Saving Seafood

UK delegates offer advice to New Bedford on offshore wind

October 31, 2018 — Visitors from the United Kingdom had clear lessons about offshore wind to share with the SouthCoast on Tuesday during an all-day symposium in New Bedford.

In the early days of the UK industry, communities in the Humber region were trying to figure out what kind of jobs they would get, said Mark O’Reilly, chairman and CEO of Team Humber Marine Alliance, a nonprofit business group based in East Yorkshire. Would it be welders? Fabricators?

The region got a blade factory that created 1,000 jobs, “which is great for jobs, not necessarily fantastic for supply chain. But you can’t have it all,” he said.

Because the UK is geographically close to established suppliers in Denmark and Germany, some of the hoped-for supply business did not materialize. New Bedford, in contrast, has the opportunity to position itself as the heart of the U.S. supply chain, one UK visitor said from the audience.

“Don’t squander it,” he said.

The symposium at the New Bedford Whaling Museum was hosted by the British Consulate-General in Boston, Bristol Community College, the city of New Bedford, and the New Bedford Wind Energy Center.

Harriet Cross, British consul general to New England, gave welcoming remarks. Speakers participated from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as from Massachusetts.

In a panel discussion on fishing, UK fisherman Davey Hill said he once led the charge against wind farms. “But I came quickly to realize that government policy doesn’t listen to fishermen,” he said.

With less space for turbines than the United States, the UK chose locations based on winds and water depth. Fishermen had no say, he said. But they decided to look for opportunities.

Today, some vessels serve as work boats for offshore wind, and also go out fishing. The process has benefited the fishing community because they have modernized their vessels and improved safety, Hill said.

Eric Hansen, a New Bedford scallop boat owner whose family has fished for generations, said unequivocally that vessels the size of those in the New Bedford fleet would not fish between turbines spaced 1.5 or even three miles apart. Showing the audience a radar image of a field of turbines, he said “Now, you show that picture to a fisherman, and he’d basically throw up. There’s no way they’re going to fish in that.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Dock-U-Mentaries Series Presents Life By Lobster

October 30, 2018 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

The Dock-U-Mentaries Film Series continues on Friday, November 16th at 7:00 PM with Life by Lobster, a 55-minute documentary that takes you inside the lives of five young lobster fishermen determined to pursue this proud traditional vocation against steadily mounting obstacles.

Contrasting the stark beauty of the Downeast Maine seacoast with the stark reality of earning a living there, Life by Lobster, a documentary by independent filmmaker Iain McCray Martin takes you inside the lives of five young lobster fishermen determined to pursue this proud traditional vocation against steadily mounting obstacles.

Co-produced by LA television director J. Miller Tobin (Gossip Girl, Num3ers, CSI) and Maine-based Opera House Arts, LBL was selected as part of the Maine International Film Festival’s “Best of 2009” collection and is partially funded by the Perfect Storm Foundation, among others.

“I began work on this film when I was 19, in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at Emory University.  During that first year away from the small island off the coast of Maine where I had grown up, I realized, like never before, the uniqueness of my home and the people who define it.

While I left our island to go off to college and pursue new found opportunities, many of my classmates in our close-knit, 26-member graduating class of 2005 opted to go directly to work on the water, taking on the life and lifestyle of commercial lobstermen.

Facing a myriad of economic and regulatory hurdles, not to mention trying to overcome youthful inexperience in a tough, competitive industry, these young men could be, I feared, a dying breed.  Their story needed to be told.

Initially armed with little more than a camcorder and a newly found commitment to a career in film, I began my attempt at making something that personified the characterizations, motivations, and lifestyle associated with pursuing lobstering as a vocation.

Three years later, after a continual progression in my own abilities as a filmmaker, stacks of grant requests, upgrades in equipment, incredible honesty and patience from my subjects, over 20 hours of raw footage, and endless support from friends, family, and mentors came the story I had hoped to tell – an authentic portrayal of lobster fishing as an industry, a community, and a way of life.”
– Iain McCray Martin 

Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.  Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month beginning at 7:00 PM in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, located at 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.

MASSACHUSETTS: The Country’s Most Valuable Fishing Port Gears Up For Wind Energy

October 29, 2018 — The city of New Bedford first prospered as a whaling capital. Now, a thriving scallop industry makes this the country’s most valuable fishing port.

“Last year we landed over $300 million worth of fish and that’s only a small portion of what’s processed here,” said New Bedford Port Director Ed Anthes-Washburn. “We’re now at a point where more vessels unload from North Carolina in New Bedford than unload in North Carolina.”

On board a port authority boat, Anthes-Washburn points to the infrastructure that has made New Bedford a fishing destination: fuel barges, ice houses and the warehouses where fishermen drop their catch daily for auction.

Massive fishing vessels painted in bright orange, red and blue line the port, but these days not all the boats are for fishing.

Anthes-Washburn pointed to a pair of research vessels outfitted to explore the depths of ocean. New Bedford — a community with expertise in catching fish — is gearing up to capture wind. The city is poised to be the launching point for the country’s first full-scale off shore wind farm.

The centerpiece of this effort is the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, a 29-acre tract of land along the port. It will serve as a staging area for construction of the off-shore wind turbines. More than one hundred are planned in federal waters 14 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Think windmills in the ocean, but far bigger than the type used on land, each one the size of a sky-scraper.

“It’s a $2 billion construction project,” said Anthes-Washburn. “It’s my job to make sure to see that as much of that happens in New Bedford as it can.”

Construction of the off-shore wind farm is expected to bring thousands of jobs to New Bedford. Long term, the city is positioning itself to serve as an offshore wind operations and maintenance center.

Read the full story at WGBH

The great US scallop ride of 2018 comes to an end

October 26, 2018 — When the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer coined the phrase in the 14th century that all good things must come to an end, surely he wasn’t talking about the buying of US sea scallops in 2018.

Or was he?

After staying below or just above $9 all spring and summer, the average price of 10/20s – the most common size of Atlantic sea scallops in the US — has rocketed up to $10.89 per pound this month and the deluxe size U-10s that were plentiful earlier in the season have virtually disappeared, reveals a review by Undercurrent News of landings at the seafood auction in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Add $1.50 to $2.00/lb. to cover both the auction’s offload charges (20 cents per lb) and the dealers’ margins to get a true sense of what scallops are selling for at wholesale, sources suggest.

The recent changes have scallop wholesalers reminiscing already about the spring and summer that were, when foodservice businesses began to put scallops back on the menu, and simultaneously wondering how they’re going to meet the challenge of scallop-hungry customers between now and April 1, 2019, the likely beginning of the next season.

“It was a great ride, one of the best rides in some time,” said Bob Mankita, a seafood buyer for JJ McDonnell, an Elkridge, Maryland-based wholesaler, of the spring and summer of 2018 scallop market. “Prices were low. There were a lot of U-10s. We got back a lot of lost customers. Now we just have to figure out how to handle the next five months.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

White House Touts President Trump’s Actions on Fishing

October 24, 2018 — The following was released by The White House:

“An ever-growing maze of regulations, rules, restrictions has cost our country trillions and trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, countless American factories, and devastated many industries.”

REAL RESULTS: President Trump’s efforts to cut burdensome and unnecessary red tape are bringing real change and delivering real results for Americans.

  • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken action to free our fishermen from burdensome red tape while also promoting responsible fishing practices.
    • For instance, areas off the coast of New England have been opened to commercial sea scallop harvesting for the first time in years, netting an economic benefit of $654 million.

Read the full release here

Higher U.S./China tariffs could be ‘game changer,’ fishing industry fears

October 24, 2018 — It’s been a month since the Trump administration activated 10 percent tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese imports and that move has already affected the fishing industry from scallopers to lobstermen, especially Eastern Fisheries located along the New Bedford waterfront.

With the tariffs set to increase to 25 percent at the start of 2019, that could cause catastrophic effects throughout large fishing corporations, economists and companies told The Standard-Times.

“That’s a game changer,” Executive Vice President of Eastern Fisheries Joseph Furtado said. “I think we all feel that the 10 percent is more of a paper cut than it is anything else at this point. And we can work through it.

″…We don’t think the 10 percent is the end of the world, but the 25 percent, that is certainly a dynamic game changer and there’s a lot of variability in how that could all reposition itself.”

Generally, tariffs range from 5 percent to 8 percent, UMass Dartmouth economy professor Randy Hall said.

“There are very few industries that can absorb a 25 percent increase of cost,” Hall said.

Eastern Fisheries operates the largest scallop fleet in the industry and has facilities in the U.S., China, Europe and Japan.

Due to its size and international scale, it’s likely to be the only New Bedford company that’s affected by the tariffs, according to economists and Eastern Fisheries.

Prior to Sept. 24, Eastern would use its facilities in China to process a portion of its overall catch. It would then import the catch to other countries but also back into the United States without a tariff or tax.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod landing for offshore wind cable approved by Barnstable

October 23, 2018 — If all goes as planned, an underwater transmission cable for the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind plant will land at a Cape Cod beach.

Barnstable officials on Thursday agreed to grant Vineyard Wind a power cable easement at Covell Beach in the village of Centerville. The vote followed negotiation of a host community agreement that will pay the town up to $32 million over the next 25 years.

Vineyard Wind, based in New Bedford, says it’s on schedule to build its wind power station 34 miles off Cape Cod and 14 miles from Martha’s Vineyard. The company plans 106 turbines in a $2 billion project, and hopes to be operational in 2021.

The state’s Energy Facilities siting Board will have final say over the cable route, and environmental and fisheries considerations are part of the discussion. Other state and federal permits are still needed.

