Saving Seafood

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

JOEANN HART: CO2 and feeling blue

September 14, 2016 — When we swim in the sea there is no visible footprint left behind so it easy to believe we make no mark. But all of us leave a carbon footprint in the ocean. Every time we use fossil fuels to drive our cars, charge our phones and heat and light our homes, we add heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, more than 1.5 trillion tons of it since the Industrial Revolution. The last time so much CO2 was pumped into the air was 250 million years ago, when volcanic eruptions almost wiped out life on Earth. Humanity has survived the current environmental assault so far because of the oceans, which have absorbed about a third of the CO2 and much of the heat. The price we pay for that favor is rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and the destruction of fisheries throughout the world.

We are all at risk, but most especially for a fishing town like Gloucester. Coastal erosion from rising seas threaten not just our homes, but fragile wetlands, the nursery of many marine species. Other dangers from CO2 are not so visible but even more catastrophic. When the CO2 we’ve released into the air falls into the ocean it turns the water acidic, which weakens phytoplankton, the bedrock of the ocean’s food chain. No fish, no fishing industry. Reduced calcification from a lower pH also makes it difficult for shellfish to build their shells. No shells, no clams, no lobsters. Many marine animals can only live at a specific temperature, and as the water warms those populations decline or migrate. Again, no fish, no industry, and for people around the globe who rely on fish as their major source of protein, no food. The World Wildlife Fund believes that climate change is one of the main reasons for the decline of marine species in the last 30 years. Yet fisheries managers are not mandated to address the impact of non-fishing activities such as climate change, oil spills and water pollution. Instead, they focus on catch quotas.

Fishermen shouldn’t have to shoulder alone the consequences of a problem that all of us are responsible for creating. Since we cannot wait for nations to act, it is up to local communities to lower their carbon footprint. Unlike volcanoes, we can control the amount of CO2 we pump into the atmosphere, but to do that we need to restrict our use of fossil fuels. As a community, we already have wind turbines thanks to Gloucester’s Clean Energy Commission. Future options could include offshore wind farms, tidal energy systems and solar parking lots but there is plenty that individuals can do as well. Request a free energy audit from the Mass Save Program (masssave.com), which comes with help in replacing old appliances and insulating homes. Walk more, bike more, then lobby for bike lanes and better public transportation. Buy an electric or hybrid vehicle and take advantage of federal tax credits; install some solar panels and get Massachusetts incentives and rebates. Consider the carbon footprint of groceries. Eating seasonally and locally helps reduce the amount of fuel needed to get food to the table. Even using less plastic can help lower one’s carbon footprint, because plastic is a petroleum product. And in a coastal community like Gloucester, balloons and single-use bags often blow into the ocean where they can become death traps for whales, sea turtles and dolphins, all of whom mistake floating plastic for a dinner of jellyfish. We’re doing enough damage to them as it is with the CO2.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Maryland aquaculture leasing streamlined

August 19, 2016 — Federal regulators unveiled this week a new, “more streamlined” process by which Maryland oyster farmers can lease places in the Chesapeake Bay for raising their shellfish.

The revised permitting procedures announced by the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers come in response to long-voiced complaints from oyster farmers – backed up by Maryland’s U.S. senators – about delays and red tape in obtaining aquaculture leases.

The Corps said it is replacing a regional general permit, which it issued in 2011, with what it calls a Nationwide permit, which the agency says provides a “more streamlined” way to authorize new aquaculture activities.

The new process, which took effect Aug. 15, includes allowing unlimited acreage to be leased, and speeding up handling of proposed aquaculture projects by having federal and state officials review plans at the same time rather than sequentially.

Until now, oyster farmers were limited to leasing 50 acres if raising shellfish loose on the bottom, five acres if rearing them in cages and three acres if keeping them in floats near the water surface. If a grower wanted more, he or she had to apply for an individual permit, which required more review, more public notice and a hearing.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Flocking to Robben Island: Tourists by Day, Poachers by Night

August 16, 2016 — Robben Island in South Africa is getting to be notorious again — and this time it’s not for racial oppression.

The apartheid-era prison on the island is now a tourist attraction, where visitors from around the world pause with reverence outside the cell where Nelson Mandela was kept. The ferry ride back to the mainland merely deepens the sense of isolation that the inmates must have felt.

But the waters surrounding Robben Island, just off the coast near Cape Town, also happen to be among the richest in the world for delicious shellfish — especially abalone, which is highly prized in Asia. That has made the island a hot spot for shellfish poaching.

