Tag Archives: New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell
States to announce Friday if New England is ready for more offshore wind farm
The Captain Les Eldridge used to chase bass and tuna out of New Bedford. Now, the vessel has a new role in the nation’s emerging offshore wind industry. Anthes-Washburn said Coast Line Transfers lost a similar contract with another offshore wind farm last summer, during an industry wide contraction in the U.S. that saw planned wind farms scrapped up and down the East Coast. On Friday, Anthes-Washburn will find out if southern New England is ready to rebuild that pipeline of canceled offshore wind projects. Officials in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut are expected to announce whether they are ready to move forward with a series of proposed offshore wind farms that developers submitted through a tri-state solicitation process in March. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:52
How foreign private equity hooked New England’s fishing industry
The 85-foot trawler, deep green and speckled with rust, was returning from a grueling fishing trip deep into the Atlantic swells. As sunrise broke over New Bedford harbor, the fish were offloaded in plastic crates onto the asphalt dock of Blue Harvest Fisheries, one of the largest fishing companies on the East Coast. About 390 million pounds of seafood move each year through New Bedford’s waterfront, the top-earning commercial fishing port in the nation. Leeman and his crew are barely sharing in the bounty. On deck, Leeman held a one-page “settlement sheet,” the fishing industry’s version of a pay stub. Blue Harvest charges Leeman and his crew for fuel, gear, leasing of fishing rights, and maintenance on the company-owned vessel. Across six trips in the past 14 months, Leeman netted about 14 cents a pound, and the crew, about 7 cents each — a small fraction of the $2.28 per pound that a species like haddock typically fetches at auction. Photos, >click to read< 12:04
Offshore Wind Farm Company Vinyard Wind Begins Construction
Vineyard Wind hosted a tour on Monday at the Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford to show members of the media and the local business leaders of One SouthCoast Chamber the early construction of the Vineyard Wind 1 Project, the first offshore commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States. The Vineyard Wind 1 project aims to construct an 800-megawatt, 62-turbine wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The project is expected to be completed and delivering power by the end of the year. >click to read< 11:50
New Bedford fishing industry considers compensation for offshore wind’s impact
Massachusetts and eight other Atlantic Coast states proposed the establishment of a regional fisheries compensatory mitigation fund administrator. In June, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a draft framework for mitigating impacts to commercial and recreational fisheries. Stakeholders have until Jan. 31 to submit comments to a Request for Information released by the states on Dec. 12 to guide the process. New Bedford Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr said the initiative and leadership of the nine states and the extensive work involved in issuing the scoping document for a regional fisheries mitigation fund administrator and seeking stakeholder input through the RFI process is greatly appreciated. >click to read< 08:06
Fishing regulators shoot down scallop leasing plan
In a ballroom overlooking Gloucester Harbor, the council regulating New England’s fisheries rejected a controversial proposal on Tuesday to develop a leasing program in the region’s lucrative scallop fishery after failing to agree on the presented motions. The New England Fishery Management Council deliberated on three motions for more than two hours, with all three failing. The latest leasing push comes 12 years after a proposal to allow it was defeated in a close 9-to-7 council vote, with one member abstaining. New Bedford fishermen and permit owners were at the hotel hours before the council took up the leasing issue. The opposition has been largely centralized in the city, driven by the crew and some vessel owners who fear leasing is the first step toward further consolidation. Photos, >click to read< 07:40
‘It’s the big guys that want it’: New Bedford scallopers leery of leasing proposal
“A typical full-time [Limited Access] scallop vessel harvests its annual scallop allocation in approximately 70 days, leaving vessels inactive and tied to the dock more than 80 percent of the year,” the organization wrote in a July 2020 letter to the NEFMC. “The only growth option is to buy another permit, which means buying another vessel. “Although one vessel could easily harvest the allocation of two LA permits, the fleet has no flexibility to do so,” it continues. “In the absence of a leasing program, smaller, independent owner/operators are not able to grow their operations in reasonable increments.” But to Manuel Vieira, owner and captain of The Guidance, arguments revolving around flexibility were merely pretty words. “They say there will be flexibility because that’s what they think the [council] wants to hear,” Vieira said in Portuguese. “But it won’t pan out well for the little guy.”Video, >click to read< 15:39
America’s biggest scallopers want changes to regulations preventing consolidation
“The bottom line is this proposal is about global control, from the switch to the fish to the dish,” said Alan Cass, a former New Bedford scalloper who began his career as a deckhand and retired as a boat owner. “The resource will be at the mercy of a consolidated effort by these corporations to control ocean-to-table and economically injure the small entities in this industry.” For nearly 30 years, scallopers like Cass and his son, who followed him into the industry, have gone to sea under a set of regulations that limit both the amount of scallops that can be harvested each year and the share of that harvest that belongs to the industry’s biggest players. Roy Enoksen, the president of Eastern Fisheries and a co-owner of the nation’s largest scallop fleet, said leasing would allow him to stack scallop allocations onto more efficient vessels and save on maintenance costs. >click to read< 13:10
I am not happy. Jackie Odell was not appointed to serve on the NEFMC.
New England Fishery Management Council pick disappoints Gloucester Mayor – feds pulling bait-and-switch
Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken on Tuesday said the June 28 decision to appoint recreational fishing stakeholder Michael J. Pierdinock of Plymouth instead of Northeast Seafood Coalition Executive Director Jackie Odell “was a serious oversight which has not gone unnoticed” by commercial fishing stakeholders. Romeo Theken did not directly criticize Baker for his recommendation to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who had final say on the council appointment. But New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell did.,,, >click to read< 12:19
New Bedford port nets $20 million to protect against natural disasters
A $16 million grant is bound for the city of New Bedford to improve the city’s port, helping prepare it for future natural disasters. According to a U.S. Economic Development Administration press release, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the grant funding on Tuesday. The money, according to the press release, will “make port infrastructure improvements needed to protect commercial fishing businesses from floods and severe weather events.” >click to read< 16:13
“Hundreds if not thousands of jobs,,, New Bedford about to become hub for offshore wind
The state has announced lease agreements with Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind at the facility from 2023 to 2027, and are worth more than $32.5 million. “These are the two first projects that Massachusetts is involved in and they’re going to be staged their construction project from New Bedford,” New Bedford Port Authority Director Edward Anthes-Washburn said. The two 800 megawatt offshore wind projects will be over 15 miles off the East Coast, but the turbines and equipment needed to build them will be set up at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, video, >click to read< 10:50
Mitchell: Delays to wind projects have hurt New Bedford’s ‘first mover’ status – In this article, New Bedford Mayor Mitchell is concerned the port has missed the wind farm port development opportunity of being the lead development port of all ports! Mitchell said Friday that in some ways the delays to Vineyard Wind’s project have diminished the city’s “first mover” status in the offshore wind industry, which he called unfortunate. >click to read< 15:25
The fishing industry is expendable,,,
Trump aide offers no guidance on Vineyard Wind
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management put the offshore wind farm on hold indefinitely in early August while it tries to gain a better understanding of the cumulative impact of the many East Coast wind farm projects currently in the pipeline. With the project in danger of being canceled if the delay lasts too long, James Bennett, the renewable energy program manager at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, gave no indication of when the agency’s review will be completed. >click to read< 08:33
Mayor: No Answers on Vineyard Wind Approval is ‘Disconcerting’
“It’s a big deal because it’s a $2.2 Billion project. That is, to date, the largest private sector project in the state’s history. Bigger than the casinos in the state, bigger than Gillette Stadium, or you can name any of the skyscrapers in Boston, that is a big, big project and it’s being deployed from here,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said Thursday during his weekly appearance on the Barry Richard Show. “It’s not even clear to me that Vineyard Wind understands what the hang-up is. We’ve said, ‘look, if the hang-up has something to do with commercial fishing, we in New Bedford would be happy to play a mediated role.’ >click to read< 12:28
Vineyard Wind project lands in rough waters
The project, jointly owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, had seemed to be gathering permits the way a kid gathers shells on the beach. One after another, the developer added them to the bucket. Then the snag: The Edgartown Conservation Commission on Wednesday denied an underwater cable route off the town’s coastline, citing the potential disturbance to marine habitats and other conflicts. (Local fishermen weren’t happy, either.) On Friday, Vineyard Wind vowed to get a “superseding order” from the state Department of Environmental Protection – a more sympathetic venue – that would overturn the commission vote. More trouble lurks: Vineyard Wind also disclosed that the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management would not issue a crucial permit, as expected, this week,,, >click to read<10:43
New Bedford Port Authority to become fisheries rep to offshore wind
The New Bedford Port Authority has reached an agreement with all offshore wind developers operating in the Massachusetts/Rhode Island market to serve as the designated Fisheries Representative of the commercial fishing industry to each of the development companies, according to a news release. Under federal guidelines issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offshore wind developers must establish a fisheries representative to be the fishing community’s primary point of contact for communicating project-related concerns to the developer. >click to read<14:13
New Bedford revives push to seize Northeast Fisheries Center
Appealing to the new management team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, elected officials from New Bedford are newly appealing to relocate the Northeast Fisheries Science Center from Woods Hole to New Bedford, arguing the change will help the federal government to more effectively engage with members of an active fishing community. In a letter Tuesday to Acting Administrator Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, officials cited media reports suggesting that NOAA had ruled out every possible location for the center except Woods Hole in Falmouth. In asking for reconsideration, they also demanded the federal government release its “business case analysis” of potential locations in the Northeast. >click to read<20:46
Fishing industry seeks smaller offshore wind rollout, possible delay
As the state sets up an offshore wind industry, those in a much older line of work – fishing – feel a little left out of the conversation. ,,,“Three separate, developer-led outreach efforts have been launched, and all are stumbling to produce meaningful dialogue or move us closer to real solutions in areas ranging from navigation, access, cable routes, radar interference, and gear loss,” the coalition wrote. “Equally troubling, it has become clear that offshore wind developers are unwilling or unable to coordinate their interactions with commercial fishermen to tackle issues that cut across multiple project areas.” >click to read< 08:17
Senator Warren: New Bedford should keep Rafael’s fishing permits
And another voice enters the fray. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has weighed in on the debate over the ultimate fate of Carlos Rafael’s seized commercial fishing permits, saying in a letter to NOAA Fisheries the permits should remain in New Bedford. “It has been reported that (Rafael’s) fishing permits may be cancelled or seized by the federal government and I am urging you to do everything possible to ensure that those permits stay in the port of New Bedford,” Warren wrote to Chris Oliver, NOAA Fisheries’ assistant administrator for fisheries. “Not doing so has the potential to devastate the local economy and effectively punish numerous innocent workers and businesses in New Bedford for Mr. Rafael’s crimes.” click here to read the story 18:57
Carlos Rafael files a motion of opposition to forfeiture
Carlos Rafael filed a court motion Monday opposing the government’s motion for preliminary order of forfeiture. The New Bedford fishing heavyweight made the request in light of “ongoing discussions” regarding the vessels and permits associated with the guilty plea he made four and half months ago. Rafael pleaded guilty to falsifying labels and fish identification, cash smuggling and tax evasion on March 30. In the plea agreement, Rafael admitted the vessels listed in the indictment were subject to forfeiture. The agreement reserved Rafael the right to challenge the forfeitures. Rafael took advantage of that right,,, click here to read the story 20:49
Despite guilty plea, ‘Codfather’ continues to fish
New England fishermen are wondering how the fishing fleet owned by New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael continues to fish nearly five months after he pleaded guilty on March 30 in federal district court in Boston to 28 offenses, including conspiracy, false labeling of fish, bulk cash smuggling, tax evasion and falsifying federal records. Those vessels include many Rafael agreed to forfeit in his plea deal for their role in his scheme to sell fish he didn’t have enough quota to catch, under the name of species for which he had enough quota. The fishing year starts May 1 and Rafael won’t be sentenced until Sep. 25 and 26. Many are angry that Rafael’s fleet has been allowed to operate through the summer months when fishermen traditionally catch most of their fish. click here to read the story 09:51
What’s next for the ‘Codfather’?
