Saving Seafood

Commentary: Fishing rules are strangling honest, hard-working, blue-collar fishermen

December 7, 2022 — Well, where do I start?

I guess the nation no longer cares for the fishing industry. Our government agencies have regulated us to the breaking point. Their data is unjust and from what fishermen see and what they are saying are on two ends of the spectrum.

You can set a net almost anywhere in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank and catch a white hake. But the assessment team that NOAA and NMFS has says there isn’t any hake, so they put unrealistic quota restrictions. So, that means boats with not enough quota have to purchase leased fish in hopes to catch other fish. But leasing hake quota is $1.50 a pound before you leave the dock. The average price to the boat for landing those fish is  $1.40, and that number is being generous. So, you lose money on catching a fish in hopes of catching another fish that lives in the same habitat.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford’s port director on balancing fishing and offshore wind

November 18, 2022 — The following excerpt is from The Publics Radio:

Ben Berke: We’re making more money from seafood in this port than any other port in America. But there are some fisheries that aren’t financially stable anymore. As offshore wind starts to move in, do you think the fishing industry’s physical presence in New Bedford will shrink?

Gordon Carr: No. I don’t. What I have seen with that industry over 20 or 30 years of observing it is that it’s an extraordinarily resilient commercial industry that is also sustainable and understands the importance of the ecology of the ocean to their livelihood. They adapt and have for decades. I will say that it is a top priority of the Port Authority, and certainly the City of New Bedford to help them do that however we can — making sure that we have the facilities that they need, the policies in place that they need, and that we advocate on their behalf at every level.

Berke: Last year, the owner of New Bedford’s biggest fishing fleet, Roy Enoksen, actually sued the city over a proposal that could basically force him to give up a piece of the waterfront he leases from the city to the offshore wind industry. When a conflict like that arises, how do you pick between leasing to a fishermen versus leasing to an offshore wind contractor?

Carr: Well, I think it’s sort of hard to speculate on something like that. That’s a hypothetical. But that’s what long term planning is for, right? It’s to not get yourself into that sort of bind.

Berke: But this piece of the waterfront that Enoksen sued over is a real example of this kind of conflict. So in the end, does the Port Authority simply give the lease to whoever’s willing to pay more?

Carr: I don’t think so. I mean, I’m not going to prejudge our decisionmaking on the use of the site. There’s all kinds of other factors that go into that. Somebody could offer to spend a lot of money and create relatively modest or minimal economic impact or jobs, and that’s a judgment call that we will want to make.

Read the full article at The Publics Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: Tyler Miranda fights for New Bedford fishermen

November 9, 2022 — Tyler Miranda went on his first fishing trip on his father’s lobster boat when he was six years old.

“It was a day trip to Vineyard Sound,” the 37-year old said. “I was doing the worst job on the boat: fixing the bait. I had to deal with the smells and all that.”

Little did that child know that over 30 years later he would launch to prominence among New Bedford scallopers when he led the charge against a proposed limited access permit leasing program earlier this year.

“I don’t want to be a Wal-Mart fisherman,” he said before representatives of the New England Fishery Management Council in May. “I think the fisherman’s voice should be heard.”

The oldest of four children, Miranda said he dropped out of school at age 15 in order to pursue a career in the fleet.

“By then I had to tape the lobsters,” he said, adding he earned 10 cents per crustacean. “It was a little more responsibility because now I had to keep count of it.”

Read the full article at South Coast Today

Blue Harvest defends its business amid rumored DOJ probe into New England groundfish rules

October 11, 2022 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Blue Harvest Fisheries is defending its business practices amid pressure about the fisheries’ legal structure, and signs of a potential antitrust probe by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The concerns were kicked off in July 2022 by a story published in ProPublica via a partnership with The New Bedford Light highlighting the growing influence of foreign equity in U.S. fishing interests as a result of changes to federal rules adopted in 2010.

Read the full article at SeafoofSource

Atlantic sea scallops at lowest biomass in over 20 years — what that means for New Bedford

September 30, 2022 — A Scallop Survey Report presented at the New England Fishery Management Council meeting Tuesday showed the Atlantic sea scallop fishery is facing its lowest biomass in over 20 years.

From a peak of more than 250,000 metric tons in 2017, to under 100,000 in 2022.

“There has been a decline since 2018 due to a large harvest and natural mortality,” Jonathon Peros, an NEFMC staffer, told the Council. “Biomass in 2022 is the lowest since 1999.”

Throughout NEFMC jurisdiction, the survey estimated a biomass decrease of almost 30%. The Georges Bank region saw the largest drop, around 36%.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Division, scallop catch had been on an upward trajectory following its 1998 nadir of 5,564 metric tons.

Read the full article at South Coast Today

New England Fishery Management Council nixes proposed scallop license leasing program

September 28, 2022 — After months of efforts by proponents, the New England Fishery Management Council chose not to move forward with the development of a scallop license allocation leasing program for the limited access fishery at its September meeting.

