of Vineyard Wind’s $2 billion construction and operations plans that is to be officially released in draft form on Friday is expected to keep the project moving forward.

“The company remains squarely on track to place equipment orders and start construction in 2019,” said Erich Stephens, Vineyard Wind’ chief development officer.

The company needs to begin construction of its 800-megawatt wind farm next year because 2019 is the final year of a federal investment tax credit program that was a component in the company’s successful bid to sell electricity to three electricity distributors in Massachusetts.

By remaining on schedule, the company can maximize the value of the tax credit, “creating $1.4 billion in savings for the Commonwealth over the life of the project,” Stephens said.

Top executives with Vineyard Wind expressed optimism in late September about completion dates for the offshore project after a Bank of America Merrill Lynch financial report indicated timely permitting by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. In late September, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said Vineyard Wind’s draft environmental impact statement would be issued for public comment by December, and that a final decision on the company’s construction and operations plan is expected next summer.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Scallops 2: NEFMC Takes Final Action on Framework 30

December 6, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

During its December 4-6 meeting in Newport, RI, the New England Fishery Management Council approved Framework Adjustment 30 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The framework contains: (1) specifications for the 2019 scallop fishing year, which will begin on April 1; (2) default specifications for 2020; and (3) two “standard default measures” that will carry on into future years.

The Council will submit the framework to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, NOAA Fisheries) for review and implementation. The Scallop Plan Development Team projects that, under the provisions selected by the Council, the region’s scallop fleet should be able to land roughly 60 million pounds of scallop meats in the 2019 fishing year.

Here’s what’s in the framework.

Full-Time Limited Access Fleet

In 2019, vessels with full time limited access scallop permits will be allocated 24 open-area days-at-sea and seven 18,000-pound access area trips:

  • Three trips into Nantucket Lightship West;
  • Three trips into the Mid-Atlantic Access Area; and
  • One “flex” trip that can be fished either in Closed Area I, Nantucket Lightship-West, or the Mid-Atlantic Access Area.

Read the full release here

Vital surf clam harvesting grounds closed by New England Fishery Management Council

December 5, 2018 — Clamming captains, business-owners and attorneys huddled in the lobby of the Viking Hotel on Tuesday sharing disbelief and despair over a decision by the New England Fisheries Management Council that will close vital harvesting grounds.

“A lot of these guys are going to go out of business,” owner and president of Nantucket Sound Seafood LLC Al Rencurrel said. “Obviously the economic impact, they didn’t view that, did they?”

Heading into the meeting, the surf clam industry hoped for the approval of “Alternative 2,” which would continue an exemption in its fishing areas but would modify boundaries including seasonal areas. It also called for increased monitoring with 5-minute vessel monitoring system to locate where the vessels are fishing. The clam industry would also fund a research project that NOAA would undertake to examine the habitat.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fishermen backing surf clammers in fight over harvest area

December 4, 2018 — Groundfish stakeholders are supporting the surf clam industry’s efforts to retain fishing rights in pockets of the Great South Channel of the Nantucket Shoals as long as the approved management policy does not prompt “mitigations or further habitat restrictions on the groundfish fishery.”

In a letter to the New England Fishery Management Council, and in a later interview, the executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition said the coalition has supported efforts by Gloucester-based Intershell and the rest of the Northeast surf clam industry to keep fishing rights off Nantucket as the final piece of the Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2.

On Tuesday, the New England Fishery Management Council, meeting in Newport, Rhode Island, is expected to decide whether one of the more lucrative fishing grounds for the surf clam fishery — 10 to 20 miles east and southeast of Nantucket — will remain open to surf clamming or restricted or closed as part of a protectionist effort to designate the full area as an essential fish habitat that would be off limits to surf clamming dredging gear.

“During the development of OHA 2, NSC supported the clam dredge industry’s need to preserve access to distinct areas within the larger habitat closure areas under consideration,” Jackie Odell, NSC executive director, wrote to council Chairman John Quinn. “NSC continues to support endeavors to identify areas within the Great South Channel HMA that balances the conservation objectives of OHA2 with the economic realities of the fishery in a manner that is both fair and equitable to the fisheries that already have been impacted under OHA 2.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Upcoming vote could be ‘devasting’ for New England clams

December 3, 2018 — While New Bedford gains its notoriety as the scallop capital of the world, Massachusetts is known for its clam chowder.

