Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Casting a wide net: Vaccinating New Bedford’s fishing workforce is a tall task

March 26, 2021 — Sitting behind a plastic barrier, a masked volunteer with Centro Comuntario de Trabajadores (CCT) helped two seafood processing workers register for the COVID-19 vaccine Monday afternoon. In another room, two more workers signed a form to be helped next.

On Monday, fishing industry workers — many of whom go out to sea for lengthy stretches and with ever-changing schedules — became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts.

According to a report from the New Bedford Port Authority, more than 6,200 people worked directly in the harbor’s commercial fishing and seafood processing industry in 2018.

Adrian Ventura, executive director of CCT, said through interpreter Lisa Knauer that their goal is to register 25 seafood processing workers per day for the vaccine.

Ventura and a representative from Fishing Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to the health and safety of commercial fishermen, said the biggest challenge to getting the thousands of fishing industry workers vaccinated will likely be one of logistics.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford heritage center to highlight women’s roles in fishing industry

March 10, 2021 — Years before the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center was established, the city’s annual two-day Working Waterfront Festival in 2007 focused on women and their role in the commercial fishing industry.

Laura Orleans, executive director of the center who was involved in the festival planning, said a man on the planning committee had asked if the festival would be all about fishermen’s wives, as that was what he thought about women in the industry.

Women who are married to fishermen serve an important role, but they have many other roles, Orleans said. They own and captain boats, process fish, study fisheries as scientists, make fishing gear, do the bookkeeping, serve as observers for fisheries management and act as some of the strongest advocates for the industry.

This reality will be the focus of the center’s new project, “Women’s Work: At Sea, On Shore, At Home, In the Community.” Programming starts this month and will culminate in a new exhibit on women scheduled to open late this summer.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

MASSACHUSETTS: Wind Farm Off Martha’s Vineyard Near Approval

March 10, 2021 — The following is an excerpt from a segment that ran on NBC Boston:

On Monday, the U.S. Department of the Interior completed Vineyard Wind’s environmental impact assessment. With the completion of this assessment, Vineyard Wind has edged closer to completion. Groups representing the seafood industry from across the Atlantic coast have expressed concern that it may lead to restrictions on large portions of valuable fishing grounds.

“There’s proposals all up and down the East Coast to occupy massive acreage of ocean bottom. So, that’s going to be a problem for fishermen,” said Eric Hansen, a local scallop fisherman from New Bedford.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell expressed that “it will take a lot of communication over the next several months to make sure that the wind farm and the fishermen can safely co-exist.”

Watch the full video here

Former BASE auction employees implicate owners in Carlos Rafael scandal

February 26, 2021 — Two former employees of the Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE) in New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A. have alleged that the owners – brothers Raymond and Richard Canastra – were aware of and involved in falsifying quotas performed by the “Codfather” Carlos Rafael.

Rafael pleaded guilty in 2017 to falsifying fish quotas, tax evasion, and conspiracy in the wake of allegations he was connected to a criminal fishing scheme involving the evasion of fishing quotas and the smuggling of profits to Portugal. Following the criminal case, a civil case brought by NOAA ensued, which Rafael settled in August 2019.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center Launches “Women’s Work” Project

February 26, 2021 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center launches its new project, Women’s Work: At Sea, On Shore, At Home, In the Community, this March with two public programs. This project will shine a light on the many roles women play in commercial fishing communities.

On Thursday, March 11th at 7:00pm the Center will host a virtual concert and presentation, Women and the Sea by musician Debra Cowan. This program offers an engaging and informative look at the often overlooked and varied roles and experiences of women and the sea through the lens of Maritime songs and ballads. Debra emphasizes that women can overcome adversity and in some of these songs and stories, take charge and win the day. The program will be live-streamed on the Center’s Facebook page, facebook.com/NBFishingHeritageCenter. This program is free and open to the public.

On Friday, March 19th, the Center’s Virtual Dock-u-mentaries series continues with a screening of the film, Women in the Fishing Industry in Point Judith by filmmaker Markham Starr. As with other traditional industries throughout the country, tightening labor markets and a dwindling supply of men willing to commit to heavy work has created opportunities for women. This film follows a handful of women now working in the industry through a typical day on deck or on the factory floor. This film is part of a larger series documenting the commercial fishery in Point Judith for the Library of Congress. Filmmaker Markham Starr will speak about the film and answer any audience questions. Join the ZOOM Meeting at bit.ly/March2021Dock. Dock-u-mentaries are presented by New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. The program is free and open to the public.

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 Westport and Mattapoisett Cultural Councils.

Women’s Work will use the arts of photography, film, music, poetry, and storytelling to highlight the often-untold stories of women in commercial fishing communities. From March through December 2021, public programs and an exhibit will 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. The Center will partner with Our Sisters School, Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School, Global Learning Charter Public High School, and the YWCA to engage young people in this project.

Please contact programs@fishingheritagecenter.org with any questions.

America’s largest scallop company sues New Bedford over waterfront expansion

February 22, 2021 — Roy Enoksen and his business partner own the largest scallop fleet in the world. Their 27 fishing vessels bring more than 80,000 pounds of seafood into New Bedford each day, employing more than 400 captains, fishermen and support staff.

But a construction project planned by the city’s port authority would cut off water access at one of Enoksen’s boat maintenance facilities.

A lawsuit filed by Enoksen last month has blown the lid off a simmering conflict between New Bedford and one of the largest employers along its waterfront. Enoksen owns multiple businesses that operate in the port, including Eastern Fisheries and Marine Hydraulics, a marine repair company that services his boats.

Mayor Jon Mitchell called the litigation “a veiled attempt to grab valuable land that belongs to the public for the purpose of enhancing the company’s already substantial profits.”

The proposed expansion of New Bedford’s North Terminal would cull more than six acres of fresh land from the harbor using sand dredged from the mouth of the Acushnet River. The dredging would create dozens of new spaces for commercial vessels and remove contaminated sediments that have turned the harbor into a federal Superfund site.

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

MASSACHUSETTS: From boat to table: Family starts direct-to-consumer scallop business

February 22, 2021 — At the beginning of the pandemic and over 1,000 miles from New Bedford, Britt St. George and Madison Lees quarantined in Florida with their father, John Lees, founder of Mar-Lees Seafood and current president of New England Marine; their mother; and their significant others, Zack St. George and Edward Smith.

It was a time in which scallops were a part of nearly every conversation, Madison Lees said, and not just because their father is in the business. It was because the family business was growing.

Zack St. George and Smith are the guys behind The Scallop Guys, a new direct-to-consumer business selling scallops caught by Lees’ five New Bedford-based vessels.

Zack St. George, 30, said the pandemic gave them the extra motivation and time they needed to finally plan and launch the idea they’ve had for years.

They also figured it would be the perfect time to sell scallops directly to consumers online as restaurants were either closed or running at limited capacity, he said.

“Now or never, now is the time to do it,” Smith, 27, said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Nordic Fisheries, Marine Hydraulics Suing City of New Bedford Over North Terminal Expansion

February 19, 2021 — Did the City of New Bedford breach a 99-year lease contract in the North Terminal expansion project? That’s what Nordic Fisheries and Marine Hydraulics are alleging. The two companies filed a lawsuit against the City of New Bedford on January 27.

The situation stems back to 2017, when the North Terminal expansion plans were first being discussed. By September 2019 Governor Charlie Baker announced the administration’s commitment of $24 million to dredge the New Bedford-Fairhaven Harbor. According to a press release, the funding would “enable the dredging of approximately 430,000 cubic yards of sediment from the harbor, deepening berths and access channels at more than 40 commercial marina and waterfront properties.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

MASSACHUSETTS: COVID-19 federal relief funds for SouthCoast fisheries topped $5 million

February 11, 2021 — Keith Decker, CEO of Blue Harvest Fisheries, said federal relief funds made a “big difference” in minimizing the impact of the pandemic. The company received just over $510,000 last year for its processing facility and four of its fishing vessels, according to state records.

Decker said they used the funds for production line modifications to allow for social distancing and improved worker safety. The company also adopted a temporary wage increase for “hazard pay” for workers who were able to continue working during the height of the pandemic, he said.

SouthCoast commercial fishermen, charter boat owners, aquaculture farmers and processors like Blue Harvest received about 18.5%, or $5.1 million, of federal funds allocated to Massachusetts last year for economic relief for fisheries.

The 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known more commonly as the CARES Act, authorized over $2 trillion in relief to individuals, businesses, hospitals, loan programs and other recipients to help ameliorate the economic impacts of COVID-19.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times