Economic Impact

May 24, 2013 — Few cities in New England are feeling the pain of this month’s 77 percent government cut in allowed cod-fishing as this hard-working port on Cape Ann, whose fishermen bring in, on average, $1 million a week worth of fish.

As fishermen cope with the latest in several allowed catch reductions since 1978, Gloucester civic and business leaders are working on what Mayor Carolyn Kirk calls their “bridge plan” – a bridge to a future where, activists know, there is still plenty of money to be made from the sea, but it’s likely to have much less to do with trawlers heading out to Georges Bank and beyond.

"People won't invest in the fishery right now, because they don't know what the regulations are going to be next year," said Kirk’s harbor planning director, Sarah Garcia.

With federal disaster relief money coming, slowly, to Gloucester, the city’s also working to get funds for planning and spawning new products, markets, and industries.

"It just doesn't take a whole lot of money from the federal government to make sure that that investment's made to preserve the fishery," Garcia said.

One example Gloucester officials love of a new fishing-related revenue stream: Neptune’s Harvest, a waterfront business that turns fish guts and crab shells into rich, organic, low-nitrogen fertilizer. Starting out in the 1980s as a wholesale producer, Neptune’s Harvest created consumer brands starting in 1994 and have seen steadily growing interest in their products, which, besides providing a range of nutrients, also have natural deer-repelling effects for plants.

Read the full story and watch the video at NECN 

 

May 21, 2013 — According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research the global market for fish oil was valued at USD 1.1 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach USD 1.7 billion in 2018, growing at a CAGR of 5.05% from 2012 to 2018. In terms of volume, the demand for fish oil was 1,035 kilo tons in 2011 and is expected to reach 1,130 kilo tons in 2018, growing at a CAGR of 1.22% from 2012 to 2018.

The demand for fish oil is expected to increase owing to the increased demand for omega 3 ingredients. Fish oil is the primary source of omega 3 and with the growing awareness of omega 3 and its benefits; consumers are increasing their intake of omega 3 as part of regular diet. However, the reduced or static production levels of fish oil acts as a major inhibitor for the growth of the market. This situation is expected to escalate due to the uneven frequency of El Nino, which further reduces the overall fishing volumes.

Aquaculture was the largest application segment in 2011, accounting for over 70% of the consumption of oil. Majority of fish oil is consumed in the farming of salmons and trout, which are primarily grown in Chile and Peru. However, direct human consumption (DHC) of fish oil has been increasing over the past five years due to increased awareness among customers regarding the benefits of omega 3.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal 

 

 

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton May 21, 2013 — With landings continuing to be heavy and “shore price” established of $2.75 for canners and $3.25 for market lobsters, processors say that these prices are not reflective of their actual costs.

Most lobsters in the maritimes are sold to commission buyers who arrange for delivery to plants,  and who sometimes supply bait, and on average, they get about 50 cents more at the plant door than the “shore price.”

Some of the commission buyers share this amount back with their fishermen, so a type of bidding war takes place among commission agents as to who will give the biggest kickback to keep their group of harvesters.  Commission buyers also pay transportation.

Processors have expressed concerns that their customers don’t understand the true cost of the lobster at the plant door – which is about 50 cents higher than the shore price at this time.

The biggest problem now continues to be where to put all the lobsters as all plants have limited storage, and have to balance their different markets  – live vs. canners vs. markets etc., when what comes in may not match their customer needs.

All present indications are for another season of very high abundance for lobsters in the Maritimes.

This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

 

BREWER, Maine — May 19, 2013 — A tiny translucent eel that sells for nearly $2,000 a pound has created a modern gold rush along Maine’s rivers and streams, generating millions of dollars for once-struggling fishermen, a surge in illegal fishing, and a debate about how long the economic boom can — or should — last.

