Saving Seafood

Activity increasing all along New Bedford, Mass. Harbor

September 6, 2015 — The Port of New Bedford is not only home to the vastly profitable scallop industry, making it the No. 1 value fishing port in the nation, it is also the No. 2 commercial port in Massachusetts, after Boston.

Commercial and recreational activity in the port has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, with an occasional setback. Plans for a waterfront casino fell through this year when the developer could not find financing. The state-funded development of a $100 million-plus maritime shipping terminal in the South End wound up without its major client when the Cape Wind offshore wind energy    project was abandoned.

Even at that, there is activity everywhere. This summer has seen a large increase in the number of recreational boaters who have decided to dock in New Bedford. Some of that is a reflection of the good publicity that the port received when the Boston 2024 Olympic Committee, now disbanded, chose New Bedford to be the home of the sailing competition in those games.

Shipping is also increasing. Cargo ships carrying clementines from Morocco or Spain have sharply increased their number of arrivals at State Pier in the last couple of years. Plans are in place to refrigerate the State Pier storage facility so clementines can be shipped through the port during warm weather, which they cannot do at present.

Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times

Maine DMR plans meetings to set scallop, urchin seasons

September 8, 2015 — The Department of Marine Resources is proposing new rules to set the regulations and harvest season for the 2015-2016 scallop season and set rules and establish a closed area for the coming sea urchin fishery. Three public hearings are scheduled on the scallop regulations and one hearing is scheduled for the sea urchin rules.

For the 2015-2016 scallop fishing season, as in the past 2014-2015 season, there would be a statewide 15-gallon daily possession limit for scallop meats except in Cobscook Bay, where the limit would remain at 10 gallons for Zone 3.

In western Maine waters, known as Zone 1, draggers would have a 60-day season starting Dec. 15 and ending April 11, 2016. For divers, the 60-day season would start Dec. 1 and end April 15.

In Zone 2, essentially from Penobscot Bay east to Cobscook Bay, draggers would have a 70-day season starting Dec. 1 and ending April 13. For Zone 2 divers, the 70-day season would start Dec. 1 and end April 15.

Last winter, the season was 70 days in both zones, but the concerns for the scarcity of scallops throughout Zone 1 led the department and the Scallop Advisory Council to recommend a shorter season this year.

Read the full story from The Ellsworth American

Scallops rebounding in Tampa Bay, count shows

August 26, 2015 — People are jumping into the waters north of here and hauling out scallops by the thousands this time of year, but the environmental group Tampa Bay Watch is rejoicing at a far smaller found number closer to home — just 233 of them.

It was a scientific undertaking by selected volunteers off Boca Ciega and Fort DeSoto that turned up the local scallops Saturday, rather than hungry snorkelers looking for their next meal from the Pasco-Hernando county line north during the Gulf harvest that runs through Sept. 24.

But 233 is nearly double the 112 found in local waters during last year’s Great Bay Scallop Search and represents an upward trend line that has local scallop watchers celebrating. Just five were counted in 2011.

Both Tampa Bay Watch and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission describe scallop populations as an indicator of water quality because of the shellfish’s sensitivity to pollution and their ability to filter and clean the water of nuisance species like phytoplankton.

Scallop numbers can be an indicator that something’s going on at a bigger level, and extreme changes mean the local population might collapse, said Sarah Stephenson, a scientist at the state’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

Read the full story at The Suncoast News

 

Coast Guard aids fishing vessel southeast of Nantucket

August 24, 2015 — Crews aboard two Coast Guard cutters brought an 83-foot fishing vessel safely to anchorage off Nantucket at approximately 8 p.m. Sunday.
Watchstanders at the First Coast Guard District Command Center, were notified at 11:30 a.m. Saturday that the scallop fishing vessel Chaz’s Toy lost propulsion during a living marine resource boarding by the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba crew 120 miles southeast of Nantucket.

The crew of the 270-ft Escanaba issued a marine assistance request broadcast for Chaz’s Toysoliciting commercial or good Samaritan assistance for the vessel, which went unanswered.

The cutter took the vessel in stern tow at approximately 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The following morning, the crew of the 110-foot Tybee relieved the Escanaba crew and continued to bring the vessel toward shore.

Read the full story at the Inquirer and Mirror

Fishing study reveals scallop fishing impact

August 19, 2015 — Sustainable scallop fishing within the Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation (SAC) could be possible, thanks to the world’s largest ever fishing impact study led by scientists from Wales’ Bangor University.

