Saving Seafood

  • Home
  • News
    • Alerts
    • Conservation & Environment
    • Council Actions
    • Economic Impact
    • Enforcement
    • International & Trade
    • Law
    • Management & Regulation
    • Regulations
    • Nutrition
    • Opinion
    • Other News
    • Safety
    • Science
    • State and Local
  • News by Region
    • New England
    • Mid-Atlantic
    • South Atlantic
    • Gulf of Mexico
    • Pacific
    • North Pacific
    • Western Pacific
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Fishing Terms Glossary

Vineyard Wind fisheries study to assess effect of offshore turbines

June 4, 2021 — Cooperative surveys by scientists and fishermen have laid groundwork for the first baseline study of how offshore wind turbine construction will affect southern New England fisheries, and organizers are seeking more advice for fine-tuning the effort.

“We’re really designing this on the fly,” said Steve Cadrin, a professor at the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology, during a virtual meeting Thursday with fishermen and scientist advisors. “We’re wide open on how we can do this better.”

With offshore wind development plans surging ahead under the Biden administration, there’s a scramble in the marine sciences to understand how the potential construction of hundreds of turbines off the U.S. East Coast could change regional ocean environments and fisheries.

“Getting a baseline (study) is a real challenge” given the speed of recent developments, and the UMass-Vineyard Wind project is drawing on decades of fisheries survey work in Northeast waters, said Cadrin.

Based on eight surveys since 2019, researchers have determined that protocols used in the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP), an integrated, cooperative state and federal data collection program, will be sensitive enough to “detect a moderate change for most important commercial species” such as whiting, longfin squid and summer flounder when the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project is constructed, said Cadrin.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Helping New England fishing communities adapt

June 26, 2019 — New England fishing communities must adapt or fail. That’s the advice published in a new study co-authored by UMass Dartmouth scientist Dr. Robert Griffin.

Climate change is altering ocean temperatures, as researchers have previously documented, and entire fish populations are migrating further north or into deeper waters in search of cooler environments. For fishing communities, that means the slow disappearance of species that may be integral to the area’s identity.

For example, lobster in southern New England is migrating out, while black sea bass and Jonah crab have become more abundant.

“[Fishermen] all seemed to understand that this is happening,” Griffin said. “They go out and try to continue to catch the fish they’ve been trying to since they started, but it’s much harder.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Warming oceans cast a chill over New England’s sea turtles

March 26, 2019 — If we ignore the dangerously shifting global climate system, there will be consequences: more extreme rainfall, more intense hurricanes, drier and longer wildfire seasons, and continued sea level rise all loom on the horizon. In fact, extreme weather changes are already being seen around the globe.

But one of the lesser known, already visible impacts of climate change is on sea turtles. A recent paper, led by UMass Amherst doctoral candidate Lucas Griffin, links a rapidly warming Gulf of Maine to increased sea turtle strandings on Cape Cod.

“We were surprised the results suggested this increase was linked with warmer sea surface temperatures,” Griffin says. The scientists originally thought the strandings might be associated with how many young sea turtles hatched. But turtles, it turns out, are just one of many Gulf of Maine species “exhibiting a similar shift in both habitat distribution and in phenology patterns.”

The Gulf of Maine is in crisis: The region is warming faster than 99 percent of the global ocean. Fish stocks are moving north, key food web events like the spring plankton bloom are occurring earlier in the year, and regional waters are staying warmer for longer. Griffin’s team used both machine learning and Bayesian statistical methods—using existing data and probability to quantify uncertainty in inferences—to analyze the relationship between water temperatures and the number of cold-stunned turtles, the potentially lethal turtle equivalent of hypothermia. The innovative approach confirmed what local naturalists and wildlife biologists had been observing for years: Warmer waters in the region actually lead to an increased threat of cold-stunning.

Read the full story at Massive Science

Free training prepares fishermen because ‘every second counts in an emergency at sea’

March 1, 2019 — Fishing Partnership Support Services is offering programs in New Bedford to make life safer for those who have one of the world’s most dangerous jobs, commercial fishing.

Safety and Survival Training will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 7 at the School for Marine Science and Technology of the University of Massachusetts, 706 S. Rodney French Blvd. Drill Conductor Training will be at the same location from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 8. There is no charge for either program, and lunch is provided both days.

