Saving Seafood

New Bedford Standard-Times: Building trust with fishermen is key for wind energy companies

February 26, 2018 — There’s a lot of buzz in New Bedford these days about the offshore wind industry — and for good reason.

Blowing in with the massive turbines will be the promise of good-paying jobs; new activity along the waterfront; and even the prospect that SouthCoast could become a training center for those interested in offshore wind careers.

Indeed, New Bedford could once again become the city that lights the world (or at least much of Massachusetts) with clean, renewable energy.

Amid the hubbub, however, we can’t lose track of the industry that has made New Bedford the most lucrative seafood port in the nation for 17 years in a row. The city’s hard-working fishermen — beset by changing regulations, dwindling catches, competition from foreign fleets and the ever-present hardship of storm-tossed seas — must be given serious consideration in any changes that could affect the waters where they ply their trade.

If both industries are to thrive together in the marine economy, they must communicate openly in the months and years ahead.

At a Feb. 12 meeting with wind energy developers, some members of the fishing community expressed frustration that little progress has been made to date.

But “it’s not too late,” noted David Pierce of the state Division of Marine Fisheries. And thankfully, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has structured its wind application process to give fishermen a voice.

Each company bidding for a wind-energy contract must have a representative to the fishing industry, as well as a fisheries liaison. The fisheries liaison for DeepWater Wind, for instance, is longtime fisherman Rodney Avila, while the city’s Harbor Development Commission is acting as the company’s fishing representative.

HDC Director Edward C. Anthes-Washburn explained the importance of keeping fishermen engaged. There are legitimate concerns, he said, and “we’re committed to making sure they (fishermen) understand what’s happening.”

Anthes-Washburn admitted such details as precise turbine locations have been scarce, but much more information will be forthcoming throughout the design phase. And fishermen will need to make their concerns known before construction, he said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Massachusetts: Post-Rafael, New Bedford fishing industry looks to move forward

February 22, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — For perhaps the first time, at least publicly, fishermen on Carlos Rafael vessels sat in the same room Wednesday as John Bullard, the former regional administrator for NOAA, who implemented a groundfishing ban for those vessels.

Bullard, wearing a blue NOAA jacket, sat in front of a four-person panel brought together by Rhode Island Public Radio. The fishermen, wearing baseball caps and New Bedford Ship Supply sweatshirts, sat to the left of the panel, which discussed fishing in New Bedford after Carlos Rafael at Star Store.

“It’s an issue that’s near and dear to my heart, not just because I was the regional administrator of NOAA Fisheries to close the sector, but I care about this,” Bullard said. “This is my hometown.”

Bullard, now retired from NOAA, declined to comment specifically on the groundfishing ban, which went into effect in November.

However, Cassie Canastra, marketing director of BASE seafood, and Dan Georgianna, economist and professor emeritus at SMAST, are each on the board of the fishing division that’s affected by the ban. They said Sector IX plans to meet with Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office to propose a new operational plan. If approved, it would end the ban, however, Canastra said no date for a meeting has been determined.

Neither offered more insight into negotiations to end the ban.

Canastra and Georgianna were joined by Laura Ramsden, co-owner of Foley Fish, and John Quinn, chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council, offered a smorgasbord of insight regarding fishing in New Bedford.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Sea Star crew thanks Coast Guard for rescue

February 21, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The fishermen aboard the vessel Sea Star, which sank last week, expressed their appreciation Tuesday to those who rescued them as they returned to work.

Chad Maguire, the managing member of Old Testament Fisheries, sent his “sincere and very heartfelt thanks” to the Coast Guard through a news release.

“Without the outstanding response by these brave Coast Guard men and women, the crew of the Sea Star may have had a much different experience,” the release said.

Aircrews from an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and HC-144 Ocean Sentry arrived about 18 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard to find the Sea Star taking on water on Feb. 15.

The Coast Guard ordered the four fishermen to abandon and a rescue swimmer pulled each person up to the helicopter.

“Old Testament Fisheries is elated that the crew were quickly and safely reunited with their families,” the release said. “It is clear the significant impact that the crew’s drills instruction training played in their successful rescue.”

Atlantic Capes Fisheries owns the Sea Star through which it charted it to Old Testament Fisheries. A spokesperson for Old Testament Fisheries said it’s a common practice for companies to finance vessels acting as a bank for fishermen.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Don Cuddy: SMAST codfish counting innovation looks promising

February 20, 2018 — Last December the New England Fishery Management Council voted to increase the amount of cod available to commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Maine by 39 percent for the 2018 fishing year.