Around 100 were in attendance Tuesday at the Beauport Hotel, mostly scallopers, many of whom were from New Bedford, including Justin Mello.

“I’m obviously happy,” Mello, who spoke against the leasing program before, said after the move died.

“The Council did its job,” said Tyler Miranda, another New Bedford scalloper. “I actually have faith in the process again.”

Leasing would have allowed owners of limited access scallop licenses to sell portions of their days at sea to other boat owners.

“This leasing would be great for me,” said Paul Weckesser, owner of six scallopers and multiple shoreside enterprises. “I’m pretty vertically integrated.”

Read the full article at South Coast Today

Regulators to vote on controversial scallop leasing plan Tuesday

September 26, 2022 — After months of heated debate between scallop fleet owners, captains andcrew, fisheries regulators are set to decide on a proposal to allow leasing in New England’s lucrative scallop fishery.

The New England Fishery Management Council will vote on the contentious issue in Gloucester on Tuesday. Days ahead of the vote, the council’s scallop advisory panel passed a motion recommending the council proceed with developing a leasing program in the limited access component. However, exemplifying how divisive the issue is, the scallop committee could not reach a consensus — failing to pass any recommendations to the council in two split votes.

Supporters say leasing of fishing allocations will improve efficiency, cut operational costs, minimize emissions amid climate change, ameliorate port congestion and increase flexibility in the event a vessel fails. Opponents say it’s a means of furthering consolidation, with crew and independent shoreside businesses likely to bear the cost.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTES: Rising seas threaten Mass. South Coast and prosperous fishing port, report finds. Here are 5 takeaways

September 20, 2022 — A new report from an environmental nonprofit finds that Massachusetts’ southern coast will see increased flooding and erosion, as well as more destructive bombardment from storms. The report, from the Trustees of Reservations, says that sea levels along the South Coast are projected to rise over two feet by 2050.

The Trustees is the largest private owner of coastal land in in Massachusetts, overseeing 120 miles of coastline. In 2020, after seeing increased flooding and erosion on their properties, the group began to produce annual reports on the current and expected effects of climate change on the Massachusetts coast.

Their first report looked at the North Shore; the 2021 report covered Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Gosnold; this year’s focuses on the 14 South Coast towns that border Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay.

Like previous reports, the latest predicts big climate change impacts on these towns over the next few decades. Here are five takeaways:

New Bedford has a hurricane barrier that works really well.  But that ain’t gonna last.

After being battered by hurricanes in 1938, 1944 and 1954, engineers built a harbor barrier to protect the Port of New Bedford, the most prosperous seafood port in the country. The barrier keeps water in the harbor at a level that protects infrastructure from flooding; when a storm threatens high water, the Army Corps of Engineers closes the gates. In 2019, they closed the barrier 26 times.  With projected 2050 sea level rise, they’ll have to close the barrier at every high tide — that means 1-2 times a day.

“That’s clearly not doable for a working port, it’s not sustainable,” said Cynthia Dittbrenner, director of Coast and Natural Resources at the Trustees of Reservations.

The New Bedford Port Authority and the Town of Fairhaven are looking at ways to make critical infrastructure in the harbor more resilient to flooding, either by raising, moving or replacing it.

Read the full article at WBUR

New Bedford officials say BOEM must demand mitigation, monitoring from wind developers

September 9, 2022 — The federal Bureau of Offshore Energy Management must make a stand on requiring offshore wind developers to commit to mitigation and monitoring to safeguard the $5.5 billion U.S. commercial fishing industry, the New Bedford Port Authority says in a detailed, insistent new commentary to the agency.

“BOEM has the clear statutory authority to require certain actions and hold developers to standards as part of” granting permits for offshore wind projects, the Port Authority says in its nine-page Aug. 22 missive to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton, signed by port authority interim executive director George Krikorian Jr.

“Any ability left to the wind developers to choose their own procedures will always result in them taking the least expensive path most favorable to them, not commercial fishing.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

 

Fishing Industry Calls for Additional Review of Offshore Wind Industry

September 7, 2022 — One of the U.S.’s leading commercial fishing ports has joined a growing list of stakeholders demanding greater protection of the fishing industry from possible threats emanating from the rapidly expanding offshore wind industry. The New Bedford Port Authority (NBPA) in a letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is calling for the federal government to increase protections for the commercial fishing industry. They are cautioning that current policies for offshore wind development could greatly underestimate the shoreside impacts on seafood processors and fleet operations in ports.

In a letter to BOEM Director Amanda Lefton, NBPA says that the ongoing plans to advance offshore wind must safeguard the viability of commercial fishing enterprises. The letter addresses BOEM’s draft guidelines for Offshore Wind Fisheries Mitigation and supplements comments the NBPA submitted in January advocating for efforts requiring offshore wind developers to commit to mitigation measures for the fishing industry.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive