Tag Archives: Nantucket
Nantucket Commercial Scalloping Season Opens; Fisherman Getting $12 Per Pound
Nantucket’s commercial scalloping season opened Friday morning with roughly 20 boats returning to the water as temperatures hovered in the 60s. But how was the scalloping itself on opening day? Naturally, it depends on who you ask. “It wasn’t that great,” said Marty Mack as he was unloading his catch at Straight Wharf. “I thought it would be a lot better because of the seed we had last year. I’ve seen a lot worse. But I’ve seen a lot better. It’s below average I’d say, I’ve been doing it 41 years and it’s nothing great right now. Where’d all that seed go? I don’t know if some of it died.” Kona Hosier and Ron Janes were getting back to the Boat Basin with their limit around the same time. “I’d say it was great,” Hosier said. “The efforts that were put forth (referring to the seed), we’re reaping the benefits now.” Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:49
Pickup of seabed debris at Vineyard Wind broken turbine underway
Work is underway to recover debris that sank to the seafloor below Vineyard Wind’s AW-38 turbine when the blade broke apart in July, according to GE Vernova, the company that manufactures and installs the turbine parts. Efforts began on Sunday and were ongoing as of Tuesday afternoon. It’s been three months since one of the three football field-sized blades on turbine AW-38 collapsed, sending pieces of fiberglass, rigid foam and balsawood crashing into the ocean. Large pieces immediately sank, but other debris of varying sizes washed ashore on Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, parts of Cape Cod and along Narragansett Bay for weeks afterwards. Some beach walkers are still reporting finding small remnants. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 13:33
1 In 30 Million: Rare Yellow Lobster Caught Off Nantucket
Jim Sjolund, captain of the Nantucket lobster boat Julie Alice, was hauling traps about 25 miles east of the island on Friday when his sternman Adam Spencer noticed something peculiar come out of the water. “At first, I didn’t think anything of it,” Sjolund said of the strange color inside one of the traps, believing it might be a fish. “But my sternman got excited, and I came over and said ‘holy sh**’!” Inside the trap was an incredibly rare yellow lobster. Sjolund knew right away it was unusual. But it wasn’t until he got back to Nantucket and did some research that Sjolund realized he had essentially hit the lobster lottery. The chances of catching a yellow lobster are 1 in 30 million, according to the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<<06:44
Broken blades, angry fishermen, and rising costs slow offshore wind
The collapse of a giant wind turbine blade off the Massachusetts coast confirmed Peter Kaizer’s worst fears about the dangers a new clean energy business could pose to fishermen like him. Jagged pieces of fiberglass and other materials from the shattered blade drifted with the tide, forcing officials to close beaches on Nantucket and leaving Kaizer worried about the threat the fragments might pose to his vessel and other fishing boats, especially at night when the debris would be harder to avoid. “All these small boats could be subject to damage,” Kaizer said. “Everyone wants this green legacy, but at the cost of what?” Full article. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:58
Fishermen organizing ‘flotilla’ protest against offshore wind
In response to recent concerns over offshore wind and with debris washing up on Nantucket and Island beaches from a fractured turbine blade, the New England Fisherman’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) has organized a “flotilla” for this Sunday, bringing fishing boats together to peacefully protest in unison against the offshore wind industry. Boats will be joining together in a “boat parade” from various areas of the east coast, said NEFSA founder and CEO Jerry Leeman, including the Vineyard, Nantucket, parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and potentially New Jersey. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:03
New Jersey Terminates Ocean Wind Projects Amidst Environmental Concerns