This is welcome news. New England fishermen have endured some lean years since 2013 when the cod quota was slashed by 78 percent after new data incorporated into the 2011 assessment indicated that the stock was lower than previously estimated — obviously a great deal lower.

Estimating how many codfish might be out there at any given time is the greatest challenge facing fishery managers and the numbers have been the subject of much controversy, with fishermen continually decrying the “best available science” as inadequate.

The quest for better fisheries data has been receiving invaluable assistance from SMAST here in New Bedford.

UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology has developed a groundfish sampling survey using video technology. A deep sea camera, with lights, is mounted inside the net on a commercial fishing vessel and provides a live feed to the wheelhouse while towing. At the same time, four GoPro cameras in the net capture and record images of every fish passing through. The cod end of the net is left open, allowing the fish to swim away unscathed — a huge bonus — and without the necessity to haul the net back, a much larger area can be swept on each tow. During the survey, a small number of tows were also made with the net closed to verify the video data.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

New Bedford Standard-Times: Time for NOAA and Sector IX to strike deal

February 20, 2018 — Eighty New Bedford groundfishermen.

They’ve had no work now for almost three months.

In the end, those are the guys and it is their families who are paying the biggest price for Carlos Rafael’s longtime conspiracy to falsify fishing records and smuggle the cash overseas.

But since Rafael was the big guy on the New Bedford waterfront, the guy who owns the majority of the boats in Sector IX, the fishermen have been out of work since Nov. 20 when regional NOAA administrator John Bullard ordered the sector to stop fishing.

Bullard said that Sector IX has not accounted for the overages their group racked up while Rafael was mislabeling more than 700,000 pounds of fish. He has also argued that the reorganized sector has not enacted better enforcement provisions to prevent a repeat of the criminal activity.

For their part, Sector IX’s lawyer, Andrew Saunders, points out that Rafael was able to engage in his wrongdoing because he controlled both the fishing boats and was also the fish dealer (Carlos Seafood). That is no longer the case because all fish caught by Rafael’s boats must now be processed at the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction.

Saunders further pointed out to NOAA that the agency is aware that it is virtually impossible for Sector IX to determine the overages while the IRS is in possession of Rafael’s records until the start of the next fishing season in May. Still, in a Dec. 20 letter, Saunders, wrote NOAA that the sector is working to compile accounting for the misallocations of fish.

Complicating the whole scenario is who is going to control Rafael’s groundfish and scallop boats going forward as the federal judge has ordered him out of the commercial fishing business. Richard and Ray Canastra, owners of the display auction, have offered Rafael $93 million for 42 fishing permits and 28 boats, a deal that would keep the fishing effort in New Bedford, and the 80 fishermen employed. Not to mention all the New Bedford fishing supply and seafood processing operations that are dependent on Rafael’s fleet.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Commercial fishermen question wind farm video

February 16, 2018 — BOSTON — Offshore wind proponents are touting new undersea footage that suggests a vibrant marine habitat is growing around the nation’s first offshore wind farm — a five-turbine operation off Rhode Island’s waters.

The American Wind Energy Association, an industry trade group, says the roughly two-minute clip it posted on YouTube this week shows the potential for the nation’s fishing industry as larger projects are envisioned up and down the East Coast.

“The turbine foundations are now acting as an artificial reef,” said Nancy Sopko, the wind energy association’s director of offshore wind and federal legislative affairs. “This is a success story that can be replicated all along our coastlines.”

But the video does little to temper the concerns of commercial fishermen, who are worried about navigating dense forests of turbines to get to their historic fishing grounds, says Jim Kendall, a former scallop fisherman in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

“This is nice and fun to see, but it doesn’t tip the conversation,” Seth Rolbein, of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance in Chatham, Massachusetts, said of the video.

Offshore wind developers from New England to the Carolinas are racing to build the nation’s first large-scale wind farm. Many of the projects call for hundreds of turbines to be built miles away from shore, sometimes within or along the path to lucrative fishing spots.

The wind energy association video shows beds of mussels taking shape and small fish swimming around the turbine bases. The brief underwater footage is juxtaposed with longer testimonials from local recreational fishermen and charter boat owners who say the Deepwater Wind project has been a boon for them since opened it more than a year ago.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Coast Guard saves crew of 4 from sinking New Bedford vessel

February 15, 2018 — A New Bedford-based fishing vessel sank Wednesday night off Martha’s Vineyard, but its crew of four is fine thanks to their fast action in taking safety measures, the Coast Guard said.

The Sea Star radioed about 6:20 p.m. that it was quickly taking on water, listing heavily and crew members were donning their survival suits, Petty Officer Nicole Groll, a Coast Guard public affairs specialist said about 9:10 p.m. Wednesday.

A Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter and plane from Sector Southeastern New England, in the area for a training exercise, were diverted to the scene, Groll said. Determining that the vessel couldn’t be saved, the Coast Guard ordered the crew into the waters about 18 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, where they plucked them to safety via basket, she said.

The water temperature was 37 degrees, with 5-foot seas and 20 to 25 knot winds, making conditions difficult, Groll said.

The crew members were airlifted to Air Station Cape Cod where they were checked out by medical personnel and pronounced in good health, she said.

“The most important thing the crew did was to activate their EPIRB” (a positioning beacon) and don their survival suits, said Scott Backholm, the command duty officer at Sector Southeastern New England. While the EPIRB automatically goes off when a boat is sinking, the fact that they had the presence of mind to activate it before that “allowed us to get their exact location and get to them as quickly as possible,” he said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

One Square Mile: New Bedford’s Scallop Industry Is Thriving, But Is It Sustainable?

February 14, 2018 — Is the scallop fishery well-managed? Most people, including scallop fishermen, scientists, and environmentalists, had the same answer: yes.

“I think the harvest is being managed, compared to any other fishery in New England, fabulously,” Peter Shelley, senior counsel at Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group, said.

The majority agree that the New England Fishery Management Council is doing a good job at keeping the scallop population sustainable and allowing fishermen to make a good living.

Last year, commercial fishermen landed more than $300 million worth of fish at the Port of New Bedford, and 85 percent of that value came from scallops.

Michael Quinn, whose family has been in the scallop fishing industry for 30 years, said he believes the industry is well-managed partly because of the collaboration between fishermen and researchers.

“We get to take scientists directly on our vessels,” Quinn said. “We go out to sea with them. We’re living with these people for a week at a time doing all the data together.”

Data on the scallop population is collected through drop camera surveys. That’s when scientists attach cameras to a big, metal, square frame and drop it to the bottom of the ocean. They take pictures of the scallops and then scientists on the management council’s Plan Development Team use that data to help figure out how much fishermen can catch and which areas should be opened or closed for fishing.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

 

One Square Mile FORUM: After the Codfather

February 14, 2018 — Before he pleaded guilty to flouting federal catch limits and smuggling money, Carlos Rafael, nicknamed “the Codfather,” controlled the largest groundfishing fleet that sailed out of New Bedford. How are the city’s fishing industries moving forward after the trial? What does the future hold for groundfishing and other fisheries? What are the biggest promises and challenges? What lessons can be learned from Carlos Rafael?

REGISTRATION IS FREE, BUT REQUIRED : REGISTER NOW THROUGH EVENTBRITE

Join Rhode Island Public Radio and UMass-Dartmouth for a public forum to discuss these and other topics related to New Bedford’s fishing industry.

WHEN:  Wednesday, February 21st from 6:00 to 7:00 PM.

View the whole announcement at Rhode Island Public Radio

 

Massachusetts: Sunken boats owned by ‘Codfather’ now back on surface

February 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Two sunken fishing boats owned by the imprisoned “Codfather” have now been pulled back up to the surface in New Bedford.

Crews got the Dinah Jane afloat Monday, while the Nemesis was pulled up during the weekend.

The two scallop boats sank a week earlier as they were tied up together at Homer’s Wharf.

The salvage was made a little tricky because the boats got a little tangled up as they went down.

“It seems like it worked out pretty well, in terms of the salvage operation,” said Edward Anthes-Washburn, who is the executive director of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission.

The Coast Guard is trying to determine why the boats sank, noting that not much fuel leaked into the water during the mishap.

Both boats are owned by Carlos Rafael, now infamously known as the “Codfather” after he was sent to prison in 2017 for falsifying fish catch records to evade quotas and smuggling cash to Portugal.

The two scallop boats that sank were working recently, but much of Rafael’s big fleet is not.

The government shut down more than a dozen of his groundfish boats as part of the punishment.

Read the full story at WJAR