Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker breathes new life into offshore wind energy incentives

October 14, 2021 — In his keynote address to the American Clean Power Association’s Offshore Wind Conference, Gov. Charlie Baker announced significant changes to the state’s next round of energy contract bids.

“We’re ensuring that Massachusetts retains its leading edge position in the offshore wind policy debate in the US by proposing to, among other things, remove the price cap on project proposals to ensure that projects have the flexibility to incorporate storage, improve reliability, and offer greater economic development is part of their bids,” Baker told the hundreds of offshore wind energy advocates and industry people gathered in the Omni Seaport Hotel ballroom Wednesday afternoon.

Baker’s message was a response to criticism that his administration had, in the first three rounds of solicitations for state energy contracts, given disproportionate weight to bids offering a low price for electrical generation. Critics said the bids should have incorporated more incentive for wind farm developers to invest in local businesses and encourage manufacturing to be located in the state.

Massachusetts has historically had some of the highest electric rates in the country, and that resulted in the Baker administration’s emphasis on price. But technological leaps in wind turbine efficiency resulted in bid prices that were much lower than anticipated and many in the state Legislature — mayors like Jon Mitchell of New Bedford — and port city businesses complained to Baker that the state needed to factor in infrastructure.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Monument fishing ban will hurt New Bedford businesses

October 13, 2021 — Just over 30 days ago, the fishing vessel Eagle Eye left federal waters more than 130 miles southeast of Massachusetts to make the 15- to 20-hour trip home to New Bedford Harbor. Its sister vessel, Eagle Eye 2, returned even more recently, with each carrying thousands of pounds of fresh tuna and a bit of swordfish.

John Cafiero, captain of one of the Fairhaven-based vessels, said he and his crew sometimes take multiple trips in the summer to fish in waters that in 2016 were established as a national marine monument. Tuna and swordfish are highly migratory species so sometimes “you don’t want to be in there,” he said, but for the past few years, it has been “really good.”

Cafiero said he didn’t know it then, but that trip might have been his last in the area.

On Oct. 8, President Joe Biden issued a presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act of 1906 prohibiting commercial fishing in an area of water the size of Connecticut.

The administration cited conservation efforts needed to preserve the “vulnerable” deep marine ecosystems and endangered marine species that inhabit or migrate through the waters. The proclamation restores the commercial fishing restrictions first established by former President Barack Obama in 2016, when he declared two areas of water from surface to seabed as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Environmental groups lauded the decision. But local fishermen, business owners and industry advocates said the closure deals yet another blow to a highly regulated industry and is unfair as recreational fishing in the monument may continue.

“These boats are more like your uncle’s pizza shop or your dad’s gas station,” said Mike Machado, lead buyer at Boston Sword & Tuna and a former New Bedford fisherman. “They’re small individual companies. They’re not like this big, evil fishing juggernaut.”

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light

 

U.S. Fishermen Are Making Their Last Stand Against Offshore Wind

September 30, 2021 — A few hundred yards south of the fishing boat docks at the Port of New Bedford in southeastern Massachusetts, workers will soon start offloading gigantic turbine components onto a wide expanse of gravel. Local trawlers and lobster boats will find themselves sharing their waterways with huge vessels hefting cranes and massive hydraulic jacks. And on an approximately 100-square mile patch of open sea that fishermen once traversed with ease, 62 of the world’s largest wind turbines will rise one by one over the ocean waves.

Known as Vineyard Wind, the project is set to be the first-ever commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, generating 800 megawatts of power, or enough to power about 400,000 homes. Dozens of other offshore wind projects are in development up and down America’s east coast. But some in the fishing industry, including many New Bedford fishermen, are concerned that the turbines will upend their way of life.

Earlier this month, a coalition of fishing industry associations and fishing outfits, including 50 New Bedford fishing boats, filed a lawsuit against several U.S. agencies, including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which approved Vineyard Wind in May, alleging that they violated federal law in allowing the project to go forward. The fishing groups frame that fight as a matter of survival, a last ditch effort to slow down a coalition of banks, technocrats and global energy companies set on erecting multi-billion dollar projects that they worry could devastate their livelihoods.

Money is certainly a big issue for many of those behind Vineyard Wind—backers like Bank of America and J.P. Morgan have pledged about $2.3 billion in funding for the project, and they’re looking for returns on that investment. But there’s also a societal imperative to push ahead with such projects, with many green energy proponents saying there is little choice but to get offshore turbines built as soon as possible if the U.S. is to have any chance of meeting its obligations under the Paris Agreement and averting the worst effects of climate change. The Biden Administration is counting on such turbines to produce about 10% of U.S. electricity by 2050, and in coastal, population dense states like Massachusetts and New York, leaders view sea-bound wind farms as a lynchpin of their net zero ambitions.