Vineyard Wind is a 50-50 partnership between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables, and was selected in May by state officials and utility representatives to supply 800 megawatts of renewable power to Massachusetts.

The project will reduce the state’s carbon emissions by over 1.6 million tons per year, the equivalent of removing 325,000 cars, and power 400,000 homes, the company stated.

Read the full story at MassLive

MASSACHUSETTS: US Senator Elizabeth Warren urges NOAA, DOC to keep fishing permits in New Bedford

October 18, 2018 — United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) sent a letter 15 October to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration urging both organizations to keep 42 federal fishing permits in the town of New Bedford.

NOAA has called for the permits revocation in the wake of the Carlos Rafael, or “Codfather,” case. Rafael is currently serving a 46-month prison sentence for his role in quota and tax evasion schemes in New Bedford, which included misreporting hundreds of thousands of pounds of groundfish catches.

Most recently, NOAA has issued a 51-page superseding charging document related to the case that would increase the civil penalties associated the case from USD 1 million (EUR 867,000) to USD 3 million (EUR 2.6 million).

In the letter, Warren calls on the organizations to punish Rafael, not New Bedford.

“He pleaded guilty to crimes associated to this case, and is rightly in jail, but many innocent people are also paying the price for his crimes,” Warren wrote. “These permits cover a significant portion of the ground fish industry and have an economic footprint that goes far beyond fish landings.”

New Bedford’s landings, and economy, were both impacted heavily by a lengthy ban on all groundfishing that NOAA enacted in the wake of the quota misrepresentation. A blanket ban on all 60 sector IX vessels lasted through to July of this year, sending landings into sharp decline.

That economic impact, which is harming many businesses in New Bedford, is why the permits should stay, Warren said.

“Millions of dollars of regional economic activity depend on Mr. Rafael’s permits remaining in the City of New Bedford,” she wrote. “An innocent community should not be collateral damage for one business’s crimes.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Scallops seized, captain arrested in New Bedford

October 18, 2018 — A scallop vessel that landed in New Bedford on Oct. 10 had its catch seized and the boat’s captain arrested, according to Massachusetts Environmental Police.

The vessel reportedly contained 150 pounds of scallops concealed within a beverage cooler and the captain was found to be in possession of Oxycontin without a prescription.

On Oct. 10, a Massachusetts Environmental Police officer conducted a commercial permit inspection aboard the scallop vessel in New Bedford. The vessel was found to be permitted federally but did not possess a valid commercial permit to land scallops in Massachusetts.

The officer then requested the captain display his catch of scallops to ensure compliance of the federally permitted possession limits. The captain presented the officer with the vessel’s allowable catch of 600-pounds. Upon further inspection of the vessel, the officer located an additional 150-pounds of scallops concealed within a beverage cooler, authorities said.

The catch was seized and the vessel captain was subsequently arrested for failure to display fish/catch upon demand.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Warren Urges Dept. of Commerce, NOAA to Ensure Carlos Rafael Fishing Permits Remain in New Bedford

October 17, 2018 — The following was released by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.):

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today sent a letter to the Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to request that they do everything in their power to ensure that the 42 federal fishing permits held by disgraced fishing magnate Carlos Rafael remain in the Port of New Bedford.  The federal permits, which cover a significant portion of the ground fish industry and have an economic footprint that goes far beyond fish landings, are currently at risk of being revoked and distributed elsewhere under a civil administrative case brought by NOAA against Mr. Rafael.

Last year, Carlos Rafael, a New Bedford fishing magnate, pled guilty to 28 federal charges related to the management of his company, including falsifying fish quotas, mislabeling fish, conspiracy, and tax evasion. In a civil case filed in January 2018, NOAA called for the revocation of 42 federal fishing permits held by Mr. Rafael.

In her letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Acting NOAA Administrator Benjamin Friedman, and Chris Oliver, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA, Senator Warren expressed serious concern about the devastating impact that removing the permits-which support many unaffiliated businesses and jobs that were not part of Mr. Rafael’s operation-from New Bedford would have on the regional economy.

“Millions of dollars of regional economic activity depend on Mr. Rafael’s permits remaining in the City of New Bedford,” wrote Senator Warren.  “An innocent community should not be collateral damage for one business’s crimes.”

The senator’s letter also emphasized the importance of the groundfish industry to the Massachusetts economy as a whole and noted that New Bedford already has the experienced workforce, infrastructure, and proud tradition to best utilize and maximize the economic benefits of the groundfish industry.

“It is critical for the city and South Coast region that these permits and allocations remain in the port of New Bedford, and in the hands of law-abiding fishing families and businesses,” Senator Warren continued. “Removing these permits from New Bedford would do lasting damage to families and businesses that have already suffered greatly through no fault of their own.”

The senator requested that the agencies take any and all available actions within their discretion to ensure that these critical fishing permits remain in New Bedford.

Read the full letter here