Saving Seafood

Coast Guard medevacs sick fisherman 6 miles off Nantucket

July 19, 2018 — A Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod aircrew medevaced a 40-year-old man experiencing abdominal pain from a fishing vessel Tuesday six miles southwest of Nantucket.

The aircrew hoisted the fisherman to the helicopter and flew him back to Air Station Cape Cod where he was transferred to awaiting emergency medical services personnel, the Coast Guard said.

The captain of the fishing vessel Provider notified Coast Guard watchstanders shortly after 2 p.m. of the sick crew member, the Coast Guard said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Creates Protected Zone for Endangered Whales

July 6, 2018 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will implement a protected zone off the coast of Massachusetts until the middle of the month to try to help endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The protected area is located south of Nantucket and is designed to protect right whales. The whales are among the most endangered marine mammals, and they have suffered from high mortality and low reproduction in recent years.

There are as few as 360 right whales remaining.

Their critical habitat is around Cape Cod and in the Gulf of Maine, and just off of New Hampshire’s coastline, according to NOAA Fisheries. They can be found from Nova Scotia to the Southeast Atlantic coast, where pregnant females travel to give birth and nurse their young.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at NHPR

Mariners brake for right whales

July 5, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries announced Tuesday that a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone has been established to protect a group of four North Atlantic right whales sighted two nautical miles south of Nantucket on June 30, according to a press release.

Mariners are asked to travel at 10 knots or less inside the area where the whales were spotted, in order to avoid ship collisions with the endangered species. Effective through July 15, either slow to 10 knots or avoid the area of 41 32 N, 40 54 N, 070 29 W, 069 36 W.

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less are also in effect in the Great South Channel through July 31.

In 2017, 17 whales died, plus an additional mortality in January 2018, totaling about 4 percent of the entire right whale population. Also in 2017, two right whale carcasses washed up on Vineyard beaches, and two other carcasses were found on Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands. This sparked an increased local effort by the NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard to protect the whales from further harm. Migratory patterns of right whales trace directly through parts of Nantucket and Vineyard Sound as they travel to seasonal plankton blooms for food. The whales are a critically endangered species, with a population estimated at about 450 animals, according to the release.

Read the full story at the Martha’s Vineyard Times

Extended Voluntary Right Whale Speed Restriction Zone

April 5, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces that the voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area or DMA) established on March 20 has been extended to protect an aggregation of 8 right whales sighted 20 nautical miles south of Nantucket on March 29. This DMA will continue to be in effect through April 12, 2018.

Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.

VOLUNTARY DYNAMIC MANAGEMENT AREAS (DMAs)

Mariners are requested to avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside the following areas where persistent aggregations of right whales have been sighted. Find out more about ship strike reduction efforts.

Southwest of Nantucket, MA DMA — in effect through April 12, 2018

41 28 N
40 47 N
070 45 W
069 46 W

ACTIVE SEASONAL MANAGEMENT AREAS (SMAs)

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

  • Cape Cod Bay SMA in effect through May 15, 2018
  • Block Island SMA in effect through April 30, 2018

New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk SMA in effect through April 30, 2018.

Right Whales in Crisis

The year 2017 was devastating for North Atlantic right whales, which suffered a loss of 17 whales, plus an additional mortality in January 2018–about 4 percent of their population–an alarming number for such a critically endangered species with a population currently estimated at about 450 animals.

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

More Info

Recent right whale sightings

Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone

Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS

Send a blank message to receive a return email listing all current U.S. DMAs and SMAs.

Details and graphics of all ship strike management zones currently in effect.

Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards in a violation of federal and state law.

 

NOAA Announces Right Whale Speed Restriction Zone Off Nantucket

March 23, 2018 — NANTUCKET, Mass. — In an effort to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, NOAA Fisheries has implemented a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone off Nantucket.

The Dynamic Management Area 11 miles southwest of the island was established after six whales were spotted in the area on Tuesday.

Mariners are asked to avoid the area or travel at speeds of 10 knots or less through April 4.