Drill Conductor Training prepares and certifies fishermen to conduct emergency drills at sea, as federal regulations require monthly drills on commercial fishing boats operating beyond the U.S. boundary line. Emergency situations addressed in this training include: man overboard, fire, damage control, and abandon ship. There will be an emergency procedures class in the morning and practice drills aboard a docked vessel in the afternoon.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fishing insider embraces new role as Vineyard Wind liaison

September 24, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In 12 years, research biologist Crista Bank spent a lot of hours at sea aboard local fishing vessels, but never once heard wheelhouse chatter about the industrial-sized wind farms planned a dozen miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

“It wasn’t really a topic of discussion,” said Bank, the new fisheries liaison for offshore wind developer Vineyard Wind. “You would think it would be, something this huge on the horizon.”

Even for her, deep in research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science & Technology, the magnitude of what will be Vineyard Wind’s $2 billion, 106-turbine offshore construction project didn’t sink in until she happened to pass five turbines off Block Island two years ago.

“I saw them, and I was like, really?” Bank said of her reaction.

It may be that head-down, focused attitude of a researcher that allows Bank to empathize with what she says is a similar attitude of many fishermen — scallopers, lobstermen, pot fishermen, gill-netters, squid fishermen, small-mesh draggers, large draggers, inshore and offshore boat captains, charter boat captains, recreational and pelagic anglers — she knows and hopes to meet.

“I sort of see the fishermen’s perspective a lot more,” Bank said “I believe in offshore energy. I believe we need to do it. I have solar panels on my house. I’m totally for renewable energy.” But, Bank said, those turbines will be placed squarely where people make a living.

Bank might be best known now in the region for her fisheries research. But before that, she crewed aboard the tall ship Ernestina and was an onboard fishing vessel observer for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Bank considers New Bedford her home.

“Crista has an excellent track record in cooperative research with the fishing industry,” said Steven Lohrenz, dean of the UMass Dartmouth marine science school. Bank is knowledgeable about fisheries science and about the challenges being faced by fishermen, said Lohrenz, who first mentioned the Vineyard Wind job to Bank. Bank is also personable and a good communicator, he said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

Massachusetts: Budget funds GMGI project

August 1, 2018 — The new state budget Gov. Charlie Baker signed last week includes $150,000 for a new marine program to be run by the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute in coordination with the University of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries.

It also carries $125,000 in matching grant money for Gloucester’s approaching 400th anniversary celebration, and money for service programs such as The Open Door, Wellspring House and The Grace Center.

But while a $2 million package to boost the Fishing Partnership — which provides health care coverage, safety training, and legal and financial services to fishermen and their families — and $1.3 million for new infrastructure and technology for the GMGI project are included in a House economic bill, those dollars are not in the Senate version and must be hashed out in conference committee, Andrew Tarr, chief aide to state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, confirmed Monday.

The funding for the GMGI/stateprogram  and the money to help with the planning for Gloucester’s 400th anniversary celebration in 2023 were both part of the $41.9 billion fiscal 2019 budget signed by the governor last Thursday.

The budget also included $75,000 to improve Gloucester’s public safety communications systems, but that money was vetoed by the governor. The House overrode the veto, Tarr said, but the state Senate had not yet taken up its override veto of that money as of Monday morning, he said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

UMass professor nets $300K for scallop research

June 1, 2018 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. — University of Massachusetts Dartmouth professor Kevin Stokesbury was awarded $302,091 in grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of its 2018-2019 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside program, the university announced Thursday.

Stokesbury, a professor of fisheries oceanography at the School for Marine Science & Technology, will use the funds to examine scallop populations around New England, including near the Nantucket Lightship shoals, the deep-water passage between Nantucket and Georges Bank, and select portions of the Northern Gulf of Maine. The three projects were awarded $95,721, $84,065 and $122,305, respectively.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News   

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Selling state’s seafood: Report says ports like Gloucester must take lead

May 25, 2018 — Massachusetts should increase its public commitment and investment in the state’s commercial fishing industry to help foster innovation and partnerships among diverging stakeholders and the private sector, according to a report commissioned by the Seaport Economic Council.

The report, produced by the Urban Harbor Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston and titled “Building the Massachusetts Seafood System,” also recommended that major Bay State fishing ports such as Gloucester commit to a prominent role in growth and redevelopment of the fishing industry.

“It is at the local level where face-to-face information sharing and institutional support typically lead to new technology and product development, new businesses or non-profit programs and ecosystem restoration projects, and where the benefits of cultural and community development are most directly felt,” the report stated.

Lt. Gov. Karen Polito, the chairwoman of the council, traveled to Gloucester on Thursday — along with former Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk, now deputy secretary of housing and development in the Baker administration — to hear the presentation of the final report at City Hall.

The presentation also drew Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll and Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken on the dais and some members of the Gloucester City Council and fishing stakeholders in the audience of about two dozen.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Scallop RSA Program: NEFMC and NOAA Announce 15 Awards Selected for 2018-2019 funding

May 16, 2018 — The following was released by New England Fishery Management Council:

 

The New England Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) are pleased to announce that 15 projects have been selected for 2018-2019 funding through the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program.

“The Scallop RSA Program truly has become one of the flagships of the scallop fishery,” said New England Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn. “The collaborative efforts that take place at sea between fishermen and researchers go a long way toward enhancing our understanding of what’s happening with the resource. The results of this RSA work funnel back to the Council and support stock assessments. Without a doubt, the RSA program helps us better manage our – Virginia Institute of Marine Science photo extremely valuable scallop fishery.”

Projects will address research priorities established by the Council, with a particular focus on resource surveys. The awards are expected to generate more than $12 million: $3 million to fund research; and $9 million to compensate industry partners who harvest set-aside quota

“We are excited to be able to work with the New England Fishery Management Council, industry, and scientists to fund sea scallop science through the Research Set-Aside Program,” said NEFSC Science and Research Director Dr. Jon Hare. “The projects funded support surveys, bycatch mitigation, and biological studies, all with the purpose of improving the information used in the management of the sea scallop resource.”

The New England Council established the Sea Scallop RSA Program to address research questions that support management of the scallop resource. The Council sets the research priorities and researchers compete for funding through a federal grant competition managed by NOAA Fisheries.

No federal funds are provided to support the research. Instead, projects are awarded pounds of scallops, which have been “set aside” from the annual fishery quota for this purpose. Successful applicants partner with the fishing industry to harvest their set-aside award to generate funds for the research. There are active research set-aside programs for Atlantic sea scallops, Atlantic herring, and monkfish.

2018-2019 Scallop RSA Award Summary

The awards fall into three categories: scallop surveys (dredge, drop camera, and HabCam); bycatch mitigation; and sea scallop biology.

Scallop Surveys

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) received new awards to conduct dredge surveys in Closed Area I, Closed Area II, and the Nantucket Lightship. Under an existing award from last year, VIMS also will conduct a dredge survey of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. As part of ongoing efforts to better understand scallop survey dredge performance, VIMS investigators received an award to evaluate the hydrodynamic characteristics of both lined and unlined survey dredges in the largest flume tank in the world, located in St. John’s, Newfoundland at Memorial University’s Marine Institute.

The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) received three awards to conduct surveys using a drop-camera array. Through these awards, researchers plan to conduct high-resolution surveys of the Nantucket Lightship, Closed Area I, Great South Channel, and select portions of the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will conduct Habitat Camera Mapping System (HabCam) optical surveys throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight and on the northern flank of Georges Bank. In addition to these surveys, researchers will continue to evaluate dredge effects on habitat and habitat recovery in the Closed Area II Habitat Area of Particular Concern. Coonamessett Farm Foundation will conduct a HabCam survey of the Nantucket Lightship and Southern Flank of Georges Bank.

Bycatch Mitigation

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will continue its seasonal survey on Georges Bank, collecting information on bycatch rates for yellowtail flounder and other species relative to scallop meat yield. These data also will be used to evaluate sea scallop health and meat quality, biological questions about several flounder species, and to examine lobsters for shell disease.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation will continue its loggerhead sea turtle tagging program, receiving funds to tag up to 20 loggerheads with water activated tags. Tag data will be used to evaluate spatial and temporal overlap between loggerhead sea turtles and the scallop fishery.

Coonamessett Farm Foundation also will be testing a dredge twine-top cover net in an attempt to quantify dredge selectivity characteristics.

Sea Scallop Biology

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science will investigate sea scallop density-dependence factors that may be affecting growth, mortality, and reproduction of scallops in the Nantucket Lightship and Elephant Trunk areas. In addition, VIMS will conduct a pilot study to extend the current stock assessment model to better account for sea scallop ages with a particular focus on the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Nantucket Lightship areas.

WHOI will receive support to determine if a gonadosomatic index (GSI) can be calculated from Light Field 3D images of shucked scallops collected during fishing operations. The GSI is used to assess maturity and spawning events in many species of fish and shellfish, including scallops. If successful, this could improve the ability to collect and quantify scallop maturation and spawning data during the course of routine fishery sampling procedures.

The 2018-2019 award listings can be found on the Northeast Fisheries Science Center website at: https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/news/scallop-rsa-2018-2019/.

RSA award announcements and answers to “frequently asked questions” also are available at https://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/rsa_program.html.

Visit the New England Council’s scallop webpage: https://www.nefmc.org/management-plans/scallops.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell to NEFMC: Sector IX Closure Is Hurting New Bedford’s Economy

April 18, 2018 — The following statement was delivered to the New England Fishery Management Council today on behalf of New Bedford, Massachusetts Mayor Jon Mitchell. Mayor Mitchell also serves as Chairman of the New Bedford Port Authority:   

Thank you Chairman Quinn and Members of the Council for this opportunity to communicate about a matter of ongoing concern to the Port of New Bedford, namely the impact that the closure of Sector 9 of the Northeast Fishery is having on groundfishing operations in the Port.

The NOAA decision has had–and continues to have–troubling economic consequence for the Port of New Bedford and our local economy. It has triggered significant business losses among local companies that provide support services to the commercial fishing fleet, and has meant the loss of livelihood for dozens of local fishing families.

It is important for all parties to keep in mind the numerous New Bedford businesses and families who have played no direct role in the operation of Sector 9, but who now find themselves in severe financial distress as a result of the Sector’s closure.

While the significant human cost of the closure cannot be adequately measured, Professor Dan Georgiana of the School of Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts (SMAST) has used a standard NOAA economic impact model to estimate the economic damage being done to the Port of New Bedford. His analysis found that the Port suffered roughly $12 million in economic losses in just the first twenty-five days after the closure went into effort on November 20th of last year.

This week marks the fifth full month of the Sector 9 closure, and the losses continue to mount. If one extrapolates from Professor Georgiana’s original analysis, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the Port of New Bedford may now have cumulatively suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses in the last five months.

This figure includes the impacts on harvesting, processing, wholesale and retail market activity, but does not include the cost to the public of unemployment compensation or the impact on businesses that supply vessels or process groundfish.

None of this is to suggest that the one person at the center of the controversy should not be punished severely. Carlos Rafael should be held fully accountable for his actions. I emphasize rather that the Fisheries Service should undertake its rulemaking, as it is statutorily required, with the interests of the Port and its businesses in mind. At a minimum, this means that it should complete the rulemaking “expeditiously”–as NOAA’s notice of withdrawal said it would–so that the effected fishermen and businesses can get back to work without further delay.

The Service also noted it had to calculate the amount of “overage” to certain groundfish stocks caused by Rafael’s fraud before it completed its rulemaking. Yet the Service has had, for some time now, all the reasonably available information to complete this loss calculation. Again, I urge the Service to complete these calculations and its rule-making with all deliberate speed.

The clock is ticking against New Bedford fishermen and shore-side businesses. A resolution of this matter therefore cannot come soon enough for the Port of New Bedford. Thank you for your consideration.

 

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

Recent Headlines

  • “A lesser-of-two-evils scenario” – Trade law experts respond to US-China tariff pause
  • Lawsuit filed in effort to protect endangered Rice’s whales in the Gulf
  • Offshore wind revival linked to Trump-backed gas pipelines
  • US finds endangered Gulf of Mexico whale threatened by oil and gas vessel strikes
  • Greens sue NOAA over delayed ESA decision on Alaska chinook salmon
  • OREGON: How tariffs are affecting Oregon’s seafood industry
  • US Wind proposes USD 20 million in compensation funds for commercial fishers in Maryland, Delaware
  • ALASKA: As glaciers melt, salmon and mining companies are vying for the new territory

Most Popular Topics

Alaska Aquaculture ASMFC Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission BOEM California China Climate change Coronavirus COVID-19 Donald Trump groundfish Gulf of Maine Gulf of Mexico Hawaii Illegal fishing IUU fishing Lobster Maine Massachusetts Mid-Atlantic National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NEFMC New Bedford New England New England Fishery Management Council New Jersey New York NMFS NOAA NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic right whales North Carolina North Pacific offshore energy Offshore wind Pacific right whales Salmon South Atlantic Western Pacific Whales wind energy Wind Farms

Daily Updates & Alerts

Enter your email address to receive daily updates and alerts:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Tweets by @savingseafood

Copyright © 2025 Saving Seafood · WordPress Web Design by Jessee Productions