Economic Impact

NEW BEDFORD — A pair of waterfront seafood processing projects are moving along after the Planning Board approved two different site plans Wednesday night.

Quality Custom Packing Inc., a seafood processor, wants to build a 22,000-square-foot addition to an existing building at 18 Wright St.

The company, which deals primarily with scallops and does custom packing for large companies such as Atlantic Capes Fisheries, Premier Foods and Orca Bay Seafoods, has been in the city since 2000.

The board also considered and approved a site plan for 28,000-square-foot cooler and freezer storage building with five loading docks at 75 MacArthur Drive. The project is connected to Northern Wind Inc., a seafood processor that operates a 43,000-square-foot processing plant at 16 Hassey St.

Read the complete story from The Standard-Times

 

 

 

 

 

For North Carolina fishermen keeping watch for the bluefin tuna, there will be a longer season to make their catch.

The National Marine Fisheries has filed a final rule that extends the bluefin tuna season and gives commercial fishermen more opportunity to harvest the highly valuable fish this winter.

Capt. Sonny Davis of Capt. Stacy Fishing Center in Atlantic Beach said the bluefin tuna is unpredictable in its migration; and fishermen never know for sure when they’ll arrive and when they do, it’s not for long

Last year, the season closed in January just as the bluefin were arriving

Read the complete story from Jacksonville Daily News

 

 

 

 

 

Montegut, La. — The Anna Marie isn’t your typical shrimp boat. To start, it has a full-size kitchen, air conditioning and satellite television. From his captain’s chair, owner Lance Nacio can plot his course and check water depth and tidal flows, all with the push of a button on a slick gadget not much larger than an iPad. But the most unusual addition to the Anna Marie is a set of high-tech plate freezers on its deck, which transform the boat into a kind of floating processor. With a crew of three, the Anna Marie can stay out at sea up to three times as long as a traditional shrimp boat, pulling in as much as 16,000 pounds on each journey.

The 40-year-old, with a doe’s brown eyes and a neat goatee, grew up shrimping the way southern Louisianians have for generations: He netted what he could and sold it fresh on the dock to processors and other middlemen at the market price. Today, Nacio catches and processes the shrimp himself and sets his own price. He is a savvy marketer, as comfortable (if not as happy) negotiating prices via cellphone or offering samples to celebrity chefs as he is out on the water. With customers including restaurants, Whole Foods Market and the famed Berkeley Bowl in California, Nacio has transformed shrimping into a sustainable venture, for the environment and his family.

“The shrimping industry in America has been struggling for a long while. Lance saw the writing on the wall,” says Frank Brigsten, a customer and chef-owner of Brigsten’s, the renowned New Orleans restaurant. “He is a visionary in his profession.”

Read the complete story from The Washington Post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAIRHAVEN — The gleaming red hull of the spanking brand-new scalloper Concordia is adding a dash of seasonal color to the Fairhaven waterfront.

Launched Dec. 2 at the Fairhaven Shipyard, where it was built, the 95-footer is owned by veteran fisherman Malvin Kvilhaug and will be skippered by his son Brian.

Christened at the launching by Brian's daughter Allison, Concordia replaces the family's older vessel of the same name built in 1946.

The last boat built at the yard was the F/V Elizabeth, an 83-foot trawler for a Boston client in 2008. Prior to that, it had been 40 years since a fishing boat rolled down the ways here.

Read the complete story from The Standard Times

 

 

 

 

 

BREWSTER —They’re dinosaurs – but not yet extinct.

Small fishing boats are sailing into the sunset, at least if the federal government has its way.

The 80-year-old Richard and Arnold of Provincetown is one of just 12 eastern-rigged fishing boats left along the U.S. coast and Judy Dutra’s husband, David, has skippered it for 30 years. During that time they’ve seen their compatriots vanish like shadows at dusk. She’s now the author and self-publisher of “Nautical Twilight.”

The book, published this year and available in bookstores, chronicles the changes in fishing, from the freedom of the open sea to endless rules and regulations.

“I was so angry and frustrated by the federal government and what was happening to my husband, we couldn’t keep up with the changes,” Dutra lamented. “I felt there was nothing we could do. I was like a voice in the wilderness. It was the only way I could fight what was going on.”

Read the complete story from The Metro West Daily News

 

 

 

 

 

The new Base Gloucester seafood exchange on Fishermen's Wharf off Rogers Street not only hosted its ribbon-cutting grand opening Wednesday, it hit the ground running.

Twice during the first hour of the new auction's open house, fishing boats landed their harvest for the day, bringing in cod and pollock — and giving Mayor Carolyn Kirk the chance to ceremonially handle at least a piece of the day's catch.

Kirk was among the officials who attended the opening and welcomed New Bedford waterfront businessmen Richard and Raymond Canastra, whose Whaling City Auction technology is being utilized at the new Gloucester facility, providing anew link between the twin capitals of Fishing Nation.

The new auction, whose Base name signifies "buyers' and sellers' exchange," is owned by brothers Nick, Chris and Vito Giacalone, Jr. and is operating on a site owned by their father, Vito Giacalone Sr., policy director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition.

While Wednesday marked the grand opening and the first landings to be put up for sale on the site, today brings a milestone as well. The first auction, expected to bring more than three dozen buyers, began at 6 a.m.