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has officially revoked its prior approvals for the Ocean Wind One and Ocean Wind Two offshore wind projects. This decision comes after Cape May County filed lawsuits challenging the projects, citing environmental concerns. The State has agreed to allow Orsted, the foreign corporation behind the projects, to retain $175 million in escrow funds in exchange for the cancellation. “Today is a very important day in our ongoing opposition to these environmentally destructive offshore wind projects,” said Cape May County Commission Director Len Desiderio. “The vacation of these Orders by the BPU means that it will be much more difficult for Orsted or any other Big Wind company to utilize these lease areas just a few miles off Cape May County beaches. As we have seen in Nantucket over the past few weeks, these industrial electricity-generating facilities represent an unacceptable threat to our environment and, consequently, to our local economy. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:44
Shattered Wind Blade Puts Nantucket on Frontlines of a Clean-Energy Fight
Weeks after a busted wind turbine washed onto Nantucket shores, residents of this wealthy Massachusetts enclave are still angry. Some even liken the accident to an oil spill. While their ire belies the fleeting nature of the event — waters were re-opened for swimming within 24 hours — the sense of harm felt by the community threatens to cast a long shadow. Vineyard Wind’s project south of Nantucket is the fledgling industry’s marquee venture, heralding a massive buildout of wind energy that would provide coastal cities with zero-carbon electricity. What happens here could have implications for a raft of other projects planned off Martha’s Vineyard, Atlantic City and elsewhere on the Eastern seaboard. “The great Nantucket experiment gets an F-minus,” says Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Leary Ventures and an investor on the reality show Shark Tank who visits Nantucket every summer. “It’s not a golden example of success in wind turbines, that’s for sure.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:24
The fallout from Vineyard Wind’s broken turbine blade
When Nantucket residents began posting photos of the fiberglass and foam littering their beaches on the morning of July 16, everyone in the offshore wind world — proponents and opponents, alike — knew the industry was about to face a very public test in confidence. The debris had fallen from a damaged turbine blade at the nearby Vineyard Wind project. The part, made and installed by GE Vernova, had broken three days earlier, and no one really knew why. The project’s developer, also called Vineyard Wind, scrambled to clean up the mess and assure the public that the material all over their pristine beaches was “non-toxic.” But more and more photos of the bright green debris washed up on social media, many carrying captions like “It’s everywhere” and “STOP #Bigwind!” Soon, a picture of the broken turbine itself surfaced. The 351-foot blade had snapped about 65 feet from the base and what remained of it hung slackly, dangling over the ocean. photos, links, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:48
Vineyard Wind Resumes Some Construction During Investigation
Though pieces of the broken Vineyard Wind turbine continued to fall into the ocean south of the Island this week, federal regulators have approved the wind farm to restart some construction work. On Monday, several sections of the malfunctioning turbine blade that were still attached to the turbine split off and sunk to the ocean floor. Boats were dispatched to the area and both GE Vernova, the turbine manufacturer, and Vineyard Wind were working to clean up the blade pieces and popcorn-sized chunks of styrofoam that had spread into the water. While Vineyard Wind cannot generate any power from the turbines, the company has turned to other work around the rest of the planned 62-turbine wind farm with the blessing of the federal government. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which oversees offshore wind projects in the U.S., had previously said operations at the wind farm 14 miles south of the Vineyard had shut down until further notice after the 107-meter turbine blade broke. On Saturday, the federal agency clarified that Vineyard Wind could do some work not directly connected to the turbines, such as installing cables in the sea floor. Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:05
Broken Turbine Blade Near Nantucket Prompts a ‘Told You So!’
A broken turbine blade in the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm led federal officials to suspend its operations in Nantucket. The incident resulted in large and small fiberglass and foam pieces from the turbine blade washing ashore on Nantucket’s southern beaches, more than 15 miles away. On Thursday, July 25, Cape May County released a statement by Commissioner Director Leonard Desiderio calling the incident in Massachusetts “an environmental catastrophe akin to an oil spill.” Desiderio said that “we were right to oppose offshore wind,” referencing the county’s strong opposition to the Danish firm Orsted’s plans for Ocean Wind I and II off the southern New Jersey coast. He added, “We will continue our opposition moving forward.” Desiderio’s statement recapped the county’s actions in opposition to the Orsted wind farm projects. He took pains to say that opposition by the county government was never based on a denial of climate change or incentivized by the oil industry. “Our opposition to offshore wind was always about protecting our local economy, our fishing industry and our way of life,” he said. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:08
Nantucket Select Board to pursue litigation against Vineyard Wind in wake of blade failure
Amid the Vineyard Wind crisis rattling the island, the Nantucket Select Board is set to pursue litigation against the wind energy company in connection to the blade failure that has resulted in debris floating on the ocean and washing ashore. The Select Board is scheduled to meet in executive session on Tuesday to discuss the path forward relative to recovery costs associated with the disaster, according to an agenda posted on the town website Friday. Select Board members will convene in a public session on Wednesday evening with a follow-up on the Vineyard Wind 1 blade failure and an update on the cleanup slated to be part of the town manager’s report. This all comes as the blade failure, which popped up last Saturday about 21 miles south of Nantucket, continues to wreak havoc on the island. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 16:37
CMP Parent Company’s Offshore Wind Turbine Creates Environmental Disaster Off New England Coast
An offshore wind turbine project operated by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners broke apart this week, scattering debris throughout Massachusetts’ coastal waters, with much of the flotsam washing up on Nantucket beaches. Since the turbine experienced a catastrophic malfunction — for reasons that are not yet clear — social media has been inundated with pictures and videos of beachgoers and government employees picking up trash bags and dumpsters full of debris. The turbine in question is owned by Vineyard Wind US, a joint project of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners of Denmark and Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power (CMP). The turbine itself was manufactured by GE Vernova, which has experienced similar failures in the past with their offshore wind projects. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:53
‘Bunch Of Suits Trying To Cover Their Tracks’: Beach Town Locals Slam Offshore Wind Developer For Polluting Shores
Local lobsterman Dan Pronk lamented the effects the debris has had on his business and the environment during the town hall meeting while holding a piece of fiberglass that had washed up on the beach, while also addressing Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller personally, according to another video posted on X by the Nantucket Current. “I fish 800 lobster traps right where you’re putting these tombstones, which is also the end of my business… When you apply [fiberglass]… you have to wear respirators. For what reason? Because it’s toxic. If you breathe those fumes… you’ll get higher than a rat,” he continued. “So, it is toxic. What do you have to say about that, Klaus?” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:37
Nantucket’s Commercial Scalloping Harvest Tops 8,000 Bushels
Nantucket’s commercial scalloping season comes to an end today, and the harvest by island fishermen will top 8,000 bushels for the first time since the 2019-20 season. Scallopers, along with officials from the Nantucket Shellfish Association and the town’s Natural Resources Department, all said they were pleased to see the final number above 8,000 bushels, a small but not insignificant increase over last season’s total of 7,329 bushels. Bruce Cowan was among the few scallopers still fishing on Thursday, and he returned to Old South Wharf with his five-bushel limit and a smile on his face just before noon. Even with heavy rain and wind gusts expected to top 40 mph today, he said he was still thinking about getting out there for the final day of the season. Photos, more, >>click to read<< 07:45
Nantucket’s Commercial Scalloping Season Opens With “Cautious Optimism”
Nantucket’s 2023-24 commercial scalloping season began Wednesday under cloudy skies, along with some wind and rain, as the hunt for the island’s prized shellfish was renewed. About 15 scallop boats were out in Nantucket Harbor, along with another five in Madaket Harbor Island fish markets set the wholesale price paid to scallopers at $15 to $18 per pound, down from the start of last season, and the retail prices ranged from $20 to $25 per pound. But all of that – the number of boats out fishing, the prices, and the demand – will be fleshed out and subject to change as the first week of fishing rolls along, said Samantha Denette, executive director of the Nantucket Shellfish Association. “It’s always cautious optimism and trying to be optimistic,” Denette said. “We’re not looking at a banner year but we’re not looking at a dud either. I feel good about us being in the middle. But we can’t make the call on day one if it’s going to be either/or.” >>click to read<< 08:55
Nantucket Scallop Harvest Nearly Doubles Over Last Season
Late Thursday morning, scalloper Keith Day was unloading his catch at the Nantucket Boat Basin, one of the few fishermen still dropping dredges at the end of the season. His assessment? “It’s been the best year I’ve had in 10 years,” Day said. “Even with the price where it is now, if you still fish and you still grind out on it, it equals out or you can make more than you made last year. There was just not enough last year. It’s been a pretty good season. I’m still getting my limit on the second to last day. Overall, it’s been a good season for me.” >click to read< 09:36
Why Are Island Scallopers Struggling To Sell Their Catch On Nantucket?