A New England Fisheries Management Council meeting in Newport scheduled for Tuesday could affect the latter.

An afternoon agenda item will discuss the possibility of closing an area in Nantucket Shoals, that the clam industry calls vital to its survival.

“If they close this down, it will be devastating to the whole industry,” Vice President of Operations for Nantucket Sound Seafood LLC Michael Costa said.

To prevent the action, the surf clam industry has rallied together and sought the legal services of former New Bedford mayor and attorney Scott Lang.

The coalition consists of Atlantic Capes, Seawatch International, Nantucket Sound Seafood, and Intershell Seafood International.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Concern Grows for Future of Right Whales

November 30, 2018 — A group of 17 North Atlantic right whales was spotted by an aerial survey team 21 miles south of Nantucket early this week, prompting a renewed call for voluntary speed restrictions among mariners and also renewed concern for the future of the critically endangered mammals.

In response to the whale sighting early Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has instituted a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone, also known as a DMA, or dynamic management area, that encompasses Nantucket and extends to the southeastern coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Chappaquiddick. Boaters are asked to limit their speed to 10 knots or less when sailing through the area, which spans latitudinally from 40 degrees, 28 minutes north to 41 degrees, 22 minutes north, and longitudinally from 70 degrees, 39 minutes west to 69 degrees, 29 minutes west. Overall, the rectangular area encompasses approximately 360 square nautical miles.

With only about 400 whales remaining, the North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest marine mammals in the world. The whales are known to appear around Cape Cod and the Islands around this time of year, fattening up on zooplankton before heading south to breed. Two weeks ago, NOAA reported a sighting of four right whales in a similar location off Nantucket’s south shore. But 17 is an entirely different story.

“That’s a lot of whales,” said Jennifer Goebel, a spokesman for NOAA, speaking to the Gazette Tuesday. “Usually when we set up these dynamic management areas we can do it on anything over three, sometimes four, maybe five. This was 17, so that tells you.”

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette

Clam controversy: Prime area may be closed to save fish

November 29, 2018 —  In June, at the Intershell dock on Commercial Street, owners Monte and Yibing Gao Rome launched their new 55-foot surf clam boat, F/V Bing Bing, amid the hoopla and happiness associated with a new Gloucester boat going into the water.

The Bing Bing sitting pretty at the dock that day was the most recent, and perhaps most palpable, reflection of Intershell’s commitment to the surf clam fishery. The metal-hulled boat, built in Mississippi in 1977 and just off a 10-month retrofit, became the third surf clam boat in the Intershell fleet.

But on Tuesday, in a ballroom of the aptly named Viking Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, Intershell and the other major surf clammers along the Northeast will find out if they still have a surf clam fishery to call home in the lucrative and historically rich Great South Channel of the Nantucket Shoals.

The New England Fishery Management Council, in a trailing action to its Omnibus 2 Essential Fish Habitat Amendment, will decide if a large swath of the current surf clam fishery, 10 to 20 miles east and southeast of Nantucket, will remain open to surf clamming or possibly be closed as part of a protectionist move to designate the full area as an essential fish habitat.

If designated as a full essential fish habitat, the whole Great South Channel would be closed to surf clammers and their hydraulic water-pressure dredging gear, as it already has been to all other types of mobile, bottom tending gear.

The clammers initially got a one-year extension to continue fishing when the council designated the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area. That exemption is set to expire April 9, 2019.

“The Nantucket Shoals are one of the premium, large-scale harvest areas on the East Coast and not an essential fish habitat,” Monte Rome said Wednesday as workers buzzed around the the sprawling Intershell facility in the Blackburn Industrial Park. “We’ve been going to habitat committee meetings and plan development meetings for months and they have constantly revealed that right now there is not anywhere near enough data to make a decision on whether this is an essential fish habitat. They say it might be. We say there is essentially no fish habitat within the area where we have fished for surf clams for the past 30 years.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times