Saving Seafood

Safety training is a must for all who go to sea

May 14, 2018 — On December 20, 2004 the 75-foot New Bedford scalloper Northern Edge went down in the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area. Five men perished. It was a loss that rocked the city. Pedro Furtado, the only survivor, was a 22 year-old man who had been through safety training in his native Portugal before coming to the United States. He had the presence of mind to jump into the wintry sea while the other men froze. It was this disaster that prompted the city to introduce safety training for those who earn their livelihood from commercial fishing, the most dangerous occupation in the United States.

It has been very successful, according to Ed Dennehy, director of safety training for the Fishing Partnership which runs these one and two-day programs in fishing harbors up and down the coast. “We’ve been all over, from Jonesport, Maine to Jones Beach, Long Island, he said. “We like to bring the program to where the fishermen are and it has grown over the years.”

In response to the loss of the Northern Edge the city received some funds from National Marine Fisheries in 2005 in order to develop safety and survival training. At the time Dennehy, a retired Coast Guard captain, was running New Directions in New Bedford and with the help of SMAST and others, like Rodney Avila, along the waterfront the program began. Since then more than 3500 fishermen have taken the safety classes which are offered free. The Fishing Partnership began running the program in 2012.

I had the opportunity to participate in the training myself on Thursday last. It was held at UConn’s Avery Point campus in Groton and there were 40 participants, a testament to the growing awareness and demand for this vital service.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: Federal delegation ‘solidly behind’ New Bedford in fishing fight

May 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Prior to a town hall-style meeting in New Bedford on Saturday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren quietly gathered with fellow senator Ed Markey and Congressman William Keating in the Wharfinger Building on Pier 3. Inside, the three legislators sat for more than an hour, listening to representatives of the fishing community relay their present and future concerns facing the industry.

About 80 fishermen out of New Bedford have been unable to fish or lease their quotas since NOAA shut down Sector IX in November. The shutdown remains in effect until the feds can estimate how much quota convicted “Codfather” Carlos Rafael depleted in his overfishing scheme.

Massachusetts’ two senators have been all but crucified for what many see as inaction on the Sector IX closure. Following Saturday’s meeting, Senator Warren told WBSM News what appears to some as inaction is, in fact, a more tactful approach in discussions with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“There are a lot of steps to go through to get Sector IX back up,” said Warren. “And NOAA seems committed to move forward on those. Senator Markey and I are pushing. We don’t want to turn this into politics. We want to facilitate this. We want to make it move forward.”

“But we have made it very clear that both of us and Congressman Keating are deeply committed to getting a fast process so that the innocent people that have been harmed by what’s happened here can get back out on the water and fish,” she said.

Read the full story at WBSM

 

Massachusetts: Elizabeth Warren packs a town hall meeting, sits with Markey, Keating over fishing

May 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., came to the city Saturday to hear the concerns of fishermen who wanted a faster resolution to the Carlos Rafael problems that have closed two fishing sectors, maybe throwing fishermen permanently out of their jobs.

These cases of licensing and ownership, and repayment of overfishing, “need to be resolved as quickly as possible,” Warren said later.

Warren also heard from Mayor Jon Mitchell and fishing representatives who contend that the wind energy companies that are the finalists for an exclusive contract are not listening to the concerns of the fishing industry, mainly scallopers.

Warren along with U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass, and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., listened about these matters in a meeting at the Wharfinger Building on City Pier 3, organized by Bob Vanasse of the industry lobby Saving Seafood.

They parted ways when Warren and her campaign staff went to the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School to conduct a town hall style meeting.

The event had an atmosphere much like a campaign rally, with Warren on stage answering questions from attendees who signed up in a lottery.

She touched on a dozen topics, taking her talk where the questions went, on everything from her late mother, poverty, and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who rejects a bill that would insulate special prosecutor Robert Mueller from being removed from office by President Donald Trump.

She also condemned the recent trillion-dollar tax cut while Medicaid recipients are threatened by cuts and 90 percent of Americans claim zero percent in the rise of the economy in the past several decades.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times 

 

Rep. Bill Keating: End in sight for groundfishing ban in New Bedford

May 10, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Bill Keating sees a finish line in sight to get New Bedford’s groundfishing boats back to work.

The Democratic U.S. representative spoke with NOAA’s regional administrator Mike Pentony on Wednesday and came away with the belief that the operational plans in Sectors VII and IX would be approved soon, potentially as soon as a few weeks.

“There’s great progress now on the road to beginning to fish,” Keating said. “And that’s good news.”

Keating said the rule-making process would be finalized for each sector by the end of the month. NOAA released its final rule allotting quota to sectors or fishing divisions at the end of April for the start of the 2018 fishing season. Sectors VII and IX were not provided quota.

After the rule is finalized, a comment period is required.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Fishing company to pay $400,000 penalty following 4,200 gallon fuel spill into New Bedford Harbor

May 8, 2018 — A fishing company will pay $400,000 in penalties after spilling thousands of gallons of fuel into New Bedford Harbor and routinely dumping oily waste overboard, in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In August of 2017, the Challenge — a fishing boat owned by the New Bedford company Quinn Fisheries — sunk while docked on the city’s waterfront, causing a fuel spill that spread over a mile and killed at least five ducks.

The Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of Justice launched an inquiry, and found that the ship sunk when its captain failed to shut off a valve after illegally dumping bilge into the harbor and leaving the boat for the day, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.

“Discharges of fuel and oily bilge wastes into our nation’s waters have long been prohibited and will not be condoned,” Captain Richard J. Schultz, Commander of the Coast Guard’s Sector Southeastern New England, said in a statement. “These defendants will pay significant penalties and conduct fleet-wide corrective measures for their discharges of oil into New Bedford Harbor and the ocean.”

Quinn Fisheries signed a consent decree agreeing to pay the penalties and correct violations, but did not admit liability for the discharges. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Read the full story at MassLive

 

Massachusetts: Rafael is behind bars, and New Bedford’s economy is paying the price

May 7, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In the harbor off Leonard’s Wharf, the large steel boats with their signature green hulls are rusting in the salt air, their dormant nets still coiled as if ready to scoop up schools of cod or haddock.

In the parking lot behind Reidar’s Manufacturing, more than a dozen trawls molder in the dirt, their floats and cables weathered and waiting.

As the new fishing season begins, many of the city’s fishermen are unemployed, their suppliers stuck with excess inventory, and local officials are questioning whether the millions of dollars in lost revenue will cost the port its ranking as the nation’s most valuable, as it has been for the past 17 years.

Carlos Rafael, the disgraced fishing mogul known as “The Codfather,” is now in prison. But the consequences of his crimes are still being felt throughout New Bedford.

“It’s devastating what’s happened to us, and other businesses here,” said Tor Bendiksen, the manager of Reidar’s, a marine supply company.

Rafael, whose commercial fishing company was among the nation’s largest, pleaded guilty last year to flouting federal quotas and smuggling cash out of the country.

Six months ago, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration responded with an unprecedented punishment, temporarily banning 60 fishing permit-holders in the area from allowing their boats to operate and halting all operations by the fishing sector that failed to properly account for their catch.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

Massachusetts: New Bedford Port Authority, NOAA weigh in through public comments regarding offshore wind

May 7, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The New Bedford Port Authority, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and NOAA all filed written public comments regarding Vineyard Wind’s Environment Impact Statement.

The deadline to file public comments was April 30.

All three agencies cited concerns regarding offshore wind’s presence within an important region for commercial fishing as well as marine life that could be affected beyond the acute area.

“Commercial and recreational fishing are essential components of the existing landscape that must be preserved in the development of the project,” NOAA’s Northeast Regional Administrator Michel Pentony said in NOAA’s public comments.

It appeared in one of 31 total pages submitted by the three organizations.

While each submission differed in length and topics, the three strung similar themes together.

Each called for more research into an array of areas from which method the turbines will be constructed to how the ocean will return to its original state after decommission.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: Region’s emergency responders drill for danger on the seas

May 4, 2018 — The Coast Guard cutter Key Largo was anchored out past Ten Pound Island on Thursday, near the section of Gloucester’s Outer Harbor known as the Pancake Ground.

But for the purposes of Thursday’s mission, the Key Largo wasn’t the Key Largo and it wasn’t a Coast Guard cutter. On this day, as part of an expansive hazardous materials response drill, the Key Largo played the starring role of a rusting old fishing vessel that had hauled up a load of World War II ordinance — talk about bycatch — along with its fish.

The replicated hazmat incident, which closely mirrored a true event that occurred in New Bedford in 2010, was the springboard to a coordinated marine response involving specially trained first responders, harbormaster personnel and about a dozen vessels from the Coast Guard, Gloucester and several other nearby coastal communities such as Marblehead, Beverly, Newburyport and Salisbury.

The drill, organized by the state Department of Fire Services’ Hazardous Material Response Program, helped team members practice their response to an offshore incident possibly involving hazardous materials. It was an exercise designed to test established response protocols, as well as the levels of cooperation among the array of participating agencies.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

A whale of a heart: Life-size model of a blue whale heart arrives at New Bedford Whaling Museum

May 4, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — A life-size model of a blue whale heart arrived at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on Thursday, all the way from New Zealand.

Visitors are welcome to crawl inside the heart, which has four chambers and is the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

“It’s pretty spectacular,” Chief Curator Christina Connett said.

The heart is the first major element in a complete redesign of the Jacobs Family Gallery and other spaces for an exhibit titled Whales Today, which focuses on ecology and conservation. Other elements to come include a model of a whale’s head with baleen, plus life-size silhouettes of whale flukes.

The museum staff had waited for days to hear that the heart had cleared customs. Finally it was ready, and it arrived at 8:05 a.m. in a shipping container trucked from Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: Fishing season begins, but New Bedford still on sidelines

May 3, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The 2018 fishing season began Tuesday with nearly 60 permits aligned in Sectors VII and IX not receiving quota allocation from NOAA.

The oceanic governing agency announced the measure a day prior to the opening of the fishing season. It leaves the two sectors on the sidelines as groundfishing begins and continues the ban that was installed in November.

The announcement wasn’t surprising after NOAA attended a New England Fishery Management Council meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, last month to discuss the ban as well as the restructured enrollment in Sectors VII, VIII and IX.

Fifty-five permits stationed in Sector IX in 2017 relocated to Sector VII at the end of March. The move was done to potentially allow those permits to lease quota despite not being able to fish.

The meeting extinguished those hopes revealing neither sector would be allowed to lease or fish when the season began.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times