It’s the peak of Nantucket’s commercial scalloping season, but one of the island’s long-running scallopers, Bob DeCosta, isn’t on the water. And he’s not the only local fisherman whose dredges are dry these days. “I’m not fishing because I have no place to sell them,” DeCosta said. “This is a new thing. It’s unfortunate because there’s still plenty of scallops out there to be caught.” Despite what fishermen have described as one of the best seasons in recent memory, DeCosta and some other island scallopers are struggling to sell their catch on Nantucket. There were already limited options on the island, and with the recent closure of Glidden’s Seafood for several months, a number of fishermen in the island’s fleet have been unable to find buyers for their scallops. >click to read< 09:53
A Turn of Events! Massive scallop bed discovered in Madaket
A huge bed of scallop seed, discovered off Madaket last week, offered a bit of optimism about the future of the island’s bay scallop fishery, after a less than optimistic opening week. “It is an area in Madaket Harbor that is equal to about 35 football fields and full of seed,” said Tara Riley, the town’s shellfish biologist. “I’ve never in my professional life here on Nantucket seen anything like it, how thick the seed is.” >click to read< 14:55
Slim pickings for Nantucket scallopers on opening day
Optimism was in short supply as commercial scalloping season opened this morning, but the dock price, the price paid to fishermen for a pound of shucked scallops, was almost double what it was on opening day last year: $22 per pound, compared to $12 in 2020. At Sayle’s Seafood, scallops were selling retail for $35 per pound this afternoon. Souza’s Seafood had yet to set a price. Bob DeCosta, who has been working the waters here for decades, “I just think there aren’t a lot of scallops. It’s not like last year. But we’ll see. The fleet is small and the price is good. >click to read< 17: 11
Massachusetts Lobstermen fear end of their livelihood
Dan Pronk is worried a new set of proposed NOAA and NMFS restrictions aimed at saving the North Atlantic right whale could be the nail in the coffin for the lobstering industry on Nantucket. “We’ve got five years left of lobstering down here,” said Pronk, the only commercial lobsterman on Nantucket, and one of only a handful of lobstermen around the region with traps south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. “It’s career ending if they get their way. We’re bending over backwards to appease these people. >click to read< 13:28
A Q&A With Nantucket Scalloper Carl Sjolund
Carl Sjolund has had his feet on the deck of a boat, fishing island waters for scallops, since he was a little boy. He has seen the shellfish fishery rise and fall. To say that fishing is in his blood is not to turn a phrase, but to state a simple fact. His father Rolf came to the island as a young man, from Norway, fresh out of the merchant marine, and fished Georges Bank. His son Jim scalloped with his dad since he was a kid, graduated from Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and is now captain of the 184-foot Northern Leader, fishing for cod off Alaska. Nantucket is also in his blood. When did you begin scalloping? I got my first scallop license at 12 years old. Charlie Sayle and I had a merger. He had an old boat, and I had an outboard motor, or I forget maybe it was the other way around.,, >click to read< 16:00
Scallops open at $16-$22 a pound
Nantucket’s commercial scalloping season opened Monday morning with a fleet of about 16 fishermen heading into Nantucket and Madaket harbors at low tide with gusty winds of 25-30 mph. The scallopers were bringing their catch to island fish markets by 2 p.m., which were charging customers $16-22 per pound for shucked scallop meat, compared to $25-26 on opening day last year. Ninety-six island fishermen took out commercial scalloping licenses this year, according to town natural resources coordinator Joanne Dodd. There were 108 commercial licenses issued last year, and 79 the year before. >click to read< 11:13
Are scalloping’s days numbered on Nantucket?