The price of the baby American eel, also known as the glass eel or elver, has fluctuated over the past decade, dropping as low a $25 a pound at one point. But following a 2010 European moratorium on exporting eels and a depleted Japanese stock that was aggravated by the 2011 tsunami, prices took off last year to meet Asia’s voracious appetite for eel. Last spring, eels were going for $2,600 a pound.

The high demand and short supply has made them Maine’s second most valuable catch after lobster. According to the state, eels accounted for almost $39 million in business last year.

Maine is one of only two US states — the other is South Carolina — that have legal elver fisheries. That’s largely because other states weren’t interested in eel fishing until recently.

Maine issues 655 eel-harvesting licenses, which are valid between March 22 and May 31. The slippery creatures must be mostly caught at night, when they move up rivers. The short season makes the work intense, and means a lot of lost sleep for the fishermen fortunate to snag permits. On a good night, however, they can earn tens of thousands of dollars by dipping handheld nets into the water. Stories of big-money hauls abound — a fisherman in Penobscot River allegedly earned $200,000 during a single night’s session.

Elvers, spaghetti thin and about 3 inches long, are sold to dealers who sit in trucks parked near river banks. The fish are flown live to China and other Asian countries, where they grow as long as 3 feet in massive eel farms. Adult eels are mostly sold in Japan where they are roasted; in the United States, sushi eaters might recognize them as unagi.

“It’s very poor up here and this money has done wonders for people, bailing them out and getting their lives straightened out,” said Darrell Young, a 47-year-old angler from Eastbrook who said he has earned $150,000 this spring by selling eels caught in the Penobscot River.

Julie Keene, 54, said eel sales last year helped her get off welfare and invest in her 75-acre farm in northern Maine. “I have been so poor,” she said. “Last year, we were able to buy a tractor. It was like a godsend.”

But their river-to-riches story might soon have a different ending if regulators have their way.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

May 19, 2013 — A report released by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) this month makes a powerful case that from an economic perspective, recreational fishing is just as important as commercial fishing, despite having a much lower overall impact on the resource. According to the report, anglers landed just two percent of the total saltwater landings compared to ninety-eight percent caught by the commercial fishing industry.

This first-of-its-kind analysis — Comparing NOAA's Recreational and Commercial Fishing Economic Data, May 2013 — provides an apples-to-apples comparison of recreational and commercial marine fishing from an economic perspective using NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Services (NOAA Fisheries) 2011 economic data. The report was produced for ASA by Southwick Associates. The full report and executive summary are available on ASA's website.

"It's something we've suspected for some time, but NOAA's own data clearly shows that recreational saltwater fishing needs to be held in the same regard as commercial fishing," said ASA President and CEO Mike Nussman. "The current federal saltwater fisheries management system has historically focused the vast majority of its resources on the commercial sector, when recreational fishing is found to have just as significant an economic impact on jobs and the nation's economy."

Among the findings are: anglers landed just two percent of the total saltwater finfish landings compared to ninety-eight percent caught by the commercial fishing industry; saltwater landings by anglers contributed three times more to the national gross domestic product (GDP, or value-added) than commercial landings; and the recreational sector added $152.24 in value-added, or GDP, for one pound of fish landed, compared to the commercial sector's $1.57 for a single pound of fish.

Within the jobs market, the recreational sector made up 54 percent of all jobs, both recreational and commercial. This amounts to 455,000 recreational jobs compared to 381,000 on the commercial side. For every 100,000 pounds landed there were 210 recreational fishing jobs but only 4.5 jobs in the commercial fishing industry.

Nussman further noted, "We're not releasing this report in an effort to demean commercial fishing. Commercial fishing is very important to our nation's economy. Our goal is to highlight the importance of recreational fishing to the nation. As our coastal populations continue to grow, along with saltwater recreational fishing, significant improvements must be made to shape the nation's federal fisheries system in a way that recognizes and responds to the needs of the recreational fishing community."

Read the full story at The New Bedford Standard-Times

May 16, 2013 — Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk, responding to economic hardship in the New England groundfishery resulting from severe cuts in allowable catch levels, has released the Gloucester "Bridge Plan", a collaborative effort between the city and industry stakeholders aimed at providing fishermen and fishery-related businesses economic relief from the current crisis. The plan calls for providing transitional assistance for fishermen and shoreside businesses, expanding the use of fishing boats as research vessels, investing in transitioning to higher-value fisheries, and reviewing current fisheries management practices. The ultimate goal of the plan is to preserve the fleet and "retool the industry through investments in sustainable, innovative businesses and practices going forward."

The project compliments efforts made by the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to both obtain immediate economic relief for fishing communities and create long-term sustainable solutions for the fishery.

The full release is reproduced below.

The Gloucester “Bridge Plan”:  A Response to the New England Groundfisheries Crisis

On May 1st, the federal government imposed drastic reductions in allowable catch for several key groundfish stocks, including a 77% cut in high value Cod landings from the Gulf of Maine. These cuts threaten the economic viability and survival of not only the fishing fleets, but also of the processors, shoreside services, and fresh fish markets of the region as well. Multiple stakeholders in Gloucester have come together, under the leadership of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, to formulate a comprehensive transition or “bridge” plan to navigate through this crisis. 

The goals of the plan are both to preserve the core assets of the fleets and the ports during the groundfish recovery period and to use this crisis as an opportunity to retool the industry through investments in sustainable, innovative businesses and practices going forward.  The New England groundfisheries was declared a federal disaster area in the fall of 2012. Proposed federal and state contributions to implementation of the “bridge plan” include the following:

Transition Assistance to Fishermen and Crew
Transition assistance is needed for fishermen to meet immediate financial demands while their boats are idled at the docks, including unemployment insurance, mortgage protection, SBA programs to restructure debt, dockage and fuel relief, and other measures available to declared disaster areas.

Transition Assistance to Shoreside Businesses
Fishing fleets rely on support services of the region’s ports, including marine railways, engine repair, ice production, and marine supplies. Transition assistance is needed to stabilize these companies during the recovery period.

Redeployment of Fishing Boats as Research Vessels
Chartering of fishing boats as research vessels will accomplish three goals: a dramatic enhancement in the quality and amount of data used in running stock assessment models; a redeployment source of income for fishermen during the recovery period; and the opportunity to enhance geographically-dispersed data collection for numerous other ocean research programs.  

Investment in a Sustainable, Innovative Fishery
New England fleets and ports, with a long history of adaptation and innovation, have the opportunity to invest in a shift from a high-volume, low-value fisheries to a high-value, low-volume fisheries with a lighter ecosystem footprint. Examples of current proposals include retrofitting of fishing boats for high-quality and flexible, multiple-species harvesting and fuel-efficiency; partnerships of fishermen and processors in live-fish markets, freeze-dried and other value-added products; expansion of local fresh catch programs to include institutional customers; processing of chitin and other products from lobster, crab, and clamshell waste and invasive green crabs; poly-culture of shellfish, kelp, seaweed and fish habitat restoration; hatchery stock enhancements; green chemistry solutions from the ocean biomass; and others.

Collaborative Review of Fisheries Management
Fishing fleets and ports are buffeted by short-term shifts in allowable catches and other management measures. A multiple-stakeholder, collaborative effort to propose better management approaches is needed to support sustainable fisheries and ecosystems, fishing fleets, ports, and access by consumers to healthy local fish and other seafood products.

About the City of Gloucester
America's oldest seaport, the City of Gloucester is known throughout the world as an authentic, working waterfront community, a place of spectacular natural beauty, and home to a diverse population of about 30,000 residents. An important center for the fishing industry, Gloucester also is proud of its rich art heritage as one of the premier art colonies in the United States. The City is a destination for thousands of visitors who visit the harbor and its beaches during the summertime. In recent years, Gloucester has diversified its traditional maritime economy, adding leading small research institutions such as the UMass Amherst Large Pelagics Research Laboratory and the Ocean Alliance to the array of state and federal agencies working in the city, and with investments in robotics and new product development from the fishery.

Contact: Office of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, 978-281-9700 

Read the press release here

Read a release from the Office of the Mayor here

 

 

May 15, 2013 — Together with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Walker Foundation, and others, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Northeast Cooperative Research Program are helping to provide an opportunity for fishermen to upgrade to semi-pelagic doors which are expected to help reduce fuel consumption, and reduce the physical impact of trawl systems on the sea bed.  For more information call Steve Eayrs at (207) 228-1659 or email steve@gmri.org.

Opportunities also exist for support and equipment for vessels to transition to electronic reporting, in which vessel trip report data can be submitted electronically rather than via paper.  Please contact Croy Carlin at (207) 228-1686 or email ccarlin@gmri.org about using eVTR.

Click here to read more about these opportunities.

 

May 12, 2013 — As the value of American eels skyrockets, some unscrupulous fishermen have been tempted by the thousands of dollars they might make in a good day's fishing to circumvent the law, which says almost no one in the Northeast is allowed to take young eels.

On the Eastern Seaboard, Maine and South Carolina are the only states that allow fishing of baby eels, called elvers, that are less than 6 inches long.

Ten years ago, no one much cared for elver fishing as they were only worth about $25 a pound, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Since then, their value has increased a hundredfold, sometimes peaking as high as $3,000 a pound, but there are still only 655 elver fishing licenses available in Maine, according to Maine DMR spokesman Jeff Nichols.

The only way to legitimately take elvers is to get one of those licenses, which become available only when one of last year's license holders doesn't seek renewal. Five thousand people entered a lottery for four available licenses in Maine last year, Nichols said.

Eels are a delicacy in Asian countries, which import young American eels and cultivate them to adulthood when they're sold off to restaurants.

Some unlicensed fishermen clandestinely go out on the banks of riverbeds in pre-dawn darkness with a net and a small light hoping to go unseen or unchecked.

Read the full story at Seacoast Online

 

May 7, 2013 — Officials celebrated the formal ground-breaking of a new, $100 million, heavy-load port terminal in the city Monday, saying the project, which is tailor-made to support the offshore wind industry, represents "promises made and promises kept" to residents.

They also used the occasion to make a few more.

"For a corner of the state that has had its hopes dashed so many times in the past wanting transformative economic development and not quite getting there, now it's real," said Mayor Jon Mitchell, who said the terminal holds the potential for "a generation of jobs."

"Other governors have left us behind. Governor, you have not left us behind," he said, addressing Deval Patrick, who was among those present.

Construction on the roughly 28-acre New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, which will sit just north of the hurricane barrier, started three weeks ago. Officials are hoping the state-financed facility, also known as South Terminal, will act as a magnet for future projects, luring private investment and jobs to the region.

"For those of my colleagues in Washington who question the wisdom of public investment and innovative infrastructure, I invite them to New Bedford to see how public dollars yield private investment and help our economy grow and stay strong," said Sen. William "Mo" Cowan.

The project is supposed to be finished by the end of 2014, in time to play a role in Cape Wind's development of its 130-turbine park in Nantucket Sound. Previous estimates have suggested it will help create about 150 short-term construction jobs, about 600-800 jobs during Cape Wind's staging and assembly, and more than 1,000 in future associated industries.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

 

May 2, 2013 — Vito Giacalone from the Northeast Seafood Coalition and Tom Dempsey from the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fisherman's Association sat down to discuss the recent groundfish allocation cuts.

Vito Giacalone explains how stricter regulations have made it difficult for fishermen to get re-permitted to abundant stocks.

"What's happened over 20 years is people have become specialized in the permitting process," said Giacalone. "We used to be very diversified…Now through specialized permitting, most of the fishermen are stuck with what they've got." Giacalone concludes that fishermen "can't just switch."

Giacalone also empasized how current management measures have created a smaller fishery that is more difficult to access. 

Watch the full discussion at WGBH Boston