At least 18 of the whales died over the last year and the population is estimated to be around 430.

Read the full story at Cape Cod

 

Attorneys general urge offshore drilling plan’s cancellation

February 2, 2018 — The top lawyers for a dozen coastal states want the U.S. Interior Department to cancel the Trump administration’s plan to expand offshore drilling, warning it threatens their maritime economies and natural resources.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and her fellow attorneys general, all Democrats, wrote Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday about his agency’s proposed five-year oil and gas leasing plan that opens new ocean waters.

“Not only does this irresponsible and careless plan put our state’s jobs and environment at risk, but it shows utter disregard for the will and voices of thousands of local businesses and fishing families,” said Healey in a prepared statement. “My colleagues and I will continue to fight this plan.”

Healey first announced her opposition to the plan in an August 2017 letter to Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The Northeast Seafood Coalition and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association agreed with her that the Interior Department’s plan to expand offshore drilling threatens Massachusetts’ $7.3 billion commercial fishing industry — the third largest in the country — and more than 240,000 jobs in the state.

The plan also could devastate the state’s robust recreation and tourism industries, according to Healey, as well harm the state’s coastal environment and protected endangered species, including the Northern Right Whale, which feeds in the waters off of Cape Cod and Nantucket, according to the comment letter. There are only about 460 critically endangered Northern Right Whales remaining worldwide.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

2018 will be good year for clam chowder, Bumble Bee, thanks to NOAA moves

January 9, 2018 — The makers and fans of New England clam chowder, including Bumble Bee Seafood, can feel confident that the kind of mollusk most often used to make the soup — ocean quahogs — will be in ample supply in 2018 thanks to two moves made recently by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Ocean conservationists, however, are not breaking out their party hats and noisemakers.

When John Bullard, NOAA’s northeast regional administrator, informed the New England Fishery Management Council last week that the agency will authorize the majority of NEFMC’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2 (OA2), many focused on the positive ramifications for scallop harvesters.

But NOAA’s approval of the council’s new plan for balancing the conservation of different sea life with the concerns of local fishermen also came with good news for harvesters of ocean quahogs and surf clams. Bullard informed NEFMC that his agency also agrees with its suggestion to provide a one-year exemption for clam harvesters to prohibitions against the controversial use of hydraulic dredging gear in the Great South Channel habitat management area (HMA), a deep-water passage that cuts between Nantucket and Georges Bank.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Fishing officials ease restrictions in waters off New England

January 8, 2018 — After 15 years of research and deliberation, federal fishing officials this week approved a landmark set of regulations that will open a large swath of the region’s waters to fishing while maintaining other closures to protect vulnerable species.

The opening of one area east of Nantucket, closed since the 1990s, could be extremely lucrative, allowing fishermen to catch as much as $160 million worth of additional scallops in the coming fishing season, regulators estimate.

“The scallop industry is thrilled to be able to access significant scallop beds,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney at the Fisheries Survival Fund in Washington D.C., which represents the scallop industry. “Allowing rotational scallop fishing on these areas will increase the scallop fishery revenue in the short term and in the long run.”

Yet many in the industry had hoped that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would go further.

Minkiewicz and others objected to the decision to maintain the ban on fishing on the northern edge of Georges Bank, where there are significant amounts of scallops but also vulnerable species such as juvenile cod.

Minkiewicz said the industry would continue to press NOAA to reconsider opening those fishing grounds.

“The scallop industry respectfully disagrees with [NOAA’s] conclusion that allowing limited scallop fishing [there] . . . was not consistent with the law,” he said.

NOAA officials said that opening such areas could be harmful to some fish.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

NOAA to open New England scallop areas, invite record harvest

January 5, 2018 — New England sea scallop fishers can start planning now for what promises to be their best season in 14 years, thanks to a decision coming soon from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

John Bullard, the outgoing administrator of NOAA’s greater Atlantic region, informed the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), in a five-page letter sent late Wednesday, that the agency will follow most of its recommendations with regard to the “essential fish habitat” amendment – a long-discussed plan to reset fishing management and conservation practices in the area.

That includes opening up to scallop harvesters an expanded portion of Closed Area I and the western part of the Nantucket Lightship area, two sections of the Atlantic Ocean that have been closed for a decade and are now expected to be loaded with large scallops.

“NMFS determined that the removal of the Closed Area I designations and proposed new designations do not compromise the ability of the council’s fishery management plans to comply with the [essential fish habitat] requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” Bullard wrote in his letter, which was addressed to John Quinn, NEFMC’s chairman.

Based on surveys reported in September, Closed Area 1, including the previous off-limit “sliver” area and northern portion, contains 19.8 million pounds (9,016 metric tons) of exploitable scallop meat, referring to scallops found with shells that were at least 4 inches wide. Even better, as much as 45.6m lbs (20,670t) of exploitable scallop meat is projected to exist in the west Nantucket Lightship area.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Scallops: Framework 29 “Highest Yield, Lowest Impact” Alternative Advances Following NMFS Habitat Decision

January 5, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

On Wednesday, January 3, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), also known as NOAA Fisheries, informed the New England Fishery Management Council that it had “approved the majority” of the Council’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2 (OHA2). The approved provisions include two actions that have a direct impact on Framework Adjustment 29 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, which, among other measures, contains 2018 fishing year specifications and 2019 default specifications for the scallop fishery.

The Framework 29 preferred alternative that now will be advancing for NMFS review and implementation contains the following 2018 allocations for the fishing year that begins on April 1:

Full-time limited access scallop permit holders – 24 open-area days-at-sea and six 18,000-pound access area trips with:

  • Two trips in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area
  • Two trips in the newly available Nantucket Lightship West Access Area
  • One trip in the Nantucket Lightship South Area
  • One trip in the new Closed Area I Access Area with the northern portion, including the “sliver,” available

Part-time limited access scallop permit holders – 9.6 open area days-at-sea and three 14,400- pound access area trips with:

  • One trip in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area
  • One trip in the Nantucket Lightship West Area
  • One trip in the reconfigured Closed Area I Access Area

During its December meeting, not knowing whether NMFS would approve all of the proposed changes in the habitat amendment, the Council adopted four Framework 29 preferred alternatives for scallop allocations that covered the potential mix of access area possibilities – both with and without Closed Area I and Nantucket Lightship West. The breakdown of these alternatives is available at: http://s3.amazonaws.com/nefmc.org/NEFMC-Approves-Scallop-Framework-29-REVISED.pdf

Of the four scenarios, the one that now is moving forward for NMFS review and implementation provides the greatest benefits and is projected to result in close to 60.1 million pounds of landings in scallop meat weight over the next fishing year.

“By giving the fleet access to dense concentrations of scallops in the northern portion of Closed Area I and Nantucket Lightship West, scallopers will be able to catch their trip limits faster and reduce the amount of time dredges are on bottom,” said Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn. “This scenario has another benefit in that it lets us shift effort away from Closed Area II, which means flatfish bycatch will be lower and the scallops in that area will have a chance to grow larger.”

The Council also included a provision in Framework 29 to allocate the existing 1.64 million pounds of Closed Area I carryover that are still on the books. These pounds are from trips allocated to Closed Area I in 2012 and 2013 through a lottery system but never were taken due to poor fishing.

The resulting Framework 29 allocations for the Limited Access General Category (LAGC) Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) fishery include: (1) a 3,086,050-pound quota, equivalent to 5.5% of annual projected landings for the fishery as a whole; and (2) a total of 3,426 access area trips at a maximum of 600 pounds each into the following areas:

  • 1,142 trips in the Mid-Atlantic Access Area
  • 1,142 trips in the Nantucket Lightship West Access Area
  • 571 trips in the Nantucket Lightship South Access Area
  • 571 trips in the Closed Area I Access Area

Framework 29 also includes flatfish accountability measures and Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area catch limits and related provisions, which are described at the link above. The Council will provide a broader overview of the habitat amendment decision in a subsequent release.

To view the release from the NEFMC in its entirety click here.