Tag Archives: Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary

A pilot program for Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary – Saving Small Boats Fishing into the Future

Back in 1972 when Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary was established, my mother, Lena Novello, who was president of Gloucester Fishermen’s Wife Association was on the committee with local fishermen & their communities that fought to stop oil & mining companies from opening the Stellwagen Bank. Back then I was the captain of F/V Vlncie N who fished Stellwagen Bank regularly with many other Gloucester fishermen & also Plymouth, Scituate & Provincetown fishermen and was told local fishermen will always be able to fish Stellwagen Bank into the future.,, Changing times, with changing oceans have changed the golden words of Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary, as now they want to ban all dragging for Commercial Fishing. Is our future going to be wondering if all fishing will be banned ln Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary? by Captain Sam Novello >click to read< 11:36

Status Check: Assessing Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary>click to read<

Status Check: Assessing Stellwagen National Marine Sanctuary

A submerged extension of the sandy Cape tip, it is a big sandbar rising from the ocean floor to the height of an 11-story building, coming within 65 feet of the ocean surface. Currents swirl around it, lifting organic debris from the ocean bottom up into the sunlit surface waters, kick-starting the marine food chain with plankton blooms that feed grazers like herring and sand lance that are in turn preyed upon by larger fish, whales and seabirds. But, as a new report by the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary shows, human activities in the ocean continue to increase, putting greater pressure on wildlife and habitat within the sanctuary as humans create an increasingly industrialized ocean that is noisier, more contaminated and overfished. (overfished by whom?!)>click to read< 07:33

Some better news for haddock, and fishermen. Really?

THE GLOOMY clouds hanging over New England’s fisheries lifted a bit last week when the NOAA reported that several species were no longer overfished off US shores, including haddock in the Gulf of Maine. Regardless, a battle continues between the fishing industry, environmentalists, and regulators as to the extent that some types of fishing affect the ocean floor’s ecosystem. In a new effort to study those impacts, the New England Fishery Management Council is expected to vote Thursday on creating a 55-square-nautical-mile reference research area. Read the rest here 07:44