Nantucket Archives - Page 19 of 22

DON CUDDY: An independent fisherman struggles to hang on in an uncertain fishery

July 24, 2017 — It was 4 a.m. as I crossed a deserted Sagamore bridge but the night sky was already beginning to lighten.

When I turned into the lot on School St. in Hyannis I could see the boat, its white hull splashed with green from the glow of the starboard running light. I clambered aboard.

On the Angenette, a 40-foot wooden dragger built in 1946, Captain Ron Borjeson waited along with his grandson Trent Garzoni. Lost amongst the tourist hordes and tricked-out sportfishing boats crowding the Hyannis docks these are guys you don’t notice anymore — independent commercial fishermen, struggling to pursue their traditional livelihood. Reductions in the catch limits and rising expenses are constant worries. The fluke quota was cut by 30 percent last year and again this year, while just to tie up in Hyannis for the season costs eleven grand.

We headed out to Nantucket Sound just as dawn broke. The inshore squid season ended on June 1. Ron got eighty-six days out of that and now he is into fluke. In state waters, he can take three hundred pounds daily though no fishing is permitted on Fridays or Saturdays.

After steaming for about an hour to the chosen ground we made the first tow. It was quiet except for the throb of the diesel. The sky was clear, the sea sparkled and the breeze was like a caress. On such a morning it was easy to feel the tug of the seafaring life. We hauled back and a representative cross-section of our multispecies New England fishery spilled from the dripping net.

We easily filled two totes with fluke, white side up to keep them pristine. There were baskets for keeping sea bass, conch and scup. There is no limit on scup but if Angenette lands 500 pounds the price is 65 cents per pound and if they bring in 1400 pounds it drops to 50 cents so there you go.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Fisheries Announces Continuation of Voluntary Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

July 18, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

The voluntary vessel speed restriction zone south of Nantucket, MA has been extended to protected an aggregation of three right whales sighted in this area on July 16, 2017.

Mariners, please avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside the area (map below).

Nantucket, MA zone coordinates:

41 32 N

40 53 N

070 29 W

069 36 W

This voluntary speed restriction zone is in effect through July 30.

Find out more about all the dynamic and seasonal management areas where speed is restricted.

Learn more about how to reduce vessels strikes of whales.

You can also get recent right whale sightings and the latest acoustic detections of right whales in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston shipping lanes. Or, download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone.

Remember that approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law. Please report all right whale sightings to 866-755-NOAA (6622)

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel at 978-281-9175 or jennifer.goebel@noaa.gov

Watch Out For Whales South of Nantucket

July 6, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries announces that a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) has been established south of Nantucket, MA to protect an aggregation of 3 right whales sighted in this area on July 3, 2017. This DMA is in effect immediately through July 18, 2017. 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. Please visit www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/shipstrike for more information.

South of Nantucket, MA DMA — in effect through July 18, 2017

41 32 N

40 53 N

070 29 W

069 36 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:

Great South Channel U.S. SMA — in effect through July 31, 2017

FOR RECENT RIGHT WHALE SIGHTINGS, VISIT:

www.nefsc.noaa.gov/psb/surveys/

DOWNLOAD THE WHALE ALERT APP FOR iPAD AND iPHONE:

stellwagen.noaa.gov/protect/whalealert.html

Questions? Contact Peter Kelliher at 978-282-8474 or peter.kelliher@noaa.gov.

NOAA Establishes Voluntary Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket

June 28, 2017 — A voluntary speed restriction zone about 15 miles south of Nantucket has been established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division.

It comes after three right whales were spotted in the area recently.

According to researchers, there are only about 400 North Atlantic right whales still in existence.

Those who approach a right whale closer than 500 yards will be in violation of federal and state law and could lead to criminal charges.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

NOAA Fisheries Announces New Voluntary Speed Restriction Zone South of Nantucket

June 20, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA Fisheries has established a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone south of Nantucket, MA established to protect an aggregation of three right whales sighted in this area on June 15, 2017.

Mariners, please avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside the area (map below).

Nantucket, MA zone coordinates:

41 17 N

40 47 N

070 24 W

069 44 W

This voluntary speed restriction zone is in effect through June 30.

Find out more about all the dynamic and seasonal management areas where speed is restricted.

Learn more about how to reduce vessels strikes of whales.

You can also get recent right whale sightings and the latest acoustic detections of right whales in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston shipping lanes. Or, download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone.

Remember that approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law. Please report all right whale sightings to 866-755-NOAA (6622)

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel at 978-281-9175 or jennifer.goebel@noaa.gov

Science center to fund research into surf clams, quahogs

May 30, 2017 — A fisheries science center is funding research projects designed to learn more about a pair of valuable ocean clams.

The work will concern the ocean quahog and surf clam, which are clams of high economic value that are fished along the East Coast. They are popular in chowders and other seafood dishes.

The Science Center for Marine Fisheries is funding the research as part of $200,000 it is allocating for a host of fisheries research projects. The science center is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center.

The research will include a project to try to explain changes in the abundance of ocean quahogs. There will also be a survey of surf clams southeast of Nantucket that the science center says will be the first of its kind.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at NH1

Nantucket Lightship Access Area Closing on May 30 for Scallop LAGC-IFQ Permit Holders

May 26, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA:

We are closing the Nantucket Lightship Access Area to the limited access general category (LAGC) individual fishing quota (IFQ) fleet on May 30, 2017. The area will remain closed to the LAGC IFQ fleet for the remainder of the 2017 fishing year through March 31, 2018.

Under the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, once the LAGC IFQ fleet reaches its annual limit on the number of trips into the Nantucket Lightship Access Area (837 trips in 2017), we are required to close the area to the LAGC IFQ fleet for the remainder of the 2017 fishing year to prevent overharvest. We project that the LAGC IFQ fleet has reached its 2017 limit of 837 trips allocated for the Nantucket Lightship Access Area.

Vessels that have complied with the observer notification requirements, declared a trip into the Nantucket Lightship Scallop Access Area using the correct Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) code, and crossed the VMS demarcation line before 0001, May 30, 2017, may complete their trip and retain and land scallops caught from the Nantucket Lightship Access Area.

For more information, read the notice as filed in the Federal Register this afternoon and the permit holder bulletin on our website.

Questions? Contact Shannah Jaburek at 978-282-8456 or shannah.jaburek@noaa.gov

Prices diving for largest US scallops

May 12, 2017 — US fishing vessels have been landing lots of larger scallops since fishing started in March, bringing prices down rapidly.

So far, landings have been largely U10s and 20/30s, a source with a large New Bedford, Massachusetts-based buyer told Undercurrent News.

“At today’s auction we saw a lot of U10s. Daily catch rates have started high and with plenty of large scallops,” the source said.

Prices at the New Bedford auction illustrate this.

Early in April (April 10), prices were as follows, according to information seen by Undercurrent:

U10s caught in the Nantucket Lightship scallop access area went for an average $16.96 per pound; U12s from the same grounds for $16.66/lb; 10/20s from the Elephant Trunk flex access area sold at $9.63/lb; and 20/30s from the Mid-Atlantic access area went for $9.38/lb.

By April 26 these were down across the board: U10s down 4% at $16.31; U12s down 8% at $15.38/lb; 10/20s down 6% at $9.07/lb; and 20/30s down 6% at $8.80/lb.

However the real drop has come in May. On May 11 these corresponding prices were down, compared to April 10:

U10s by 19%, to $13.70/lb; U12s by 25% to $12.50/lb; 10/20s by 22%, at $7.51/lb; and 20/30s by 20%, at $7.47/lb.

“The catch rates have been outstanding,” a second source, who works at a fishing company, told Undercurrent. “So, people are trying to figure out if we are going to have 50-55 million pounds, which is a lot more than we have been getting.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: State unreceptive to squid-fishing petition

March 24, 2017 — David Pierce, director of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries, started yesterday’s public hearing on whether to bar trawlers from fishing for squid within three miles of Nantucket by listing the reasons he does not support a local petition to keep them away from the island from May 1 to Oct. 31.

By the end of the four-hour meeting, attended by an overflow crowd at the Public Safety Facility, Nantucket charter captain and former commercial fisherman Pete Kaizer hoped Pierce had changed his mind on at least one thing: that trawlers disrupt what are called squid mops in a way that kills squid eggs and affects spawning.

“Squid mops have to stay intact for 17-30 days and to disturb them will cause 100 percent mortality.You can’t be fishing on spawning squid and the eggs as well. That could be a tipping point with the kind of fishing pressure there now.”

Read the full story at The Inquirer and Mirror

After a record run of squid, local fishermen warily eye competition, regulatory challenges

March 24, 2017 — It was the best single run of longfin squid anyone on the East Coast had ever seen – and it happened fast and was over fast. In two months last summer, June and July, the East Coast-based squid fleet landed approximately 14 million pounds, with Rhode Island landing more than 50 percent of that quota, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration landing reports.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. The squid just kept coming,” said Point Judith fisherman Jeff Wise of Narragansett. “I’ve never seen volume and catch rates that high before.”

For those two summer months, the fishing port of Point Judith, or Galilee, was the squid capital of the world, the hub of squid commerce. Shore-side activity went nonstop as processors and others tried to keep pace with the volume of squid the fishing vessels carried in from the sea. Approximately 118 vessels, according to state landing reports, from as far south as Wanchese, N.C., used Rhode Island ports to offload their catch.

Although June and July are traditionally peak squid months, with average summer landings (May through August) fluctuating between 3 million and 19 million pounds, it was the high catch rates for those two months that was unprecedented last summer, which for the season saw 18.7 million pounds of landings.

“Though we’ve been seeing an upward trend in [longfin] squid since 2010, [last year was] one of the strongest we’ve seen since the 1990s,” said Jason Didden, squid-management-plan coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the agency, along with the National Marine Fisheries Service, responsible for squid policy.

Local fishermen, many of whom depend heavily on squid, enjoyed the bounty but are warily focused on regulatory issues they fear could bring the good times to a premature end.

Landings the past 30 years have shown peaks and valleys, as levels of squid abundance have changed – but there has been no need for quota cuts.

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council often works with advisory panels to identify problems within fisheries and to come up with solutions to those problems. It’s a long road, complex and full of red tape, to go from an identified fishery problem to an actual change in the policy. These advisory panels are composed of industry members, recreational anglers, environmentalists and academics.

Three policy issues surfaced in recent months that could affect Rhode Island squid vessels and processors. One concerns managing the number of squid permits allowed, an issue perennially raised by the commercial fishing industry. The other two concern the possible loss of fishing ground – one by proposed wind farms off Long Island, and the other from lobbying pressure for a buffer zone in a key squid area south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

The buffer-zone issue was raised by a group of recreational fishermen from Nantucket.

“It’s hard to be optimistic right now,” said Wise. “It never seems to stop – we are constantly worried about losing fishing ground [due to] buffer zones, marine sanctuaries and wind farms.”

Read the full story at the Providence Business News