At night, when the island is closed to tourists, poachers in inflatable boats known as rubber ducks often make their way toward its rocky coastline and dive illegally in the shallows in search of the mollusks.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Maturing oyster recovery projects bring calls for money

July 26, 2016 — LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. — Oysters were once so abundant in New Jersey that vacationers would clamber off trains, wade into the water and pluck handfuls to roast for dinner. Their colonies piled so high that boats would sometimes run aground on them, and they were incorporated into navigation maps. Even earlier, Native American tribes would have oyster feasts on the banks of coastal inlets.

But over the centuries, rampant development, pollution, overharvesting and disease drastically reduced the number of oysters, here and around the country; many researchers and volunteer groups estimate oyster populations are down 85 percent from their levels in the 1800s.

That has sparked efforts throughout the coastal United States to establish new oyster colonies, or fortify struggling ones. Though small in scale, the efforts are numerous and growing, and they have a unified goal: showing that oysters can be successfully restored in the wild, paving the way for larger-scale efforts and the larger funding they will require.

While a main goal is increasing the numbers of succulent, salty shellfish bound for dinner plates, oysters also serve other useful purposes. They improve water quality; a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. They also can protect coastlines; the hard, irregular oyster beds serve as speed bumps that obstruct waves during storms.

“It’s many years and millions of dollars away, but it is attainable,” said Steve Evert, assistant director of the Marine Science and Environmental Field Station at New Jersey’s Stockton University, one of hundreds of organizations working to start or expand oyster colonies.

Most of the projects are small-scale, funded by government grants and volunteer donations. Helen Henderson, of New Jersey’s American Littoral Society, which is growing an oyster reef in Barnegat Bay, hopes successful demonstration projects can lead to an exponential increase in funding for bigger projects.

“Nature has shown us this can be done; we’re just giving it a kick-start,” she said. “Hopefully funding will flow from that once we can show successful outcomes, and we can really make a difference on a much larger scale.”

Read the full story at the Oneida Daily Dispatch

MASSACHUSETTS: Cowhide? Lobstermen looking at bait alternatives

July 25, 2016 — Gloucester is Massachusetts’ No. 1 lobster port when it comes to landings, with Rockport in the No. 3 spot.

And when it comes to bait to catch the shellfish, local lobstermen usually use herring.

But the Massachusetts herring fishery will be restricted in an attempt to mitigate a shortage of the bait fish that threatens the lobster fishery.

So, lobstermen are looking further afield to tempt lobsters’ palates and into their traps.

Gerry O’Neill, who owns the two 141-foot mid-water trawlers Challenger and Endeavour, says while fresh herring may be in shorter supply on Cape Ann than in the past, he has frozen fish ready to go at Cape Seafoods on the Jodrey State Fish Pier.

Joey Ciaramitaro of Capt. Joe & Sons, a lobster dealer on East Main Street, says many of the lobstermen who sell their catch to his company are already using alternative baits.

“They’re using cowhides and stuff,” he said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Report shows North Carolina fishermen caught and sold a rising number of fish in 2015

June 22, 2016 — MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. — A new report says North Carolina’s commercial fishermen caught and sold an increasing number of fish for the second year in the row.

According to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, 66 million pounds of finfish and shellfish were sold to seafood dealers in 2015, which was 6.8% more than in 2014. The five-year average is 60.5 million pounds. Revenues also increased, with the value of the fish at $104 million, which also tops the five-year average.

The agency credits the mild weather for allowing the fishermen to work late in the year into the early winter of 2015.

Read the full story at NBC Morehead City

Maine must address the threat of ocean acidification

June 6, 2016 — Mainers have strong cultural, historic and economic ties to the ocean. The health of the ocean is critical to our way of life. Ocean acidification is a growing problem that could damage the health of the ocean and have drastic consequences for Maine’s coastal economy.

Ocean acidification results when there is increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere goes up, a large proportion of it – up to 40 percent – gets dissolved in rainwater. From here it ends up in lakes, ponds, rivers and ultimately the ocean.

In addition to the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, nutrients in the runoff from the land, like fertilizer, also increase the amount of carbon dioxide entering the ocean. The increased carbon dioxide reacts with the water to form carbonic acid, making it more acidic.

The increased acidity of sea water impacts marine life. One of the most important effects is how the acid changes the way organisms use calcium. Calcium is critical to the entire food chain in the Gulf of Maine. The planktons, which make up the base of the food chain, decrease in number as the acidity of the ocean rises, and this in turn has an impact on finned fish.

For shellfish, the impact is even more dramatic. The acid interferes with the way shellfish such as clams, mussels, scallops and even the iconic Maine lobster build their shells. It also can corrode shells. If we don’t find and adopt solutions, ocean acidification could cause major problems for most, if not all, of Maine’s commercial fisheries.

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald