Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Haddock chowder a winner for small boat fishermen — and the hungry

July 7, 2021 — When the pandemic hit last winter, restaurants and fish markets were among the first businesses to shut down.

The combination hit the region’s fishing fleet really hard, said Seth Rolbein, director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. May starts the new fishing year and summer is by far the industry’s busiest season.

“It took the legs out from under the fleet,” said Rolbein.

Additionally, fish processors in ports like New Bedford and Gloucester had the same issues as meat packing plants in the Midwest, Rolbein said. With employees working in close proximity, the fish processing plants weren’t built to contain the spread of the virus, said Rolbein, and they shut down too.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Meet the women of New Bedford’s Waterfront: Scientists analyze data to support fisheries

July 7, 2021 — Scientist Kevin Stokesbury pulled up a digital presentation in his New Bedford office at the School for Marine Science and Technology. Across from him sat fisheries consultant Cate O’Keefe with a notepad and pen in hand.

For about an hour, O’Keefe asked Stokesbury (her former doctoral advisor) a series of questions about scallop surveys, the potential impacts of offshore wind development on data collection, and the ways in which survey collaboration could improve.

She will meet with other researchers in the region in the coming weeks for a project with the New England Fishery Management Council — the organization that regulates fisheries in federal waters from Maine to Connecticut. The working group O’Keefe is involved with expects to issue a set of recommendations to improve scallop surveys by next summer, which will ultimately inform the future management of New Bedford’s most lucrative fishery

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford hires new port director from New York City port

July 2, 2021 — The New Bedford Port Authority has hired its new port director, five months after the former director left his role for the private sector.

Justin Poulsen, who currently serves as vice president and executive director of PortNYC for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, will start his new role on July 30.

He was selected by the port authority’s commission, which Mayor Jon Mitchell chairs, from a pool of more than 75 applicants, according to the city. He is replacing former Port Director Ed Anthes-Washburn.

“I am thrilled to join the New Bedford Port Authority as its next Executive Director, leading an outstanding organization with a very distinguished history and extremely bright prospects for the future,” Poulsen said in a statement. “I want to thank the Commissioners for their trust, and I am excited to get to work with the dedicated team to ensure the Port continues to attract business from across the globe by offering world-class services and infrastructure.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford mayor unhappy with Baker pick for fish panel

July 2, 2021 — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is once again expressing frustration with Beacon Hill leaders for a lack of focus on the Whaling City.

Last week, Plymouth resident Michael Pierdinock was named to a seat representing Massachusetts on the New England Fishery Management Council, a panel that sets rules for the fishing industry such as catch limits. It is one of eight such regional councils nationwide.

Pierdinock will replace former state Rep. John Quinn, a Dartmouth resident and longtime member who had years of expertise regarding commercial fishing issues in Greater New Bedford.

Pierdinock, a civil engineer who owns a charter boat, was Gov. Charlie Baker’s top choice for the seat and listed as a recreational fisherman. State campaign-finance records show he has made $2,500 in campaign donations to Baker since 2016.

A Baker administration official emphasized that Pierdinock docks his vessel in New Bedford, and said he is knowledgeable about issues “that impact recreational anglers and the for-hire industry.”

But that defense didn’t satisfy Mitchell.

Read the full story at WPRI

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘More Than a Job’ offers a look into New Bedford fishing industry

July 1, 2021 — New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center has recently celebrated the opening of its new, permanent exhibit, “More than a Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Commercial Fishing Industry.”

The center held a grand opening of the new exhibit and marked its fifth anniversary on Saturday, June 26, with a free public event. The celebration at 38 Bethel St. included demonstrations of industry skills, kids’ activities, and live music by the Rum Soaked Crooks. A speaking program featured remarks delivered by Congressman Bill Keating, state Rep. Tony Cabral, and Brian Boyles, executive director of Mass Humanities.

“The nation’s most valuable port has long deserved an institution dedicated to telling its story,” said Executive Director Laura Orleans. “The Fishing Heritage Center fills that void, and our new exhibit offers visitors the sort of immersive experience usually reserved for larger museums.”

“More Than a Job” provides visitors with an introduction to the New Bedford fishing industry. Visitors can explore the changing nature of work and community through displays that present labor history, immigration and sustainability. They can also experience a working deck, which includes a scallop dredge, galley table and bunks. Guests can view historic and contemporary images and footage, and listen to more than sixty audio clips sharing the many voices of the fishing community:

Read the full story at The Herald News

MASSACHUSETTS: Sea Changes at New Bedford’s Fishing Heritage Center

June 28, 2021 — Five years ago, tourists visiting our historic fishing port would just walk past the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center on Bethel Street without blinking an eye. Executive Director Laura Orleans and her staff were just setting sail to start the center, with the idea of telling the action-packed story of New Bedford’s fishing industry with a year-round facility.

Yet considering how much the non-profit center has grown in these first five years, they knew they were going to need a bigger boat.

On Saturday, June 26, the public is invited to a free fifth anniversary celebration and the grand opening of the new permanent exhibit, More Than A Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Fishing Industry.

“‘More than a job’ is a phrase a lot of people in the industry say to describe what they do. Commercial fishing is a culture, a community, a way of life. Our new exhibit speaks to that idea,” Orleans said. “The exhibit explores themes including labor history, immigration, sustainability, and the changing nature of work and community.”

Read the full story at WBSM

US Atlantic scallop prices high as rotational closures reduce supply, boost production costs

June 24, 2021 — The Atlantic sea scallop fishery – predominantly centered around ports in New Bedford, Massachusetts; Point Judith, Rhode Island; Cape May, New Jersey; and Norfolk, Virginia – is the largest and most valuable wild scallop fishery in the world. Projected landings in the federal fishery are expected to be around 40 million pounds in 2021.

“The allocation was developed using survey data from 2020, and then projecting growth, harvest, natural mortality and recruitment,” Jonathon Peros, fishery analyst and scallop lead at New England Fishery Management Council, said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center 5th Anniversary Celebration This Weekend

June 21, 2021 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

This weekend, we are celebrating the Center’s five-year anniversary and the official grand opening of More than a Job with an event on June 26th from 10am-4pm! The celebration at 38 Bethel Street will include demonstrations of industry skills, kids’ activities, and live music by the Rum Soaked Crooks. A speaking program will begin at noon with remarks delivered by elected officials and a keynote address delivered by Brian Boyles, Executive Director of Mass Humanities. Click here for a full schedule. This event is free and open to the public!

This event will also feature a free vaccine clinic for the COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with Fishing Partnership and Greater New Bedford Community Health Center. Vaccine offered: Johnson & Johnson for adults; Pfizer for kids 12-17. Free $20 Dunkin Donuts cards to first time vaccinators both for child AND adult!

Funding for More than a Job: Work and Community in New Bedford’s Fishing Industry is provided by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and significant support from Bristol County Savings Bank. Major in-kind support for this exhibit was provided by Fairhaven Shipyard and Blue Fleet Welding.

Also on view, We Came to Fish, We Came to Work: Stories of Immigration is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Creative Commonwealth Initiative, and the Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, and New Bedford Cultural Councils.

Contact programs@fishingheritagecenter.org with any questions.

MASSACHUSETTS: When the Local Paper Shrank, These Journalists Started an Alternative

June 21, 2021 — When Jon Mitchell, the mayor of New Bedford, Mass., delivered his state of the city address in 2019, he made an unusual plea.

“Support your local paper,” he said, referring to The Standard-Times, New Bedford’s daily newspaper. “Your city needs it to function effectively.”

Owned by Gannett, the parent company of USA Today and more than 250 other dailies, The Standard-Times was getting thin. Like thousands of newspapers across the country, it was taking on the characteristics of a “ghost” paper — a diminished publication that had lost much of its staff, curtailing its reach and its journalistic ambitions.

Now, two years later, the mayor’s assessment is more blunt.

“We don’t have a functioning newspaper anymore, and I say that with empathy with the folks who work there,” he said in an interview. “It used to be that I couldn’t sneeze without having to explain myself. Now, I have to beg people to show up at my press conferences. Please, ask me questions!”

He was so eager for the city to have a robust paper that he joined a group that explored buying The Standard-Times — but Gannett wasn’t selling.

So when a cadre of journalists, including former editors of The Standard-Times, said last year that they planned to start a nonprofit digital news outlet to cover New Bedford, the mayor was all in.

As unusual as it may seem, Mr. Mitchell wanted his administration to be held accountable. Beyond that, he said that a trusted news source could restore something vital that he felt New Bedford had lost: “a sense of place,” by which he meant an ongoing narrative of daily life in this multicultural blue-collar city of 95,000 residents.

In the 19th century, when Melville embarked from its shores on the whaling voyage that would inspire “Moby-Dick,” it was the richest city per capita in North America. Now, 23 percent of New Bedford’s citizens live in poverty.

The mayor’s vision of a trusted news source was similar to what the group of journalists had in mind when they created The New Bedford Light. With its newsroom still under construction, in a refurbished textile mill, the publication went online June 7.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Fisheries Survival Fund: Change Wind Energy Areas to Protect Scallops

June 11, 2021 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

The Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), representing the vast majority of the limited access Atlantic scallop fishery, is calling for the federal government to change its proposed lease sale boundaries for wind farms off the coast of New York to better protect the region’s fisheries from harmful development. These changes are necessary because the government’s current proposed lease sales, announced today, fail to incorporate any of the recommendations made by FSF or the city of New Bedford, the nation’s most valuable fishing port.

The sea scallop fishery is one of the most valuable in the country: in 2019, commercial landings totaled more than 60.6 million pounds, valued at approximately $570 million. In the New York Call Areas alone, there were $268 million worth of scallops landed over a five year period, from 2012-2016. Atlantic sea scallops are, in fact, the nation’s most valuable federally managed fishery.

FSF is requesting that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which is responsible for leasing areas for offshore development, incrementally change its lease plans for the New York Bight. Currently, two BOEM Wind Energy Areas (WEAs), Hudson South and Central Bight, are located in particularly sensitive areas for scallops. In their current form, these areas, including hundreds of thousands of acres of ocean, will have a serious negative impact on the fishery.

BOEM’s proposed eastern-most lease areas in Hudson South are directly adjacent to the Hudson Canyon Scallop Access Area (“Hudson Canyon SAA”). The Hudson Canyon SAA is one of the most important scallop grounds in the Northeast. From 2001-2018, over 60 million pounds of scallops, valued at well over $600 million, were harvested directly from the area. Further, a recently published paper principally authored by the lead federal scallop scientist concluded that successful management of the Hudson Canyon SAA resulted in a sevenfold increase in scallops in the nearby Elephant Trunk Scallop Access Area, and benefited scallops in the Delmarva Scallop Access Area.

Altogether, the Hudson Canyon SAA has been worth well over a billion dollars directly to the scallop fishery in the past two decades, not to mention the multiplied indirect community economic benefits of these fishery landings. The Hudson Canyon SAA’s ecological and economic benefits explain why FSF has requested that BOEM operate under the well-recognized “precautionary principle” to create a buffer between wind farms in the Hudson South and this critical scallop area.

The Central Bight is in the middle of prime, historic scallop habitat, and represents tens of millions of dollars of scallop catches over the past decade. Leasing of the Central Bight should be delayed, just as BOEM delayed, for view-shed reasons, leasing of the two Fairways lease areas in the northern New York Bight.

Read the full release here