Read the article in The Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

If Omega Protein closed today, total employment for the region would decline by 519 jobs, income would drop by $22.8 million and total economic output would decrease by $88.2 million, a new report finds. And the lion's share of the hardship would land at Northumberland County's doorstep.

Leading up to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's anticipated vote Nov. 9 on whether to impose more stringent fishing guidelines on the menhaden reduction industry, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has drafted a lengthy study on the species' social and economic importance to the area and how any harvest decline might impact the industry.

According to the report, if the plant were shuttered, Northumberland would see a 14.3 percent and 8.1 percent decline in economic output and employment, respectively, figures that equate to 347 jobs, $16 million of household income, and $78.6 million of economic output.

The report "An Assessment of the Menhaden in Chesapeake Bay Region," was prepared by James Kirkley, with VIMS, in response to a request by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to explore the economic effects that further limiting menhaden catches would have on the area.

The Virginia fishery is currently subject to an annual quota of 109 metric tons, a cap established in 2006. According to the study, between 2007 and 2009 Omega Protein has consistently harvested approximately 85,000 metric tons from the Bay, which falls below its allowable catch. The report concludes that the Bay quota could be reduced to at least 85,000 thousand metric tons with "no appreciable economic impacts.'' The impacts of quotas below that threshold would vary based on "how the fishery responded and the availability and abundance of menhaden in the coastal ocean."'

The ASMFC has only proposed addressing '"spawning-aged fish" through what is known as a '"maximum spawning potential," or MSP. The current MSP is 8 percent, which means that 8 percent of reproduction-aged fish are prevented from harvest. The ASMFC has proposed increasing that level to as high as 40 percent.

Overall, the ASMFC has received upwards of 90,000 public comments on the measures, most of which favor increasing regulations. That wasn't the case during a public hearing in Heathsville where local watermen and industry representatives decried the proposals, pointing out that they could prove devastating to the area economy. And of all of the localities on the Chesapeake Bay – the report evaluates approximately 40 – Northumberland would see the largest economic impact, the study concludes.

However, in addition to the economic question, Kirkley's study asks a larger, social question: Does society place a higher preference or value on the ecological goods and services of menhaden or on the menhaden fishery?

The answer was surprising. In a survey conducted by an independent firm, individuals expressed a strong preference to not reducing the quota.

"The result that society preferred to maintain the status quo was unexpected. The expected result was that society would have a strong preference to reduce the allowable Bay quota," the report concluded. "Possible reasons for the preferences include a growing sympathy with watermen, an ailing economy and desire by individuals to prevent additional unemployment, and an inadequate understanding of the potential ecological goods and services of menhaden.''

According to the report, however, the extent of the social impacts remain unknown. Only a limited number of interviews with plant employees were conducted. But of the 12 Omega employees interviewed, all indicated happiness with their job and stated they would find other work in the event of a closure of the fishery, but not likely at the same pay level with the same benefits.

Read the article from the Northumberland Echo.

 

 

KODIAK — Kodiak-based commercial fishermen by far brought home the largest amount of money among fishing communities in the state — more than the entire Kenai Peninsula Borough. That's just one of the results from the 2011 edition of the Community Commercial Fishing and Seafood Processing fact sheet produced by the United Fishermen of Alaska.

The survey lists the number of permit holders, crewmen and home-ported boats in Alaska's major fishing areas and quantifies the financial impact those, as well as processing jobs, have on their communities. The figures are for calendar year 2010.

The fact sheet reinforces the importance of commercial fishing to Kodiak, which is the No. 4 fishing port in the nation by volume delivered and No. 3 by value. Though Dutch Harbor-Unalaska lands more pounds of seafood with a greater value, the amount of money earned by resident fishermen pales compared to Kodiak.

The estimated ex-vessel income by resident fishermen in Dutch was $3.3 million. The resident fisherman population, including permit holders and crewmen, was just 92, with only 30 vessels home-ported there.

Read the complete story on SeafoodNews.com

 

 

 

 

 

It's been the autumn of their discontent for lobstermen, with landings way up, prices down low, wholesale freezers filled to the brim, and big-ticket buyers seemingly scared to place orders.

This holiday season, prices are bound to increase, say the experts. But they have been down so long, it'll look like only a little hike to consumers — and willprobably not make the lobstermen's ends meet.

"Sad to say, it's almost a perfect storm," said Vince Mortillaro, owner of Mortillaro's Lobster on Commercial Street. "Buyers are very, very nervous."

Prices are the lowest this century, even though that's only been 11 years, said Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association in Scituate.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

A $5 billion foundation that has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting the catch share commodification of New England's and other U.S. fisheries has chosen a firm with close ties to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco to evaluate the nation's newest catch share programs.

The commission is to study the effect of the privatization of the New England groundfishery and the Pacific trawl fishery.

In choosing MRAG Americas Inc. to study both the New England program that began in 2010 and the Pacific trawl program that began this year, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation selected a firm headed by Andrew Rosenberg, a Gloucester resident.

A former NOAA Northeast regional administrator out of Gloucester, Rosenberg got his master's degree at Oregon State University while Lubchenco was a faculty luminary and he lists Lubchenco as a reference on his portfolio.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.