Tag Archives: Groundfish industry
Police seize 3,000 pounds of illegal haddock from New Bedford seafood plant
Massachusetts Environmental Police seized more than 3,000 pounds of illegally harvested haddock from a New Bedford processing plant on Thursday in the first commercial scale bust of the groundfish season, MEP officials said. MEP said it is not releasing the name of the vessel that caught the illegal fish or the processing plant until charges are formally filed. But industry sources confirmed Monday that the illegal fish was caught by the F/V Fisherman, an 82-foot trawler based out of New Bedford and owned by M & P Fishing Corp. Business filings list Mario Ribeiro and Pedro Cura as owners of the company. The name of the captain was not released. Col. Moran said the illegal fish was offloaded late Wednesday night at BASE Seafood Auction, after which it was sold to the unnamed processing plant. photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 18:47
Maine Fishermen Caught More Fish in 2023, Thanks to a Hunger Relief Program and COVID Funds
Maine fishermen bucked yearslong, industrywide trends last year and caught more fish, a development regulators and industry members said shows the impact of COVID-19 relief funds. The catch of haddock more than doubled to more than 500,000 pounds (226,796 kilograms), and the catches of Atlantic cod, witch flounder and Atlantic halibut were all up significantly. Federal money also supported the Fishermen Feeding Mainers program, which buys fish to support food banks and schools. Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, an industry nonprofit group, launched the Fishermen Feeding Mainers program in part to help the groundfish industry survive the COVID-19 pandemic. more, >>click to read<< 15:23
Maine commercial fisheries jump $25M in value, with strong boat price for lobster
Commercial fishermen in Maine had a strong year in 2023. The value of the state’s fisheries increased by more than $25 million over 2022, for a total of $611.3 million at the dock, according to preliminary data released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The department attributed much of the increase to a strong boat price for lobster, Maine’s most valuable species last year. The price paid to fishermen went from $3.97 per pound in 2022 to $4.95 per pound in 2023, netting harvesters an additional $72 million compared to the previous year, for a total value in 2023 of $464.4 million. “The price Maine lobstermen received last year is a reflection of the continued strong demand for this iconic seafood,” said Patrick Keliher, the department’s commissioner. more, >>click to read<< 10:19
Ocean Industrialization: Fishing regulators fear wind turbines could threaten spawning area for Atlantic cod
It is the largest offshore HAPC designation in the region. Yet a main concern is cod spawning grounds in a smaller region within the designation, just east of Block Island. That area, known as Cox Ledge, overlaps with some 250 square miles currently leased to developers Ørsted and Eversource for their joint wind energy project: South Fork Wind. It is one of only two offshore wind projects that have completed the federal permitting process. “We are really going about the wind farm development very quickly,” said Kevin Stokesbury, a fisheries science professor at UMass Dartmouth, who studies cod in the Gulf of Maine. “It’s going to be quite a dramatic change to the ecosystem out there.” “We’ve all made sacrifices so cod can recover,” said Capt. Tim Rider, who fishes for groundfish and scallops. “Now they’re going to put a wind farm there,” he said of the cod spawning grounds. “How about they put it somewhere that might not be as intrusive.” >click to read< 11:05
Senators Demand Federal Scrutiny of Private Equity’s Incursion Into Fishing
Three U.S. senators, including two members of a Senate subcommittee that oversees the fishing industry, are calling for greater federal scrutiny of private equity’s incursion into East Coast commercial fishing. The ProPublica/New Bedford Light investigation found that a federal regulatory system known as “catch shares,” which was adopted in 2010 to reduce overfishing, has fostered private equity’s consolidation of the industry at the expense of independent fishermen. The single largest permit holder in the New England groundfish industry is Blue Harvest Fisheries, which has rights to catch 12% of groundfish, approaching the antitrust cap of 15.5%. The current antitrust cap “fails to prevent excessive consolidation in the fishery,” said Geoff Smith, one of 18 members of the New England Fishery Management Council, which advises NOAA. >click to read< 10:23
Lifting all boats: 2018 honorees fight for the future of the New Bedford fishing industry
The year 2018 was like none other for the New Bedford fishing industry. The groundfish industry, already reeling from several decades of species collapse and arduous federal regulations, suffered a crippling setback with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ban on fishing in Sector 7. The Standard-Times and SouthCoastToday this year are proud to name Cassie Canastra and Kevin Stokesbury as the SouthCoast Woman and Man of the Year for what they have done for the industry that year after year makes New Bedford the Number 1 dollar fishing port in the nation. >click to read<23:12
Don Cuddy: Sector closure angers and worries groundfish industry
It was on Monday, November 20, two days before his retirement party as NOAA regional administrator, that John Bullard abruptly ordered the shutdown of Sector IX’s groundfish operations. The boats out fishing had to return to port forthwith.,,, Bullard’s move was praised by some but it engendered some harsh criticism in the city. Click here to read the story. 23:11
Your View: Even ‘smart’ video monitoring is onerous to fishermen
I would like to make several observations regarding Michael Bonner’s Aug. 21 article, “Delegation supports Rafael’s forfeiture toward electronic monitoring.” First of all, state legislators’ support for utilizing the forfeiture to fund the electronic monitoring (surveillance), presupposes that this form of electronic monitoring will be supported and adopted. It surely does not seem to be the favored choice of monitoring, as far as the groundfish industry is concerned. In fact, they are not in favor of any form of monitoring that has been proposed to date. NOAA fisheries Regional Administrator John Bullard (soon to be retiring) is quoted as saying that he thinks that video monitoring is a major benefit to the industry. I’m not sure who he thinks he’s going to convince with that statement. Surely not the fishing industry. If that were the case, New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel likely would not be requesting that this “benefit” be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, click here to read the op-ed by Jim Kendall 19:04
Groundfish industry taking another hit with addition of at-sea monitors – Steve Urbon
So this is how it looks. The gradual collapse of the New England groundfish industry continued last week as about two dozen people jammed into a meeting room of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries office in the former voc-tech school on Purchase Street to argue about the distribution of disaster relief money allocated by Congress. Adding insult to injury is the impending shift of costs for at-sea monitors to the fishing boats. Fishing industry advocates liken this to a shotgun wedding, in which the boats have no choice but to sign a contract with a third party with no say in the price being paid. Read the rest here 09:09