The “Codfather” quashed any hopes for high courtroom drama when he pleaded guilty in March to falsifying fish quotas, false labeling of fish species, conspiracy and tax evasion, 28 counts in all. The real action is behind the scenes, as federal and defense attorneys wrestle over the fate of New Bedford fishing mogul Carlos Rafael’s fishing empire, said to be one of the largest groundfish fleets in the nation. It’s something Cape fishermen, and fishermen all over New England, are debating and watching closely. click here to read the story 08:36
UPDATED: GOP Kicks Off Effort To Roll Back Obama’s Monument Designations
House lawmakers kicked off their effort to push back against national monuments designations, targeting the large swaths of ocean the Obama administration made off limits to fishing. “I don’t believe the Antiquities Act should have ever been applied to oceans,” Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young said during a Wednesday hearing on marine monument designations. “There was never intent of that.” Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources have long criticized former President Barack Obama’s use of the Antiquities Act to put millions of square miles off limits to commercial fishing with little to no input from locals. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, who couldn’t attend the hearing due to a snow storm, is a Democrat who represents a Massachusetts community dependent on fishing. Mitchell wants to change how national monuments are designated to include more local input. Mitchell was not a fan of Obama unilaterally designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in September. continue reading the story here 16:02
Fishing Industry Tells Committee Regulations Go Too Far – Allegations of bad science and lobbying by overzealous environmentalists dominated talks on marine sanctuary and monument designations during a Congressional hearing Wednesday. Read the story here 18:02
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell makes fishing industry’s case in habitat closures
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell spoke this morning to the New England Regional Fishery Council, pleading the case for a compromise solution to protective essential habitat closures on Georges Bank. In particular, he argued in favor of opening up part of an area known as the Northern Edge, parts of which have been closed 20 years and now are “the mother lode of scallops.” Mitchell brought with him a petition signed by 380 people involved in the fishing industry, mostly shore-side, who see the Northern Edge and other proposals as a needed boost for the fishing industry’s future. Read the rest here 14:55
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell speaks out a special listening session in Gloucester
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — July 1, 2014 — Mayor Jon Mitchell today spoke out on the topic of fisheries management at a special listening session in Gloucester, Massachusetts hosted by Congressman John Tierney and Congressman Peter DeFazio,,, Read more here 17:54
Nation’s #1 Fishing Port Addresses Groundfish Crisis with Technology; Issues Recommendations for Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization
The Port of New Bedford, America’s most valuable commercial fishing port, has released a six-pronged plan for the revitalization of the Northeast’s struggling groundfish fishery, and to expand the port’s overall functionality. According to the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission’s (HDC) “Groundfish Port Recovery and Revitalization Plan for the Port of New Bedford and Fairhaven,” Read more here, with supporting links and video 15:47
VIDEO: Rep. Keating and Mayor Mitchell host fisheries forum in New Bedford, Massachusetts
May 15, 2013 — On Monday, May 13, Congressman William Keating and New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell hosted a joint meeting of the Federal Fishing Advisory Board and the Federal Fishing Advisory Board inFederal Fishing Advisory Board, seeking input from the fishing industry on the current state of fisheries management. Video
New Bedford Mayor urges reopening of US-Canada discussion on yellowtail flounder
Urges council to accept SSC recommendations including suspension of directed fishery; notes widespread lack of confidence in fishery assessment. WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) Nov. 14, 2012 — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, representing the nation’s most profitable fishing port, appeared before the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) in Newport, Rhode Island this morning, and delivered a letter making the following points:
New Bedford Mayor to NOAA Fisheries Science Center: Fishermen have no confidence in Groundfish Assessments
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell has written to NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center Science and Research Director Bill Karp regarding anticipated cuts in 2013 Annual Catch Limits. The mayor says the forecasted cuts are impossible for New Bedford fishermen to accept due to the growing concerns about the accuracy of the groundfish stock assessments. http://www.savingseafood.org/fishing-industry-alerts/new-bedford-mayor-to-noaa-fisheries-science-center-fishermen-have-no-confidence-in-groundfish-assess-2.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SavingSeafoodRss+%28Saving+Seafood%29
