Saving Seafood

RHODE ISLAND: Shellfish Farming Industry in R.I. has ‘Enormous’ Opportunity for Growth

September 6, 2022 — The sound of thousands of mussels moving on conveyor belts and clanking through sorting machines almost drowned out Greg Silkes as he tried to explain how the shellfish get from the ocean, through the processing plant, to plates around North America.

Silkes is the general manager American Mussel Harvesters, one of the largest mussel producers in North America, and he helps run the business along with his father and other family members. On Wednesday, the Silkes and America’s Seafood Campaign hosted U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and other officials and seafood stakeholders at their location in North Kingstown to discuss the shellfish-farming industry and its importance to public health, the economy, and reducing carbon emissions.

American Mussel Harvesters has been around since 1986 and has grown from a small operation with one boat and one phone to a large enterprise that ships mussels, clams, and oysters around the country.

Rather than fishing from pockets of naturally occurring shellfish on the seafloor, American Mussel Harvesters grow their product from tiny seeds in lots in the ocean. Greg Silkes said that a bag about the size of a shoe box can store millions of itty-bitty shellfish.

Overall, it takes about two to four years to get the shellfish from seed to table, but, depending on the maturity of the seeds American Mussel Harvesters buys, it usually takes six to eight months to grow and process their product and get it on the market.

As workers sorted the mussels into different grades, packed them into netted bags, and placed them in boxes filled with ice, Silkes said the shipment would be headed to a nearby Market Basket.

In the last two years the business model has shifted away from restaurants and toward retail because of the pandemic, Silkes said, and they’ve automated more of their processing plant to accommodate that change.

Still, American Mussel Harvesters does sell to local restaurants. “I love going to eat and saying this is my product,” Silkes said.

Read the full article at

RHODE ISLAND: Mayflower Wind Claims Effects of Buried Cable Under Sakonnet River Would be Minimal

August 19, 2022 — An offshore wind developer assured Aquidneck Island residents Tuesday night they would experience minimal disruptions from a proposal to bury an export cable along Boyds Lane into Mount Hope Bay.

The project is part of a proposed wind facility by Mayflower Wind LLC in a leased area roughly 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. According to the company’s proposal, the offshore development would contain 149 positions for wind turbines and substations, and generate 2,400 megawatts of renewable energy — enough to power 800,000 New England homes.

But there’s a twist: Mayflower Wind is asking to bury one of two export cables under the Sakonnet River riverbed, and residents expressed concern during a well-attended public hearing held Aug. 16 online over possible impacts to fish habitat, boat and car traffic, and existing recreational uses of the river.

Transmission development manager Lawrence Mott assured residents any impacts would be minimal.

Read the full article at Eco Ri News

Exploring the human factor of marine and coastal ecosystems

August 15, 2022 — Richard Pollnac has taught students to consider the “human dimension” of the oceans for decades. He’s focused his research on coastal societies in various regions across the world with a sharp eye on community resilience, vulnerability, and what the ramifications of climate change could be on these places.

That teaching has paid off, and Pollnac, a professor emeritus at the University of Rhode Island, was recently flown out to Australia by a former student who graduated in 2000 to join in on a study on the human factor of marine and coastal ecosystems.

Joshua Cinner, the former student, is now a distinguished professor and social science research leader at James Cook University in Australia. In his study, which was published in Nature Communications, he found that tropical regions are expected to suffer losses in fisheries and agriculture as the effects of climate change increase.

Pollnac: Losses due to climate change in the tropics are expected to impact both agriculture and fisheries, but assessments have rarely taken into account changes to both sectors at the same time. The few that have are at the national scale which fails to determine if the people simultaneously engage in both sectors; that is, do they have the ability to substitute emphasis on one sector when the other declines.

Joshua Cinner — one of my best past students at URI — was the principal investigator in this study, managed to pull together a global team of 28 social scientists and climate impact modelers to investigate potential impacts of climate change on agriculture and fisheries for 72 coastal communities across Tanzania, Madagascar, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. The research integrated socioeconomic surveys from [more than] 3,000 households with model projections of losses to crop yield and fisheries catch under a high carbon dioxide emissions scenario and a low emissions scenario.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

A Coveted Fish Is Now a ‘Climate Loser’

August 15, 2022 — In the 1980s, Rich Hittinger’s favorite rite of early spring was chasing winter flounder. On many March days, he anchored his six-meter boat, Ermala—named for his three children, Eric, Mark, and Lauren—in a sheltered cove in Narragansett Bay, the estuary off Rhode Island’s southeastern coast. He and the kids chummed the water with rabbit feed and lowered hooks baited with clam worms, then ducked into the boat’s cabin to warm their bellies with hot chocolate. “They’d put the rod in the holder, and by the time they’d come back, they’d have a fish on the other end,” says Hittinger, who is the vice president of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association. “They’d catch flounder one after the other.”

