Saving Seafood

MAINE: Conservation success or pests? Seals spark passionate debate

October 5, 2020 — Nick Muto has fished up and down the New England coast and there is nothing that gets his blood boiling more than the sight of a seal.

Muto, whose two boats fish for groundfish such as skate and monkfish as well as lobster, is among a growing group of anglers, beach goers and local officials who are quick to blame everything from disease to depleted fisheries to increased shark sightings on the exploding seal population.

“Areas that we used to traditionally fish that were as close to guarantees as you could get have been strip mined of fish, and the fish have been driven out of there by seals,” Muto said. “They have eaten fish out of our nets. They have been caught in our nets. They are everywhere.”

The debate over seals was reignited after the death in July of a swimmer killed by a great white off Harpswell, Maine. Seals are often shark prey, and experts believe Julie Dimperio Holowach may have been mistaken for a seal.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Seafood Industry Sinking From Virus Fallout Pleads for Bailouts

July 10, 2020 — Seafood processors and fishers struggling with falling prices and disappearing markets during the coronavirus pandemic are pushing for federal bailouts following a government directive to send aid to New England’s lobster industry.

“We’re all scared. We’ve got tons of money wrapped up in these businesses,” said Nick Muto, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance chairman and an independent small-boat captain dealing in groundfish and lobster. “We’re definitely hoping for some help here from the federal government,” Muto added. “But I’m leery to bet on it.”

Restaurant closures, mandated by local officials nationwide to slow the rate of infection, decimated seafood vendors’ sales. Now, some states beginning to relax restrictions are seeing a resurgence of Covid-19 cases—just as the industry tries to recoup its losses.

Read the full story at Bloomberg Law

Northeast Fishermen Struggle As The Coronavirus Outbreak Halts Demand

March 26, 2020 — The coronavirus outbreak and the uncertainty surrounding it have left Northeast fishermen feeling the pressure. Across the country measures are being taken to “flatten the curve” or slow the spread of the virus. These measures include the closure of restaurants, bars and event venues. Without these markets available, fishermen have fewer opportunities to sell their fish and product is starting to pile up.

Nick Muto, a fisherman out of Saquatucket in Harwich, MA, who catches monkfish and skate is amongst the many who have had to reduce their fishing effort. “We’re feeling the pressure across the board not only the domestic – retail markets from fish markets to restaurants – but also we’re feeling it on a global scale,” Muto said. He added that a significant portion of his catch gets shipped to Europe and Asia, countries that have a more diverse seafood diet. However there is currently very little demand across the board.

Muto still has buyers to sell his fish to, but not all fishermen are in the same boat. In a letter to Senate leadership requesting aid for fishermen, Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, along with Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan wrote about a widespread decrease in fishing. “Some fisheries are completely shut down because there is no market for their fish,” the Senators write. “Seafood processors are struggling because closed restaurants are no longer buying fresh products. While boats sit idle in port, unable to fish, fishing captains cannot make vessel loan payments or pay crewmembers.”

Read the full story at Forbes

Skate liver oil could boost fishing industry

March 13, 2017 — Two engineers showed up at the Chatham Fish Pier a few winters ago and struck up a conversation with some fishermen who were unloading their catch.

Steve Daly and Bill Hannabach asked for some of the fish because they were doing research for a new business venture. The fishermen obliged and the men took home totes with a variety of species.

“You have two rubes from out of town. They could have easily said get out of here,” said Daly with a grin. “They didn’t know what we were doing. We could have been making fertilizer, we could have been making pottery.”

This week Daly and Hannabach were once again at a Cape Cod dock, this time at Saquatucket Harbor in Harwich, with some of the same fishermen they had met when they first began experimenting with everything from monkfish to dogfish. But now they had with them the results of their foray into the fishing industry, their first product, MassOMEGA: New England’s Wild Fish Oil, set to be launched today and almost totally made from winter skate brought in by local fishermen.

“We have taken some of Nick’s skates, basically pulled the oil out and purified it,” said Daly, standing beside Nick Muto and his 40-foot boat the Dawn T.

Muto had just come in with his crew after close to 30 hours at sea with a hold full of skate.

“It is truly an amazing fish oil. It’s better than cod liver oil. Skates have such a high level of omega-3s. Tuna is a close second, but after that it drops off significantly,” Daly said.

Muto, as many fishermen do, keeps the wings of the skate to sell, but usually throws the bodies, or racks, overboard. But after fellow fisherman Doug Feeney introduced him to Daly and Hannabach, Muto carved up the skate bodies and gave the businessmen a big bag of livers.

The fishermen knew that capitalizing on an under-utilized fish in a sustainable way was important to the small boat fishery as well as the economic health of the wider community. They also knew that fishermen were busy fishing and running a business and lacked outside investment to launch new products.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Video equipment installed on Cape fishing boats

May 31, 2016 — On the Dawn T, commercial fisherman Nick Muto inked “Big Brother” next to a switch that turns on a sophisticated video system that will record everything on deck from the time he leaves the dock to his return.

Between 10 and 20 fishermen from Rhode Island to Maine on Wednesday will flip the switch and turn on the cameras. Three Cape fishermen have had the equipment installed on their vessels, and three more are scheduled to be outfitted.

“We all need to take ownership of what we are doing,” Muto said. “If we want to see a future in fishing, we need more accurate information.

While there have already been pilot programs to evaluate video monitoring, this is the first time, under what is known as an Exempted Fishing Permit, that the information gathered by video will be incorporated into the management process. The fishermen, Muto included, volunteered for the program.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times