Read the full story at TIME

 

New Bedford Fishermen Among Those Suing Over Vineyard Wind

September 15, 2021 — Local fishermen are among those in a coalition of commercial fisheries suing the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management over its approval of the Vineyard Wind project.

More than 50 fishing vessels based in New Bedford and Fairhaven are listed as members of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, along with 13 Massachusetts-based businesses and associations.

The group filed a petition in federal court on Monday to review the agency’s approval of Vineyard Wind, a project slated to become the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm off the coast of Nantucket.

According to a statement from the coalition, fisheries professionals had been participating in the planning process for the 62-turbine project — but, the group said, their input was “summarily ignored by decision-makers.”

Read the full story at WBSM

 

Balance of power: BOEM and states look at compensation for fishermen; endangered whales pose challenge to developers

September 14, 2021 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is working with coastal states to come up with plans for potentially compensating fishermen for lost fishing grounds and other negative effects of developing offshore wind turbine arrays.

Fishing industry advocates are pushing anew to get fishermen deeply involved now to minimize impacts from sweeping plans to rapidly develop a U.S. offshore wind industry — and hoping to limit damage to the U.S. food supply.

The government’s drive toward creating more offshore wind energy areas in the New York Bight is looking like a repeat of its mistakes in planning southern New England projects and needs to be braked, fishermen said at an Aug. 6 meeting in New Bedford, Mass.

“It’s going to be responsible for the destruction of a centuries-old industry that’s only been feeding people,” Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told officials of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

White shark tracking organization releases findings after tagging 3 sharks during New England research expedition

August 30, 2021 — OCEARCH has released the findings of its 41st Ocean Research Expedition in New England where they were successfully able to sample, tag, and release three white sharks. The organization says the data collected from these sharks will support 23 science projects, helping “form a complete picture of the ecology, behavior and health of the white shark in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.”

Expedition New England departed from New Bedford on Aug. 1 and spent the first week fishing in federal waters outside of Cape Cod and Nantucket before heading to the Isle of Shoals off of New Hampshire, and ending in Gloucester on Aug. 20.

OCEARCH’s Northwest Atlantic White Shark Study is the most comprehensive research study that has ever been done on a white shark population and the data collected from the three sharks tagged and sampled on Expedition New England will support 23 different research projects including full health assessments, bacterial and microbiome studies and microplastic toxin exposure. In addition, the three tags added to each of these sharks will allow scientists to track their long-term movements as they grow into young adults.

Read the full story at WHDH

MASSACHUSETTS: “Women’s Work,” a new exhibit opens September 9 at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center

August 25, 2021 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is pleased to announce the September 9 opening of its new exhibit, Women’s Work: At Sea, On Shore, At Home, In the Community. The exhibit will shine a light on the many roles women play in commercial fishing communities.

The public is invited to meet the featured photographers at an opening reception from 6:00-8:00 pm September 9; the exhibit will remain on view in the Center’s gallery through March 2022.

Through photographs and oral histories, the exhibit profiles more than sixty women from fishing communities in Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island, and amplifies the voices and experience of women who work in what is often perceived to be a male-dominated world. The exhibit features the photography of Shareen Davis, Markham Starr, and Phil Mello, and draws on oral history interviews conducted over the past 15 years.

Visitors will meet women who work on deck as fishermen and scientists, on shore as welders and electricians, women who own businesses and boats, and women who advocate on behalf of the fishing industry. In addition, the exhibit explores topics ranging from “What do You Call a Woman who Fishes?” to “Women in Myths and Marketing.”

Photographer bios
Shareen Davis is a commercial and fine art photographer, a former photo editor and commercial fisherman and advocate. Her photography conveys political and environmental messages addressing issues of coastal fishing community workers as well as capturing the history, environment, and beauty of Chatham’s coastline. She is a 13th generation Cape Codder and resides in Chatham. Davis and her husband Ernie Eldredge owned a weir fishing business now owned by their daughter.

Markham Starr is a documentary photographer working in New England. Author of more than a dozen books and numerous documentary films, his photographs have been featured in magazines such as LensWork, Yankee, Vermont Magazine, and Rhode Island Monthly, and can be found in numerous museums in New England. His major projects are in the permanent collection at the Library of Congress.

Phillip Mello has worked on the New Bedford waterfront in a variety of capacities for 40+ years and has been taking photographs of fellow waterfront workers since 1975. As an insider with direct knowledge of the fishing industry he has access to what is often a closed community. He was the photographer for the Fishing Heritage Center’s 2016 Archie Green project, Workers on the New Bedford Waterfront. His images for that project are presently on display at the American Folklife Center and archived at the Library of Congress.