Nantucket bay scalloping is a dying profession, town shellfish constable J.C. Johnson said this week, just days after commercial scalloping season came to a close. Fishermen brought in 13,000 bushels of scallops last season. That number was down by 10,000 bushels this year to around 3,000, making the season’s harvest one of the lowest ever, Johnson said. Along with the decreased harvest size, the fleet itself is aging, with only a handful of young scallopers now fishing. “We have a couple younger guys going out, but your veteran guys, Bill Spencer, Herkey Stojak, all those guys who have been scalloping for years are almost done, so what’s going to happen if you don’t have their kids following suit?” he asked. “Guys that scallop to the end are your veterans, your die-hards, guys who are out there. That’s their business,” he said. >click to read<15:49
Law protecting seals needs to change as population grows
John Dowd is correct that we have a “booming seal population,” but he’s wrong on two other counts (“Still swimming with sharks,” Metro, Sept. 13). First, he says that Nantucket has no seal or shark problem. On the contrary, one of the Northeast’s most celebrated fishing destinations, Nantucket’s Great Point, is now effectively a seal refuge, and the small island of Muskeget, just to the west of Nantucket, has been called one of the largest gray seal breeding sites in the country. More important, the first step to managing an ever-expanding seal population, and the white sharks it attracts, is not, as Dowd does, to call for a seal cull, which is a political nonstarter, but rather to pass an amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act,,, and a short rebuttal. >click to read<16:33
Vote against fishing restrictions seen as win for RI, Galilee
At its meeting Tuesday, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted 16-4 to discontinue a proposed squid buffer zone framework off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, according to Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd “There were a good number of commercial fishermen, squid fishermen present. There were also a good number of people from Nantucket present. Basically everybody that wanted to speak got a chance to speak, and the council did the right thing,” she said. All members of the Narragansett Town Council had signed a letter Dec. 4 requesting the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council “reject further discussion of a buffer zone for the summer squid fishery off Nantucket.” click here to read the story 15:46
How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World
Today Nantucket Island is a fashionable summer resort: a place of T-shirt shops and trendy boutiques. It’s also a place of picture-perfect beaches where even at the height of summer you can stake out a wide swath of sand to call your own. Part of what makes the island unique is its place on the map. More than 25 miles off the coast of Massachusetts and only 14 miles long, Nantucket is, as Herman Melville wrote in Moby-Dick, “away off shore.” But what makes Nantucket truly different is its past. For a relatively brief period during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this lonely crescent of sand at the edge of the Atlantic was the whaling capital of the world and one of the wealthiest communities in America. click here to read the story 14:46
State unreceptive to squid-fishing petition
David Pierce, director of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries, started yesterday’s public hearing on whether to bar trawlers from fishing for squid within three miles of Nantucket by listing the reasons he does not support a local petition to keep them away from the island from May 1 to Oct. 31. By the end of the four-hour meeting, attended by an overflow crowd at the Public Safety Facility, Nantucket charter captain and former commercial fisherman Pete Kaizer hoped Pierce had changed his mind on at least one thing: that trawlers disrupt what are called squid mops in a way that kills squid eggs and affects spawning. subscription site, more info to follow as it becomes available. 09:46
Nantucket: Concerns Over Small Mesh Trawling for Squid Surface at DMF Hearing
New regulations for squid, conch and striped bass fisheries were among the topics of a wide-ranging public hearing Wednesday at the Katharine Cornell Theatre. About 20 people, including commercial fishermen from on and off the Island, provided comments on eight draft and emergency regulations proposed by the Division of Marine Fisheries. Read the rest here 13:16
Nantucket Fisherman Finds a Digital Lifeline for His Fading Livelihood – Video
For many years now, Willis Blount, the last offshore commercial fisherman still operating around Nantucket, once the center of the country’s whaling industry, has been having a tough time making ends meet. Facing insurmountable odd’s He turned to Kickstarter. <Read more here> 17:10