Fishermen around Rhode Island shared Hittinger’s passion. Winter flounder, so named because they spawn from December to April, were a valuable commercial species and a dinnertime staple; anglers said that Narragansett Bay was practically paved with the mottled flatfish. In the late 1980s, though, the species began to buckle beneath the weight of overfishing. Managers took the logical step of restricting harvest, but winter flounder never recovered. As of 2019, the southern New England population hovers at just 30 percent of government targets, and catches in Narragansett Bay are a measly one one-100th of their historical apex. “There’s so few of them that recreational fishing is basically closed,” Hittinger says.

For years, winter flounder’s stagnancy was something of a mystery. Today, however, a growing body of evidence implicates a familiar culprit: climate change. Coastal ecosystems along the New England seaboard have been upended by rising ocean temperatures, few more so than Narragansett Bay, where waters have warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius over the past century. This is a troubling realization, because the climate crisis, unlike overfishing, isn’t something that fisheries managers can rectify. It also forces us to confront a series of disturbing questions: What if winter flounder and other climate-stressed fisheries never bounce back? Do we keep trying to rebuild them, even if conditions make their recovery unlikely? Or do we lower our expectations—and perhaps even give up altogether?

“It’s not that we can’t get more winter flounder; it’s that we can’t get 1980 levels of winter flounder,” says Joe Langan, a fisheries oceanographer who conducted his doctoral research on winter flounder at the University of Rhode Island. “The climate of the 1970s is not our current climate. The rules of the game have changed.”

Read the full article at The Atlantic

Expert: New England herring industry to receive $11M

June 2, 2022 — The federal government is giving $11 million to New England herring fishermen following a declared disaster within the industry.

However, some experts claim the situation was avoidable.

Overfishing herring created the situation in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England, according to Niaz Dorry, director of the North American Marine Alliance.

In November, the federal government declared a “fishery disaster” allowing assistance in tax dollars to flow into the region, the Gloucester Daily Times in Massachusetts reported. Maine will receive $7 million, Massachusetts over $3.2 million, New Hampshire will receive $600,000, and Rhode Island is set to receive $241,299.

Read the full story at The Center Square

 

Commercial fishermen in four northeastern states sharing $11M in federal assistance

May 10, 2022 — Commercial fishermen in four northeastern states will share $11million of federal government assistance.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced Thursday that the herring industry in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island will get financial assistance to recoup losses in the Atlantic herring industry which was declared a “fishery disaster” by the federal government last year.

Herring are a crucial part of the region’s commercial fishing industry because they are used for bait, which has been in short supply in recent years, according to federal regulators.

Maine will be getting the largest chunk of the funding, or nearly $7.2 million, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which says it will work with the Maine Department of Marine Resources to administer these funds.

“The drastic reduction in Atlantic herring quotas has caused significant losses in primary income and threatened job security for many in the herring industry,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who pushed for the federal relief funds. “This financial assistance provided through the designation is crucial to the survival of Maine’s Atlantic herring fishery.”

New Hampshire is getting $600,000 from the allocation, according to the federal agency, which was welcomed by members of the state’s congressional delegation.

Read the full story at The Center Square

Wind turbines still on track east of Virginia Beach

April 25, 2022 — Wind turbines are among the technologies driving the development of renewable energy at the large scale, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants and slowing down planetary warming. Onshore turbines are already common from Texas to Iowa, as winds are reliable on the Plains throughout most of the year.

That’s generally not the case in Virginia and the Middle Atlantic states, especially during the doldrums of July and August. But several miles offshore, it’s a different story, which makes wind turbines more practical.

Offshore wind has already scaled up quickly in western Europe, and appears to be on the verge of rapid growth on this side of the Atlantic. But for the moment, there’s not much.

Read the full story at The Roanoke Times

 

Do Offshore Wind Turbines Impact Fishing?