The Center is also presenting a year-long series of films, talks, performances, and demonstrations in conjunction with the exhibit, which are designed to engage visitors in exploring the lives, skills, and experiences of women who work in the fishing industry as well as those who are connected through family. Learn more about these programs on the Center’s online calendar, fishingheritagecenter.org/programs/calendar.

Women’s Work: At Sea, On Shore, At Home, In the Community is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Women’s Fisheries Network, the Mass Cultural Council, and the Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, and Westport Cultural Councils.

Please contact programs@fishingheritagecenter.org with any questions.

MASSACHUSETTS: Investigation continues into fisherman who went overboard on New Bedford scalloper

August 24, 2021 — Blue Harvest Fisheries CEO Keith Decker told the Standard-Times last week that crew members met with Coast Guard officials when they returned to port on Tuesday. He said they were waiting for the investigation to determine what happened.

There were seven crew members on the vessel, including the captain and the man who went overboard. Decker said the man was a first-time crew member with Blue Harvest who had never fished with them before. However, he had heard the man was an experienced fisher.

The man was woken because he had the next watch, but never showed up, according to the Coast Guard. The agency said the man was not wearing a life jacket, which is only required under federal law for children under 13 years of age while the vessel is underway.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New Bedford Ocean Cluster incorporated as nonprofit

August 24, 2021 — The New Bedford Ocean Cluster (NBOC) has announced its official incorporation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

The NBOC aims to enhance the city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.’s maritime industries while “advancing new programs, start-ups, and technology partnerships with a primary focus in four different industry areas,” NBOC said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

THE NEW BEDFORD OCEAN CLUSTER ANNOUNCES ITS INCORPORATION

August 23, 2021 — The following was released by the New Bedford Ocean Cluster:

The New Bedford Ocean Cluster (NBOC) today announced that it is now is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. The NBOC’s mission is to leverage New Bedford’s coastal position, marine knowledge base, and landside capacity to drive employment and wealth creation in Greater New Bedford. The NBOC looks to accomplish this through a dynamic approach, combining recruitment of targeted businesses, creation of unique economic infrastructure, workforce development, and support for homegrown ocean economy companies.

The New Bedford Ocean Cluster will seek to enhance the City and Port of New Bedford’s existing strengths in maritime industries, while advancing new programs, start-ups and technology partnerships with a primary focus in four different industry areas. These four industry areas include: Commercial Fishing and Processing, Aquaculture, Offshore Renewables, and the Innovation & Technology Sector. The NBOC was originally formed in 2015 as a program of the New Bedford Port Authority. In 2019, the NBOC merged with the former New Bedford Wind Energy Center, which focused on business development in the offshore wind industry.

The NBOC is governed by a ten member Board of Directors who represent key focus areas of the organization. Recently, elections were held to nominate and select members of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. Former New Bedford Mayor John Bullard will serve as the President of the Board, along with former New Bedford Port Director Edward Anthes-Washburn as Vice President, and Jennifer J. Menard, Vice President, Economic and Business Development, Interim – Bristol Community College, as Treasurer and Secretary. The remaining board members are as follows: Keith Decker (CEO of Blue Harvest Fisheries), John Quinn (Assistant Dean for Public Interest Law & External Relations: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth), Anthony R. Sapienza (President, New Bedford Economic Development Council), Chris Rezendes (Professor Emeritus – Marine Biology & Aquaculture Extension Specialist: Roger Williams University), and Michael Quinn (Co-Owner: Quinn Fisheries, Inc.).

NBOC President John Bullard had this to say about the organization and his role within it, “I have often said you can describe New Bedford in one word: seaport. We send our people to sea. The mission of the New Bedford Ocean Cluster is to build on that centuries old relationship to create economic opportunity for future generations by building on our dominance in commercial fishing, leading the way in offshore wind, breaking new ground in marine technology, and joining the fast growing field of marine aquaculture. These four fields and the relationships between each of them create the potential for thousands of local jobs that pay well and that involve every segment of our diverse community. I am honored that Mayor Mitchell invited me to serve on this mission for New Bedford’s future. We have a dynamic Board with world class expertise in all the fields where we will operate and I am humbled to have been asked to lead them.”

Mayor Jon Mitchell serves on the NBOC’s Board of Directors in an Ex Officio role, stated, “The NBOC will be instrumental in ensuring New Bedford achieves its full potential as a leading maritime center. We seek to capitalize on our advantages in fishing, offshore wind and other industries so that we can create new and sustainable opportunities for the residents of our region.”

More information about the NBOC can be found on the organization’s website: www.newbedfordoceancluster.org