Bangor University worked together with the Welsh Fishermen’s Association, Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales for the study, which focused on understanding the amount of scallop fishing within the SAC that would be considered sustainable and that would not damage the conservation features of the area.

“This is the first study of its kind that provides information that would enable us to advise on the amount of fishing that the seabed within the SAC can tolerate, it provides the basis for a truly ecosystem based approach to management of a potential fishery in the area,” said Professor Michel Kaiser who leads the fisheries and conservation science group at Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences.

Read the full story at World Fishing & Aquaculture

Scallop Abundance Found off Southern New Jersey Coast

August 21, 2015 — There could be as much as 500 million dollars worth of scallops waiting to be harvested off the coast of New Jersey and Delaware.

“If they all grow up. It’s going to be worth a lot of money over several years,” said Dvora Hart, a mathematical biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Photo images taken by NOAA’s Habcam this spring revealed the high density of scallops located in the Elephant Trunk, a fishing ground offshore of the two states. Dvora estimates there could be as many as 7.9 billion scallops in a 1,200 square mile zone in the trunk.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Coast Guard tows scalloper to safety

August 18, 2015 — BOSTON, MA — A fishing vessel carrying 650 pounds of scallops had to be towed to port by the Coast Gaurd when it became disabled.

Coast Guard crews aboard the cutters Escanaba and Hammerhead brought the disabled scalloper safely to shore early Monday.

Coast Guard watchstanders at Woods Hole received a phone call from the captain of the vessel Challenge on Sunday morning, stating a line had fouled the vessel’s propeller, and it was disabled and adrift 70 miles southeast of Nantucket.

Search and rescue coordinators from the Sector Southeastern New England command center in Woods Hole diverted the Coast Guard Cutters Escanaba and Hammerhead to assist.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

Fishermen’s Steering Committee Meeting – Monday, August 24th – 10:00 am

August 17, 2015 — The following was released by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST):

We will be holding the Fishermen’s Steering Committee meeting on Monday, August 24th at 10:00 a.m.  The meeting will be held in room 157, on the second floor of the ATT building (200 Mill Road, Fairhaven MA).

At this meeting we will be holding the lottery for the RSA compensation trips associated with the scallop program awards, and the SMAST Bycatch Avoidance program. Participants in the SMAST Bycatch Avoidance program have been automatically entered into the Bycatch Avoidance RSA lottery.

To be entered into the lottery for the RSA compensation trips, associated with the scallop program, please email your name and vessel names, to ekeiley@umassd.edu no later than Thursday, August 20th, close of business day.

 

NOAA Releases Interactive Atlantic Scallop Fishery Areas Map

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — August 7, 2015 — A new “story map” created by NOAA Fisheries’ Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) overviews the 2015 Atlantic sea scallop fishery regulations based on Framework 26 from as far north as Georges Bank in New England down to the Mid-Atlantic Coast. Implemented as of May 2015, these scallop fishery areas include open access areas, rotational closed areas, seasonal areas reserved for turtle conservation, transit declarations for ports, and gear modifications.

The story map gives viewers, “a quick tour of the regulations for the Scallop fishery as of May 2015,” and interactive features allow users to zoom in on areas of the map for more details on specific area closures. The map and accompanying website also provide information about gear restrictions, information for vessels operating Days-at-Sea trips, and the protocol fishermen need to follow after crossing Vessel Monitoring System Demarcation Lines. The map is color-coded and includes downloadable GIS shapefiles from all Greater Atlantic Region regulated areas, as well as links to specific management measures through an Electronic Code of Federal Regulations website.

View the interactive story map from NOAA Fisheries

Learn more about Atlantic Sea Scallops on NOAA Fisheries’ webpage

 

 

Tide turns for Florida bay scallops, restoration continues in Tarpon Bay

July 31, 2015 — Standing in the chest-deep water of Tarpon Bay this week, Eric Milbrandt handed a cage full of bay scallops to Sarah Bridenbaugh aboard a Carolina Skiff.

Milbrandt, director of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine Laboratory, and research assistant Bridenbaugh weren’t harvesting the tasty mollusks (harvesting bay scallops south of the Pasco-Hernando county line is illegal).

Instead, the caged scallops would be cleaned, counted and measured by Bridenbaugh and interns Krystal Silas, Emily Anderson and Chrissy McCrimmon for an ongoing scallop restoration project.

“Old-timers talk about collecting buckets of scallops in the 1950s and ’60s,” Milbrant said. “What we’re trying to do is re-establish a local population of scallops. We’d like to see a population that can sustain a recreational harvest, but we’re quite a long way from that.”

Read the full story at the News-Press