April 20, 2022 — Offshore wind seems poised to set sail on U.S. coasts. According to the Department of Energy, the burgeoning electricity source has the potential to generate more than 2,000 gigawatts (GW) of capacity per year—nearly double the nation’s current electricity use. Last fall, the Interior Department announced the commencement of construction on the nation’s first commercial scale wind farm, 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard, and approved a deal for the second off Rhode Island. The Biden administration aspires to launch 16 such sites by 2025 and generate 30 GW of energy by 2030. But what impact will all the construction have on wildlife and fishing? A 10-year, $11 million U.S. Wind and University of Maryland study aims to find out.

Wind is the fastest growing energy source in the U.S., providing 42 percent of the country’s new energy in 2020. So far, most of that has come from land-based wind turbines. But, faster and steadier offshore wind speeds offer more potential. And as the cost of efficiently harnessing offshore wind has plummeted, that potential has soared.

But not everyone is pleased. A lone standoff last fall between a fishing boat and one of U.S. Winds’ giant research vessels symbolized the grievances of a key constituency: the ocean fishing community. Fishermen expressed concerns about damage to their equipment, disruption of the fishing grounds, and even the loss of their way of life. Annie Hawkins, the executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a trade association representing commercial fishermen, told the Guardian, “The fishing industry feels very strongly that they still do not have a meaningful voice in the process nor an authentic seat at the table.”

Read the full story at Field & Stream

‘There’s no fish that you can’t make delicious’

April 6, 2022 — Walking into Fearless Fish, a small market in Providence specializing in local seafood, is like walking into Tiffany’s. The showcases dazzle the eye.

There’s familiar fare, like Atlantic salmon, haddock, and sea scallops. There’s also a riveting range of fish that are relatively mysterious, curios like scup, butterfish, pollack, Acadian redfish, conger eel, and monkfish. While abundant in our waters, these so-called “underutilized” species — less known to New Englanders, less tasted, less in demand — are often exported to countries that apparently appreciate them much more than we do.

Most of the region’s Atlantic dogfish, for instance, goes to England for fish and chips. “It’s crazy,” said Chris Cronin, the chef at Union Flats Seafood in New Bedford, who prefers “unique” fish to the familiar. “Dogfish is pretty mild, slightly sweet with a flakey texture comparable to haddock. It takes on other flavors, and I like to serve it with citrus notes.”

Since Fearless Fish opened in early 2019, owner Stuart Meltzer’s main aim has been to try and broaden the consumer palate. “We want to help people become more confident, to try new fish,” he said one noontime, as mostly younger customers streamed through the door. The pandemic-driven interest in local foods has been good for sales, he noted, inspiring more daring in home kitchens. Skate piccata? Roasted mackerel with chimichurri? The store’s online recipes and cooking lessons help to demystify lesser-known fish, as does its disclosure of catch site and means. “Fluke, Pt. Judith, dragger.” “Monkfish, Gulf of Maine, dragger.”

“It’s important to me, and shared by customers, that the product is local,” said Meltzer.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

U.S. Wind Energy Is (Finally) Venturing Offshore

April 4, 2022 — Capturing offshore wind in the U.S. has long been an uphill battle, with various stumbling blocks in the terrain. Objections from fisheries, skepticism from conservationists and tenuous support from tourism have all stalled development in the past decade. That is, until May of 2021, when the U.S. Department of the Interior approved construction of a sprawling wind facility several miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

The project marks the first large-scale offshore wind undertaking in the U.S., and includes 62 turbines that will power more than 400,000 homes and businesses. But it almost didn’t happen. Under the Trump administration, the project’s approval halted, while broader national momentum behind alternative energy solutions slowed. The country’s only other offshore wind facility, with just five turbines spinning off the coast of Rhode Island since 2016, looked like it would not have any company for years. That site, Block Island Wind Farm, produces 30 megawatts, or enough energy to power up to 17,000 homes. After President Joe Biden took office, however, he promised a 1,000-fold increase in offshore wind energy production in the U.S. by 2030. Approving the ambitious Vineyard Wind project marks the first big step.

U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) researchers still puzzle over how turbines in oceans affect birds and fish. They recently started trying to assess the impact through the Realtime Opportunity for Development Environmental Observations  project, which conducted research when the foundation work began on Block Island in 2015. The researchers will report on other offshore wind projects as operations begin in the next several years. So far, they’ve found that during the noisy pile-driving phase of construction, the abundance of winter flounder decreased. However, other kinds of flatfish were not significantly impacted. The researchers also noted that almost immediately, mussels, sea stars and anemones began covering the submerged turbines. Future studies will add data on marine life impact and likely inform industry approaches.

Read the full story at Discover Magazine