Rhode Island Archives - Page 49 of 60

SQUID FISHING IS A BOON TO THE LOCAL ECONOMY

May 31, 2017 — It’s high squid fishing season. Recreational anglers crowd the Calamari (Goat Island) Causeway at night, carrying floating water lights and special jigs to scoop them up in buckets. The commercial fleet is pumping squid into the Port of Galilee by the boatload. From the seabed to the boat to a saltwater flume that shoots them into the maw of a dockside processing facility, they are sorted, graded and flash frozen at minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

In late March, Ryan Clark, president and CEO of the Town Dock, took advantage of a quiet pre-season moment to demonstrate how the Loligo pealei, or longfin squid, is hand-gutted and cleaned. He deftly slices the tentacles from the body just above the eye and pulls out the beak. The guts and the backbone — called the quill for its resemblance to a molted flight feather — are extracted from the long tube of its body. Clark works his thumb between the skin and flesh to peel off the skin, then strips off the back fins to produce a white tube.

A squid’s body is soft and offers little resistance to disassembly. At full throttle, workers at the Town Dock’s Johnston facility hand-process 500 squid an hour to send on their way to Spain, China or your favorite local seafood joint.

“It’s not typical manufacturing,” says Clark. “The seafood world is very challenging with the unpredictable nature of fisheries. There are so many dynamics going on in the ocean. The science tries to keep up, but no one knows what’s underneath the waves. My team has to gear up. When squid season is upon us, it’s all hands on deck to keep the boats going to maximize the catch.”

The Rhode Island fleet has been so adept at maximizing this particular catch that Galilee is now the number one port for longfin squid landings on the East Coast. In 2015, for example, Rhode Island landed sixteen million pounds. New York, its nearest competitor, landed about 4.3 million pounds.

Last year was Rhode Island’s best yet, with 119 vessels landing 22.6 million pounds of squid, valued at $28.6 million. Once an underutilized species, squid is the linchpin of the port. With three processors — the others are Sea Fresh USA and Seafreeze — Galilee also attracts out-of-state vessels, magnifying the economic impact, says Department of Environmental Management (DEM) port manager Daniel Costa.

“Squid is not a state-restricted fin fish. Other vessels come here because of our processing and they are the ones buying the fuel, the ice, the groceries,” he says. “They are getting their vessels repaired here and mending their nets. They are spending a lot of money and that is where we get the boost.”

Rodman Sykes, a commercial fisherman for forty-seven years, recalls the days when Rhode Island-caught squid never hit the shore.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Monthly

Fishermen work to get Trump’s attention on Thames River

May 18, 2017 — Supporters of President Trump are gathering in southeastern Connecticut Wednesday. Among them are a group of fishermen who organized on the Thames River.

These fishing vessels were on a different kind of mission. News 8 was on board the Tradition, a 70 foot vessel that is one of more than 25 boats out trying to get the president’s attention hoping for change to what they say are outdated and over regulated rules that could eventually kill the fishing industry here in New England.

The vessels set out from Stonington at around 8 a.m. for the one hour sail to the Thames River. The Tradition works out of Rhode Island but the boats there Wednesday also came from Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts.

Aaron Williams, the Captain of the Tradition, has been a fishermen since 1998 but has been out on the water since he was 5-years-old. This is his families’ business, their livelihood and he doesn’t argue that regulations were needed two decades ago when inventory was low. But, he says after decades of responsible and regulated fishing, it’s time to change things again so the industry can survive.

“We never ever want to see unregulated fishing because we know where that goes; but what we would like to see is more participation from us in the management process. We’re not in it to catch the last fish that would be pointless.” said Williams.

Read the full story at WTNH

Rhode Island fishermen ask President Trump to deregulate commercial fishing industry

May 18, 2017 — Local fishermen are asking President Donald Trump to deregulate the commercial fishing industry, complaining that quotas are hurting their bottom lines.

A group of Rhode Island fishermen left Point Judith early Wednesday morning to sail to New London, Conn., for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation. The flotilla, joined by Rhode Island GOP National Committeewoman Lee Ann Sennick, also included fishermen from New York and Connecticut.

“It’s just a very disheartening feeling,” said Aaron Williams, the captain of the Tradition. He was one of the fishermen from Point Judith. “It’s kind of a frustrating thing to see certain species of fish that have rebounded as much as they have, and every year we keep getting stuff taken away from us.”

With signs reading “Please help us” and “Make commercial fishing great again,” the fishermen hoped to catch President Trump’s eye as he arrived at the commencement.

The group says fishing quotas and limits are unnecessary. They also say wind farms and sanctuaries greatly limit where they can practice their trade.

“We’re just trying to let [President Trump] know there is an ocean full of fish out here and the fish have been rebuilt, and we are forced to throw them over dead all day in the name of conservation,” said Brian Loftes, another commercial fisherman. “In the meantime, we’re slowly going out of business because these boats are expensive to run.”

Conservationists, however, warn that getting rid of quotas could disrupt the delicate ecosystems of the ocean.

“I think it would be devastating to the industry if we saw regulations go away,” said Michael Jarbeau, the Baykeeper at Save the Bay. His organization advocates to protect Narragansett Bay. “If there were no quotas, it’s extremely possible that we would see fish stocks become depleted,” he said.

Read the full story at WPRI

Out at sea, under the watchful eyes of cameras, fishermen work as the government monitors catch

May 16, 2017 — Chris Brown has grown used to the five video cameras that record every move he and his two crew members make aboard the Proud Mary.

Since installing the equipment in January on the 45-foot otter trawler, whenever Brown steams out of Galilee in search of flounder and other groundfish in the Atlantic Ocean waters off Rhode Island, the electronic monitoring system kicks on.

And as Brown engages the boat’s hydraulics to haul in its nets, the cameras track everything he and his crew catch, all the fish they keep and all the fish they discard over the side.

The cameras may seem intrusive, but then Brown has an easy answer when asked about them.

“I’d much rather have a camera overhead than an observer under foot,” he said.

Brown is one of three Rhode Island fishermen who have signed on to a program that is testing out electronic surveillance as an alternative to human monitors that the federal government requires to be on board one in every seven fishing trips in the Northeast in an effort to stamp out overfishing.

The new program being led by The Nature Conservancy offers the potential for closer observation of commercial fishing, enhancing compliance with quotas and deterring misreporting.

Its supporters say it also provides more accurate data that will lead to better science and better regulations, all with the aim of supporting a fishing industry that is sustainable for years to come.

“There’s a mismatch between what fishermen say they see on the water and what the science says,” said Christopher McGuire, marine program director with The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts. “We’re trying to bridge that gap.”

Electronic monitoring on fishing boats is nothing new. It’s been in use in British Columbia, in Canada, for more than 15 years, was eventually adopted by American fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, and was tested by Cape Cod fishermen as far back as 2005.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Offshore Wind Power Will ‘Absolutely Cost Jobs’ Of US Fishermen

May 8, 2017 — The fishing industry is worried the first offshore wind farm to come online in the U.S. will ruin their way of life and kill jobs.

An offshore wind turbine three miles off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, will kill large numbers of fish and potentially drive hundreds of small coastal enterprises out of business, according to a fishing industry representative. Fishermen fear offshore wind turbines will continue to pop up along Atlantic Coast, eventually make it impossible to be a commercial fisherman.

“This will absolutely cost jobs in the U.S.,” Bonnie Brady, director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “If New York Governor [Andrew] Cuomo’s administration gets what it wants from offshore wind that’s thousands of fishing jobs. It’ll rip the coastal communities apart.”

Deepwater Wind (DW) powered up a nearby island from the Block Island turbines Tuesday. DW says it created 300 local jobs during the wind turbine construction process at Block Island.

Read the full story at The Daily Caller

Southern New England Lobstering Changes up for Vote

May 5, 2017 — New restrictions on lobster fishing are up for a vote as regulators try to slow the loss of the valuable crustaceans from southern New England waters.

Scientists say populations of lobsters off of Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts have declined as waters have warmed. A board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to vote on new management measures Monday and Tuesday.

Fishing managers are considering tools like trap reductions, changes to the legal harvesting size of lobsters and seasonal closures to try to preserve the population.

Most U.S. lobster is brought to shore in Maine. That state has had record high catches in recent years. The price of lobsters has been high, too.

Read the full story at New England Cable Network

States to host hearings on changes to squid fishery

Rhode Island Fishing Industry Looks To Grow Local Demand Amid Changing Regulations

April 11, 2017 — Fishing has long been a staple industry in Rhode Island. Over the last century ever more local seafood is shipped across the country and the globe. Now, fishermen are working to grow the local market in the face of changing regulations and technology.

The Pawtucket indoor farmer’s market is bustling on a recent Saturday morning. Among the rows of vendors selling veggies, eggs, and homemade soaps is the Local Catch – purveyor of locally caught seafood. Laid out over shaved ice are fish like dabs, a type of flounder, John Dory, and Monkfish. It’s all readily available in local waters. Yet Rhode Islanders might be hard-pressed to find them in a neighborhood grocery store.

“Before we started the Local Catch I fished for about 35 years with my own boat,” said Local Catch owner Richard Cook. “We went to a couple fish markets at Stop and Shops and stuff like that and nobody had any local fish it was all from Alaska and China and all over the place.”

So Cook is working to grow local demand for a wider variety of fish. And that could benefit thousands of workers. The state supported some 5,000 commercial fishing jobs as recently as 2012, according the State Department of Environmental Management. That same DEM report found the state did $200 million dollars in commercial sales that year. Cook says that number could be higher, but fishermen are struggling with catch limits. Those are imposed by state and federal officials to protect the health of certain fish species.

One of the more popular local fish, cod has a catch limit of 1,000 pounds per boat, per day. So Cook and others are hoping other fish like scup will catch on. Scup – also known as porgy – can be found in Rhode Island waters, but has a catch limit of 50,000 pounds per boat per day.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

Changes could be coming to East Coast squid fishery

April 10, 2017 — An effort to gain better control over the amount of participation in the East Coast squid fishery will be the subject of a series of public hearings this spring.

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council wants to reduce latent permits for certain kinds of squid. Most years, a few vessels are responsible for bringing the majority of the commercially harvested squid to shore.

The fishery council says it’s concerned that excessive squid fishing could occur if latent permits become active.

Longfin squid fishing’s a major industry, with more than 26 million pounds coming to shore in 2015. It was valued at more than $31 million. Rhode Island’s the biggest producer.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: Shell Game: Shopping stolen scallops around waterfront

March 27, 2017 — North America’s largest seafood trade event brought suppliers and buyers from around the world together in one place two weeks ago. But it was New Bedford’s waterfront that was the talk of the event, and not because of the city’s seafood.

Whispers about the theft of 8,350 pounds of U10 scallops in New Bedford were on many lips at the March 11-13 seafood expo. The scallops disappeared from a Continental Cold Storage facility in the city and were discovered missing in February.

Exactly when the scallops were stolen and how is still unknown. Valued at up to $192,050, they were packed in 25 pound boxes, filling 336 cases on four pallets, and were believed to be transported by a single truck, according to police documents. An additional 24 cases of U12 scallops were later determined to also be missing.

An investigation by New Bedford police is ongoing.

“Everybody has bits and pieces, but nobody has the whole story,” said a New Bedford seafood executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case remains an active police investigation.

Some of the facts behind the mystery appear in more than 50 pages of court documents obtained and reviewed by The Standard-Times surrounding the arrest warrants of Antonio Vieira, of 74 Morning Dove Drive in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and Michael Caton, formerly a resident of Riverside, Rhode Island, but currently living at 17923 Applegate Road in Applegate, California.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times