Tag Archives: Essential Fish Habitat

Upcoming vote could be ‘devasting’ for New England clams

While New Bedford gains its notoriety as the scallop capital of the world, Massachusetts is known for its clam chowder. A New England Fisheries Management Council meeting in Newport scheduled for Tuesday could affect the latter. An afternoon agenda item will discuss the possibility of closing an area in Nantucket Shoals, that the clam industry calls vital to its survival… To prevent the action, the surf clam industry has rallied together and sought the legal services of former New Bedford mayor and attorney Scott Lang. The coalition consists of Atlantic Capes, Seawatch International, Nantucket Sound Seafood, and Intershell Seafood International. Together, the group consists of only about 15 vessels harvesting clams in the area southeast of Chatham and east of Nantucket. >click to read<22:05

Clam controversy – There is much at stake, like a lot of jobs.

In June, at the Intershell dock on Commercial Street, owners Monte and Yibing Gao Rome launched their new 55-foot surf clam boat, F/V Bing Bing, amid the hoopla and happiness associated with a new Gloucester boat going into the water. But on Tuesday,  Intershell and the other major surf clammers along the Northeast will find out if they still have a surf clam fishery to call home in the lucrative and historically rich Great South Channel of the Nantucket Shoals. The New England Fishery Management Council, in a trailing action to its Omnibus 2 Essential Fish Habitat Amendment, will decide if a large swath of the current surf clam fishery, 10 to 20 miles east and southeast of Nantucket, will remain open to surf clamming or possibly be closed as part of a protectionist move to designate the full area as an essential fish habitat. >click to read<22:45

New fishery rules could protect deep sea corals in California

The Pacific Fishery Management Council will decide Monday what happens to the underwater areas as part of an update to essential fish habitat for West Coast groundfish. “The Pacific Fishery Management Council will be making a decision on changing the areas that are opened or closed to West Coast groundfish bottom trawling,” said Kerry Griffin, a staff officer to the council, which regulates fisheries in federal waters from the Mexican border to the Canadian border, from three miles to 200 miles off shore. The proposal, scheduled for a vote Monday, >click to read<20:31

Kelp farm proposed for Long Island Sound

Atlantic Clam Farms of Connecticut is looking to harvest a native species of sea kelp in Long Island Sound. The company, which cultivates hundreds of acres of Greenwich waters for shellfishing, wants to begin its kelp farm in Payea Reach — southeast of Great Captains Island and southwest of Island Beach — and offer the seaweed for human consumption and other commercial uses after an awaited approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.,, If the kelp farm is approved, set up at the four-acre area would begin on or after Nov. 1 each calendar year, >click here to read<20:55

Sitka assembly opposes summertime Naval exercises

Operation Northern EdgeThe Sitka assembly has gone on record opposing training exercises by the US Navy in prime fishing habitat in the Gulf of Alaska next summer. Most members agreed that the use of live explosives and powerful sonar could be harmful to fish and marine mammals — and detrimental to the state’s fishing industry. Emily Stolarcyk, with the Eyak Preservation Council in Cordova, was quick to point out that the resolution under consideration was not anti-military. The proposed training area occupies around 70,000 square miles of the Gulf of Alaska, between Kodiak and Sitka. Roughly 90-percent of the area is designated Essential Fish Habitat. “This is about finding common ground between two very different user groups who have to use the same area — mainly commercial fishermen and the US Military. So what we’re asking for is for the Navy to make adjustments to their current plans to practice in the summer. We want them to go back to what they’ve historically done, and practice in the winter.” Read the story here 10:17

Zone C members discuss federal rule-making – Of particular interest is the amount of cod bycatch in lobster traps

Sarah Cotnoir, Resource Coordinator for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, alerted the Zone C Council to a New England Fisheries Management Council draft amendment to the Magnuson Stevens Act. “Lobster gear is definitely on the radar, especially in western [Casco Bay area] Maine,” said Cotnoir. “Everything and anything is on the table.” Of particular interest is the amount of cod bycatch in lobster traps, said Cotnoir. Read the rest here 08:37

This NOPC corporate shill is using the old eco-champion marketing strategy – and its working! Still!

This NOPC corporate shill is using the old eco-champion marketing strategy in order to privatize and industrialize the public trust ocean.

NOPC, BOEM, NWF, are immorally using the ploy of promising much needed clean energy to allay global warming,

while actually doing the bidding of an historically corrupt wind (and ultimately oil) industry.

Notice especially in the forwarded NOPC email flyer below the section entitled: ENGO Report Includes National Ocean Policy-Related Recommendation

http://bore-head007.newsvine.com/_news/2012/09/29/14152016-the-national-ocean-policy-coalition-fwd-9-28-12-nopc-update-and-comments