Saving Seafood

A Bacteria That Thrives In Warmer Waters Keeps Mass. Oyster Fisheries On High Alert

August 31, 2017 — Massachusetts loves its local oysters from places like Wellfleet and Duxbury. The state’s bivalve business is booming along with increased consumer demand. These days there’s no shortage of $1 oyster specials and oyster-centric restaurants around here.

But the ways oysters are harvested and handled have become more involved and challenging since 2013. That’s when bacteria linked to warming waters appeared in our marshes for the first time.

The result was an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness caused by Vibrio Parahaemolyticus — Vp or Vibrio for short. (To be clear, this is different from norovirus, which led to a closure of shellfish beds in Wellfleet last year.)

In response to the Vp bacteria’s emergence in New England, the state implemented a Vibrio Control Plan. Here’s how those state efforts to control bacterial infection have been affecting people in the oyster industry.

‘The Waters Are Warmer Than They Used To Be’

At Select Oyster Bar in Boston, you can find a rotating selection of Massachusetts oysters on-the-half-shell — Moon Shoal petites from Kingston, Ichabods from Plymouth and Wellfleet Puffers.

For about a dozen years Select’s chef-owner Michael Serpa has been serving mollusks in Boston establishments, including the cult-favorite Neptune Oysters in the North End. “I’ve seen a lot of oysters,” he told me, smiling.

Read and listen to the full story at WBUR

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod shellfish bed closures await lab results

July 10, 2017 — Shellfish growing areas in six towns that were closed by the state Division of Marine Fisheries on Friday remained closed Monday pending lab results of bacteriological water samples from the affected areas, according to Katie Gronendyke, spokeswoman for the state Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The state closed shellfish growing areas east of the Cape Cod Canal in the towns of Sandwich, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable and in Lewis Bay in Yarmouth because of extreme rainfall. Shellfish beds in Sandwich are open only from November through May, according to the Sandwich Department of Natural Resources.

Friday’s rain, which accumulated up to 4 inches in two to three hours in some areas, overwhelmed roads, parking lots and storm drain systems, Gronendyke wrote in an email. The flooding can cause contaminated water to accumulate and release into coastal waters, she wrote.

The towns in which the shellfish growing areas were closed received the heaviest rainfall, she wrote.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Driven By Lobster, Value of Maine Fisheries Landings Rises

May 10, 2017 — Landings of finfish and shellfish in Maine accounted for over $588 million in revenue in 2015, the most recent year for which statistics are available, and more than 39,000 jobs, according to numbers released Tuesday by NOAA Fisheries.

The total landings in Maine for 2015 were up more than $40 million compared to 2014 and up more than $112 million compared to 2013.

Rita Curtis, a NOAA Fisheries division chief for economics and social analysis, says American lobsters drive Maine fisheries.

“Maine lobster was up again, about $40 million. Prices were up we’ll say about 10 percent, more or less. Soft shell clams were up,” she says.

Curtis says, across the board, there was a lot of good news for Maine.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MAINE: Fishermen’s Forum kicks off next week

February 24, 2017 — ROCKPORT, Maine — The 42nd annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum kicks off on Thursday, March 2, at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

More than 30 free seminars over three days will touch on topics affecting the state’s fisheries.

Shellfish Focus Day takes place on day one, with seminars ranging in subject from biology, to policy and legislation, shellfish management and biotoxins.

Panelists include researchers and scientists such as Brian Beal of the Downeast Institute, representatives from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, state legislators and municipal Shellfish Advisory Council members including Mike Pinkham, shellfish warden of Gouldsboro.

Chad Coffin of the Maine Clammers Association will be on hand to discuss the state’s bivalve industry along with Gulf of Maine Inc.’s Tim Sheehan, who will present on business strategies for the shellfish industry.

Also on Thursday is the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector annual meeting following an hour-long open session for the public. The Maine Coast Community Sector also will hold its annual meeting on Thursday.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

NOAA plans to open federal waters in Pacific to fish farming

January 6, 2017 — HONOLULU — As traditional commercial fishing is threatening fish populations worldwide, U.S. officials are working on a plan to expand fish farming into federal waters around the Pacific Ocean.

The government sees the move toward aquaculture as a promising solution to overfishing and feeding a hungry planet. But some environmentalists say the industrial-scale farms could do more harm than good to overall fish stocks and ocean health.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is creating a plan to manage commercial fish farms in federal waters, the area of ocean from three to 200 miles offshore, around Hawaii and other Pacific islands.

The program is similar to one recently implemented by NOAA in the Gulf of Mexico. The farms in the Gulf and the Pacific would be the only aquaculture operations in U.S. federal waters, though there are smaller operations in state waters close to shore.

Fish farming has been practiced for centuries in Hawaii and around the world. But modern aquaculture, some environmentalists say, carries pollution risks and the potential for non-native farmed fish to escape and enter the natural ecosystem.

