Tag Archives: Div. of Marine Fisheries
Lobstermen Face Hypoxia in Outer Cape Waters
Alex Iacono, a lobsterman who says he favors lobsters and ocean solitude over people, is worried about the future of his business. Iacono, who lives in Truro and fishes out of Provincetown on the F/V Storm Elizabeth, says his catch has significantly dwindled in recent years. He’s not alone; other lobstermen working across Cape Cod Bay have noticed a downward trend. They believe that hypoxia — dangerously low levels of oxygen in the water — is to blame. Hypoxia first came to fishermen’s attention in 2019 when it caused a catastrophic lobster die-off in the bay. After that, the DMF started affixing sensors to buoys and traps to monitor oxygen levels, and they have consistently observed mild hypoxia since then. >click to read< 09:50
On Demand Gear – Cape Cod Lobstermen Would Rather Wait Than Switch
21-year-old North Atlantic right whale known as Porcia was observed in Cape Cod Bay on March 18. The whale was seen swimming with her 2023 calf by her side. That means Cape Cod lobstermen are on land, waiting out the whales. Elsewhere in Massachusetts waters, however, the NOAA is running an experiment that gives lobster fishermen exempted fishing permits to work in areas that are otherwise restricted. What they are testing is something called on-demand fishing gear. “I think it’s a Star Wars idea that will not work,” said Dana Pazolt, a Truro-based lobsterman who sets his traps on the bay side in the fall and on the ocean side in the spring and summer. Pazolt’s 800 lobster traps have 50 miles of rope. >click to read< 11:10
Barnstable Superior Court Judge Rules Against Gloucester Clammer ‘Monte’ Rome
‘Monte’ Rome of Gloucester, owner of the F/V Tom Slaughter and the wholesale seafood company Intershell, must pay the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. for docking at Provincetown’s MacMillan Pier in 2014 and 2015 when he was using hydraulic dredging gear to harvest sea clams from a two-square-mile area inside a 40-foot “contour zone” off Herring Cove Beach. Rather than pay his docking fees, Rome sued the town in 2015 after being served with a cease-and-desist order prohibiting him and three other fishing boat owners from conducting hydraulic dredging. >click to read< 10:38
