Saving Seafood

Fishing industry artists to present gallery talk; Exhibit at New Bedford public library extended through November

October 29, 2015 — Inside Out: The New Bedford Fishing Industry Through Industry Eyes, is a multi-media exhibit featuring the work of six artists who are all employed in or retired from the local fishing industry. The exhibit which is on display at the main branch of the New Bedford Public Library (613 Pleasant Street) has been extended through November 30th. The public is invited to a gallery talk on November 12th (AHA night) from 7:00-8:00 pm. The exhibit, which features photographs of Alan Cass, Serina Gundersen, and Phil Mello, illustrations of Bob Bowers, knot work of Manny Vinagre, and boat models of Manuel Silva, is a project of the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

At the gallery talk on November 12th, each of the artists will talk about the relationship between their work and their art. While many past exhibits have explored aspects of the working port and the fishing industry through the eyes of artists and photojournalists, this exhibit features the work of those on the inside. From this vantage point, these artists have access to what is often a closed world. Their often intimate work provides viewers a unique opportunity to see the fishing industry from the “inside out”.

Read the full story at New Bedford Guide

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Fishery science will make all the difference

October 29, 2015 — The message coming to New Bedford fishermen from federal regulators isn’t all bad.

On Tuesday, the top administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, visited New Bedford to meet with local members of the fishing community and spoke in a way that suggests the regulators understand the industry’s perspective.

“We are committed to working with the best science and trying to find the right way forward to sustain the health of the fisheries and the fishing community,” she said following a closed-door meeting, a harbor tour and a discussion at the School for Marine Science and Technology in the South End.

There are short-term crises for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery as well as long-term crises. A brief postponement of industry-funded observers takes some pressure off the fishermen and allows more work to find a compromise that satisfies the requirement of the law without driving boats out of business. In the meantime, while the right folks work out that short-term crisis, there is a necessity to keep working on the long-term issues.

The industry can hardly focus beyond the looming requirement that they pay for the implementation of at-sea monitors on groundfish boats and the immediate economic effect it will have on marginally profitable permit holders.

For too long, the message from the courts, some environmental groups and older NOAA enforcement actions had been concerned with only the resource, not the impacts of trying to sustainably harvest that resource. Administrator Sullivan’s statement of NOAA’s commitment to keeping both strong — and underpinning that work with science — opens great opportunities for collaboration and success.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: NOAA head visits New Bedford, tours harbor

October 28, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The commercial fishing community had an opportunity to meet and discuss regulations on Tuesday with Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the first in person meeting between the NOAA administrator and local fishing community since 1993.

The closed-door meeting included a boat tour of the New Bedford Harbor and a discussion at the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth with fishermen, city leaders, and other officials.

Sullivan’s visit comes as the ground fishing industry prepares to take another hit with the cost of at-sea monitors shifting to the fishing boats. Estimates are it will cost fishing boats $710 or more each day to employ a person to count the fish that a boat takes in.

The meeting was meant to spark a conversation between the regulators and the commercial fishing community in New Bedford, which is considered the United States’ top fishing port with annual landings valued at $379 million.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Lecture Series: Whales in the Heart of the Sea

October 27, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The following free lectures exploring our evolving relationship with whales will take place at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. 

6:00 p.m. Reception  |  6:30 p.m. Lecture

Tuesday, Nov 3

Whales: An Economic, Cultural, and Environmental Icon

Dr. Michael Moore (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Scott Landry (Center for Coastal Studies), Robert Rocha (New Bedford Whaling Museum), and Regina Asmutis-Silvia (Whale & Dolphin Conservation) discuss the complex and evolving relationship between people and whales.

Tuesday, Nov. 10 

The Culture of Sperm Whales 

Dr. Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University Professor of Biology and author of Sperm Whales: Social Evolution in the Ocean, illuminates the underwater lives and rich culture of these these misunderstood “monsters of the deep.”

Tuesday, Nov. 17 

Survivors: Life Before & After the Essex 

Michael Harrison, Chief Curator from the Nantucket Historical Society, discusses the real life tragedy that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and upcoming Warner Bros. film In The Heart of the Sea (based on the novel by Nathaniel Philbrick).

Save your seat by calling 508-997-0046 x 100 or register online.

These events will also be broadcast live online.  

This lecture series is supported by a grant from the NOAA Preserve America Initiative.

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, at 978-281-9175 or Jennifer.Goebel@noaa.gov.

 

 

NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan to Visit New Bedford, Mass.

October 26, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The following was released by Center for Sustainable Fisheries: 

Mayor Jon Mitchell will host a visit by NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27, 2015. 

Administrator Sullivan and Mayor Mitchell, accompanied by other officials, will meet with local fishing industry leaders as well as tour New Bedford harbor and the SMAST campus (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology).

Following a lunch at SMAST, participants will be available to answers questions from the press at 12:45 P.M. (706 South Rodney French Boulevard, New Bedford)

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is the federal agency charged with managing the nation’s fisheries; NMFS is an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Department of Commerce.

New Bedford is the America’s top fishing port for fourteen consecutive years with annual landings valued at $379 million.

MASSACHUSETTS: Coast Guard, Samaritan tow in fishing boat disabled off Monomoy

October 16, 2015 — The Coast Guard and a commercial fishing boat towed another fishing boat in from off Monomoy Island where it had become disabled after engine trouble Thursday, according to the Coast Guard.

Late Thursday afternoon watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England notified their command center that the 41-foot Angel Fish, with its three-man crew, was disabled because of a main diesel engine failure 10 miles south of the island, according to a statement from the Coast Guard.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times

Massachusetts: Gov. Charlie Baker approves $30 million for SMAST expansion in New Bedford

October 15, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Gov. Charlie Baker approved $30 million in state funding Thursday for the long-planned SMAST expansion at the UMass Dartmouth campus in the South End, clearing the way for a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 23 and spurring excitement from politicians and UMass administrators.

“I’m ecstatic about this,” said state Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford. “This project is one that, in the past few weeks, I thought we were going to lose.”

Baker’s administration has been scrutinizing proposed bond projects across the state since he took office in January. The administration put a hold about two months ago, Montigny said, on SMAST expansion funding that had been ostensibly secured through a prior agreement with former Gov. Deval Patrick.

Montigny and New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell both said Thursday that they had been pushing hard for several weeks to secure the funding under the Baker administration.

“I’m thrilled that this project is at last going forward,” Mitchell said. “SMAST will continue to be a major counterpoint to federal government-sponsored fisheries research. And in that way, SMAST will continue to help level the playing field for our fishing fleet.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

New Bedford, Mass. waterfront development sparks optimism — and skepticism

October 7, 2015 — Could the former NStar site be home to the East Coast’s first flume tank for fisheries, a New Bedford Harbor Hotel or a state-of-the-art center and tech museum? What if State Pier had retail shops mixed in with a busy farmers and fish market to draw in tourists?

These ideas were among those floated at a public meeting Wednesday night on the future of New Bedford’s waterfront as part of a master planning process that is designed to help residents envision where growth should happen.

While there were some positive ideas, planners also were met with skepticism as some residents said they doubted progress would be made.

The planning process began last fall and will culminate at the end of this year with draft plans followed by several public meetings and approvals at the city level.

“This whole process is about the whole waterfront from Coggeshall Street to Cove Street. It is a plan that is about the future vision of the waterfront,” said Ed Anthes-Washburn, acting port director for the Harbor Development Commission.

The public meeting was the second of two meetings following a year’s worth of planning and public interviews along the waterfront by a waterfront steering committee and representatives of Boston consulting firm Sasaki Associates.

While residents and community members filled the conference room at the Fairfield Inn & Suites’ Waypoint Event Center to weigh in on the future of the waterfront, there was clearly skepticism. Many people said they already considered the prospects of development unlikely, questioned where money would come from and others speculated that the entire process was a Nov. 3 election stunt.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

ANTHONY FERNANDES: Mismanagement, not ‘overfishing,’ threatens industry

October 8, 2015 — “Overfishing” or “overfished” are terms used when, for any reason, the stock level of a species of fish is not at a sustainable level. It doesn’t matter what the cause.

The long-term use of these terms has hurt the fishermen in the eyes of the public. The continued use of the terms insinuates that the fisherman have been somehow circumventing the laws or pirating fish. So it’s difficult to get support from politicians or the public, and it has empowered the green groups who have grown with more donations and have been more aggressive with NMFS to add more restrictions for fisherman and increase observers under the umbrella of ending overfishing, no matter what the cost or the consequences.

Because the stock is declared overfished, the solution always falls to more layers of fishing restrictions in the form of an emergency action, a framework adjustment or a full amendment, depending on the severity. There is no requirement to find out exactly what was wrong with prior plans, leaving no feedback loop to correct the problem or problems. Nobody is held accountable for their analysis, their science or their models, therefore it rarely changes and the burden is placed squarely on the backs of the fishing industry: Somehow, it is their fault, even though they fished according to what NMFS and these regulations required and landed what they were legally allowed to land.

So here we go with another framework. Is this one going to work? Why didn’t the previous dozens of frameworks work for Gulf of Maine cod? Are we doing the exact same thing over and over and expecting different results?

A good analogy for this was watching the recent Hurricane Joaquin coming across the Atlantic and hitting the Bahamas. There were several tracking models displaying what the projected track was going to be up the East Coast. I counted 10 different tracks by 10 different models. The one that was correct was the Euro model, and it was the one I saw the least. It was right, the rest of the models were wrong in there projections, but used together one could understand the scope of possibilities, and that was helpful. But if they had only shown one model and that was wrong, how helpful would that have been?

That is why the fishing industry is so frustrated. It has been under the wrong model or fishery plan for a long time now for Gulf of Maine cod. How much would you depend on the Weather Channel if they were wrong over and over because they were using the wrong model or only showing the result of one model or using the wrong data?

The fishermen are not the cause of the failure of these fishery management plans. They fish within the regulations approved by NMFS. They all have satellite tracking devices (required for all groundfish boats for more than 10 years) to show NMFS where they are fishing and they bring observers by law whenever NMFS says so. The fishery management plans fail because the plan itself is flawed in some way. The industry has been on this rollercoaster ride since the early 1990s. A better term to use next time a stock update determines a fish species is below a level required by the fishery management plan should be: The stock is mismanaged and mismanaging still occurring.

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

 

Festival Contests Showcase Fishing Industry Skills

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — October 1, 2015 — The following was released by the Working Waterfront Festival:

The 2015 Working Waterfront Festival (September 26 & 27) featured a variety of competitions throughout the weekend. Participants competed in whaleboat races; a tug boat muster; net mending, splicing, link squeezing, and scallop shucking contests; a Nautical Tattoo Contest, and a Seafood Throwdown. Each event showcased a variety of industry skills, engaging the public in learning about different aspects of the fishing industry.

The Buzzard’s Bay Rowing Club hosted Whaleboat Races on Saturday morning. Winners were as follows: Women’s Grey Whale: Crabalots with a time of 13:19.3; Women’s Blue Whale: Margaret’s Oars with a time of 11:47.7; Women’s Right Whale: Mystic Seaport with a time of 13:25.6; Coed Blue Whale: Whalers with a time of 12:03.9; Coed Right Whale:Sea Me After Class with a time of 13:21.3; Coed Grey Whale: Bee’s Knees with a time of 14:18.1; and Men’s Right Whale: Mystic Seaport with a time of 11:48.6.  Lorelei won “Best Dressed,” Mystic Seaport won “Most Theatrical” and Oar-e-o’s were deemed “Most Enthusiastic”.

Area tugs converged on the harbor Saturday afternoon for the annual Tugboat Musterorganized by Charlie Mitchell captain of the Tug Jaguar and emceed by his brother Bob Mitchell of R. A. Mitchell Company.  While not a formal contest, tugs of all sizes showed their skill and strength with demonstrations of hawser tossing, turning, and pushing.

Rodney Avila and Ted Williams of Hercules SLR US presented Safety Demos including a life raft deployment and an “Abandon Ship” demonstration to give visitors a sense of the dangers of commercial fishing and the safety protocol that fishermen practice to remain safe at sea.

On Saturday, groundfishing skills were highlighted with a Net Mending Competitionemceed by net designer Tor Bendiksen of Reidar’s Manufacturing and a Rope Splicing Contest emceed by Barbara Merry of Marlinspike Artist.  Winners of the net mending competition were 1st place: Steve Wright of the F/V Hunter with a time of 2:22,  2nd place: Sarah Fortin an employee at Reidar’s Manufacturing with a time of 2:35, 3rd place: Ray Lees of the F/V Paula Jean with a time of 2:59. Kevin Curole of Grand Isle, Louisiana won the splicing contest.

On Sunday, scallopers took center stage with back to back contests:  Link Squeezing(emceed by Mathieu Lemieux of Blue Fleet Welding) and Shucking (emceed by Richie Canastra of BASE/Whaling City Seafood Display Auction). Brothers Levi Brockman (F/V Starbrite) and Steve Brockman (F/V Instigator) won the link squeezing contest with a time of 1:59.  Results of the shucking contest were as follows: Jonathan Hynd of the F/V Horizon took first place with a time of 4:02; Sergey Chadchushkin of the F/V Atlantic took 2nd place with a time of 4:13; and Jeff Swain of the F/V Polaris took 3rd place with a time of 4:19.

Contest prizes were provided by Latti and Anderson LLP, Slave of the Sea, Marlinspike Artist, Buzzard’s Bay Rowing Club, Sinners and Saints Tattoo, Dark Star Tattoo and Body Piercing, Flying Aces Tattoo, the New Bedford Tattoo Company, and the Working Waterfront Festival.

Fourteen individuals competed in the Nautical Tattoo Contest debuting at this year’s festival.  Contestants were judged on artistry, concept/creativity, stage presence and the story behind their tattoo.  The judging panel included tattoo artists, Neil England and Val G., local sculptor Jessica Bregoli, and Raymond Canastra, co-owner of BASE.  Terry Bungay of Newfoundland took home first place. Tanner Tillotson came in second; Bob Vieira came in third; and Sarah Jane Mulvey took fourth.

Sunday culminated with a Seafood Throwdown pitting Chef Chris Cronin of Little Moss (Dartmouth, MA) against Chef Rob Pirnie of Trafford (Warren, RI). With Dogfish as the surprise seafood ingredient, Chef Cronin, who was lucky enough to get an egg bearing dogfish, and clever enough to incorporate the fish roe into his dish (grilled dogfish, sugar pumpkin & lamb chorizo with scrambled roe and peach jam) scored enough extra points for his use of the whole animal to win the day. The Seafood Throwdown is a collaboration between the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and the Working Waterfront Festival.

The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England’s commercial fishing industry, features live music, fishermen’s contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, maritime authors, cooking demonstrations, kid’s activities and more.  It all takes place on working piers and waterfront parks in New Bedford, MA, America’s #1 fishing port, on the last full weekend in September.  Navigate to us at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.