Most shellfish consumed in America comes from farms, and their methods are widely considered sustainable. However, some farms that grow carnivorous fish such as salmon have raised concerns about sustainability because they use wild-caught fish to feed the captive species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times

Obama charting course on Pacific fish farming

October 31st, 2016 — OBAMA CHARTING COURSE ON AQUACULTURE IN PACIFIC: The Obama administration is laying the groundwork for permitting fish farming in federal waters in the Pacific Islands for the first time, part of its plan to double aquaculture production in the U.S. by 2020. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — in partnership with the regional fishery council that manages fish stocks in Hawaii, the Marianas and other islands — intends to conduct an environmental impact study to evaluate where farms should be located. The deadline to comment is today.

While salmon and shellfish have been farmed in state waters for decades, NOAA wants to expand aquaculture further from shore, in order to meet growing demand for seafood as the amount of wild-caught fish has flatlined. The U.S. imports more than 90 percent of what is eaten here, half of which is farmed — a practice that’s resulted in a trade deficit of $11.2 billion. Aquaculture is practiced widely in countries like Norway and China, but has been slow to catch on in the U.S. because of concerns about ocean ecosystems and coastal economies. It took NOAA about 14 years to finalize a framework for the Gulf of Mexico, and when the rule was finally completed in January, the agency was sued by a dozen environmental advocacy and commercial fishing groups.

“Farmed species can escape and alter wild populations, and when you put a lot of fish together in one location, it can harbor disease and spread pollution,” said Marianne Cufone, executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which advocates for land-based aquaponics. The nonprofit is part of the suit filed against NOAA’s plan for the Gulf; Cufone said she expects a challenge to the Pacific program, if it’s finalized.

Read the full story at Politico 

MASSACHUSETTS: Shellfish, except bay scallops, still off-limits

October 24th, 2016 — Shellfish harvesting — with the exception of bay scallops — continues to be banned in Nantucket waters because of toxic plankton, which first arrived Oct. 7 in Cape Cod waters and made its way to the island a few days later.

“On Tuesday the state Division of Marine Fisheries requested shellfish to sample and we sent them 20 oysters from the harbor for tissue testing,” said Jeff Carlson, Nantucket’s natural resources coordinator.

“Hopefully they can get the testing done quickly and if it comes back clean, we can open things back up.”

Carlson said he did not know how long the state would take to test the samples and added it had sent out similar requests to towns bordering Nantucket Sound that have been included in the harvesting ban.

The reason for the state-mandated closure is plankton called Pseudo-nitzschia that produces a toxin that if consumed leads to amnesic shellfish poisoning. Symptoms of such poisoning include nausea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, dementia, amnesia, permanent loss of short-term memory and, in extreme cases, coma or death.

Read the full story at The Cape Cod Times 

MASSACHUSETTS: Aw-shucks! No raw oysters at Wellfleet OysterFest

October 14th, 2016 — If you’re headed to the Wellfleet OysterFest this weekend, you might be surprised to learn that there will be no raw oysters served.

The state has closed all shellfish beds in the Cape Cod town because of an outbreak of suspected norovirus illness that is believed to be linked to consumption of shellfish from that area, according to the state Department of Public Health.

Shellfish harvested from the area has also been recalled, the department said in an advisory issued Wednesday.

Organizers of the OysterFest said they have decided not serve any raw oysters during the two-day event that starts on Saturday.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

Massachusetts: DMF Expands Shellfish Harvest Closures to All Waters South of Cape Cod

October 12th, 2016 — Effective immediately, the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) has expanded its recently announced shellfish harvest closures to include all waters south of Cape Cod due to a substantial bloom of a potentially toxic kind of phytoplankton termed Pseudo-Nitzschia.

As a result of the expanded closure, digging, harvesting, collecting and/or attempting to dig, harvest or collect shellfish, and the possession of shellfish, is prohibited in all waters from the Rhode Island border east to Nantucket Sound, including all of Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds and waters surrounding the islands.

This closure complements the state of Rhode Island’s shellfish harvest closures.

Pseudo-Nitzschia can produce domoic acid, a biotoxin that concentrates in filter feeding shellfish. Shellfish containing high concentrations of domoic acid can cause Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP) with symptoms that include vomiting, cramps, diarrhea and incapacitating headaches followed by confusion, disorientation, permanent loss of short-term memory, and in severe cases, seizures and coma.

Read the full story at Capecod.com 

MASSACHUSETTS: Toxic algae outbreak halts shellfishing in Buzzards Bay, Mount Hope Bay

October 11, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The state’s Division of Marine Fisheries has banned shellfishing in the west side of Buzzards Bay and in Mount Hope Bay because of a breakout of toxic algae late last week.

The ban affects all SouthCoast towns and cities. “As a result of the closure, digging, harvesting, collecting and/or attempting to dig, harvest or collect shellfish, and the possession of shellfish, is prohibited in Bourne, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Falmouth, Gosnold, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Swansea and Westport,” the state said in a press release.

The trouble concerns a toxic kind of phytoplankton termed Pseudo-Nitzschia.

This algae can produce domoic acid, a biotoxin that concentrates in filter-feeding shellfish.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times