State and Local

December 17, 2014 — At least five workers at a city fish company were fired Tuesday morning after conducting a work stoppage and giving management a list of demands that includes a $15 minimum hourly wage, according to advocates.

"I'm going to continue struggling for the workers that are still in the company, despite the fact that (I was let go)," said Antonia Cruz, a mother of three who was one of the workers leading the protest.

On a blistering cold Monday night, some 25 workers and "allies" gathered at Northern Pelagic Group's Fish Island facility with candles in hand, waving placards and chanting slogans in Spanish and English.

"This is based on a history of complaints that the workers have had with the company about working conditions," said Lisa Maya Knauer, an activist with Centro Comunitario Trabajadores and UMass Dartmouth professor. Knauer said 15 of the workers agreed to participate in the stoppage.

NORPEL processes mackerel and herring with capacity for freezing more than 2,400 metric tons per week, according to its website. A man who answered the phone at NORPEL on Tuesday declined to identify himself, saying he had no comment. A subsequent email to the company received no response.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

December 16, 2014 — Today, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham announced a closure of the fall shrimp season in most state inside waters and in a portion of state outside waters effective Monday, Dec. 22, 2014 at official sunset.

Specifically, those waters that will close to shrimping include:

-All state inside waters from the Mississippi/Louisiana state line westward to the Louisiana/Texas state line except for the following waters located east of the Mississippi River:

-Lake Pontchartrain, Chef Menteur and Rigolets Passes, Lake Borgne, Mississippi Sound, Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), and the open waters of Breton and Chandeleur Sounds as described by the double-rig line in R.S. 56:495.1(A)2

-The portion of state outside waters extending a distance of 3 nautical miles seaward of the inside/outside shrimp line from the Atchafalaya River Ship Channel at Eugene Island as delineated by the Channel red buoy line westward to the western shore of Freshwater Bayou Canal at -92 degrees 18 minutes 33 seconds west longitude.

Read the full story at KATC

December 15, 2014 — Commercial fishermen are once again harvesting Gulf seafood off the coasts of Elmer's and Grand Terre islands, an area that's been closed due to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reopened state waters surrounding the islands, some of the areas most significantly oiled, near Grand Isle Dec. 10.

Dean Blanchard, owner of Dean Blanchard Seafood in Grand Isle, tells The Courier it's a very big deal.

When Blanchard's vessel captains heard of the news, they immediately made arrangements to get out to their old, reliable fishing area to test the waters.

Read the full story from The Sun Herald

 

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — December 14, 2014 — Nashawn Neves is a a typical 8-year-old boy. He likes to run around, play and watch TV.

And, in typical second-grade fashion, he'd rather be running around outside that sitting in a classroom in front of a textbook.

"Sometimes he says he doesn't like school," his mother, Nuria says. "And I tell him, 'you want to come work in a fish house like your mother?'"

Nuria started working at MarLees Seafood on North Front Street after graduating from New Bedford High School in 1999. It was her first stint at the North End seafood facility; she went back a few years ago after spending years working at a North End textile mill and as a personal care assistant in a nursing home.

"I've never stopped working," Nuria says. "Work, work, work, that's me."

She wouldn't be able to pay the rent without working. She receives $300 a month in food stamps for herself and the three children — Destiny, 10, Nashawn and Nasir, 4 — but receives no other public assistance to help with the $800 per month rent, car insurance, clothes, day care for her youngest son, or other necessities.

Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times

December 12, 2014 — The following was released by North Carolina Sea Grant:

North Carolina Sea Grant is accepting applications from North Carolina graduate students for the 2015 National Sea Grant College Program/NOAA Fisheries fellowship. This opportunity is open to U.S. citizens who are doctoral students in academic institutions in the United States and its territories.
Applications are due by 5 p.m., Jan. 29, 2015.

This program provides real-world experience and fosters the careers of graduate students interested in population and ecosystem dynamics and stock assessment, or in marine resource economics. Each fellow will be assigned a mentor from NOAA Fisheries who will serve on the fellow’s committee, and provide access to research data sources and to NOAA Fisheries working/laboratory space.

Research conducted by a current North Carolina-based fisheries fellow focuses on the black sea bass population. Photo by Greg McFall/NOAA.
Two categories of this joint fellowship are available, each offering $43,500 in annual stipends. Cost sharing by the institution of higher education is required. Funding begins in Aug. 1, 2015.

Prospective population and ecosystem dynamics fellows must be admitted to a doctoral program in population dynamics or a related field — such as applied mathematics, statistics or quantitative ecology — at the time of application. Funding is for up to three years.

Applicants for the marine resource economics fellowship must be admitted to a doctoral program in natural resource economics or a related field at the time of application. Funding is for up to two years.

North Carolina currently has two population dynamics fellows: Ian Kroll from the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Meagan Dunphy-Daly from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

At least two new fisheries fellows will be selected nationwide in both categories. The successful fellows will work on problems relevant to NOAA Fisheries. They will participate in summer internships at corresponding NOAA Fisheries science centers or laboratories. Population and ecosystem dynamics fellows will be expected to spend 10 to 20 days at sea per year.

North Carolina Sea Grant will nominate candidates enrolled in a North Carolina academic institution. Students must be U.S. citizens. Students should follow the application instructions in Section IV of the original federal announcements for population and ecosystem dynamics and marine resource economics. Sea Grant forms can be downloaded here.

The application must be submitted to North Carolina Sea Grant, no later than 5 p.m., Jan. 29, 2015. Email each application component as a separate file attachment to Mary Beth Barrow at marybeth_barrow@ncsu.edu.

For more information, read the FAQs or contact John Fear, Sea Grant deputy director, at 919-515-9104 or jmfear@ncsu.edu. More details about the fellowship also are available here.

Original Federal Funding Opportunity Numbers:

Population and Ecosystem Dynamics Fellowship, NOAA-OAR-SG-2015-2004339

Marine Resource Economics Fellowship, NOAA-OAR-SG-2015-2004341

Read the release online 

 

December 12, 2014 — The Yadkin River is by no means a tributary of the Caspian Sea. About the only thing the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Black Sea have in common is the reference to color in their names. And yet, in Caldwell County, you’ll find the only farm on the continent that produces one of the world’s most expensive delicacies.

The farm is an anonymous compound of long red sheds nestled behind a cornfield on the outskirts of Lenoir just off Indian Grave Road. "This is the last place you’d expect to find a sturgeon farm right?" jokes Elisabeth Wall. And she's right. Yet this is a fish farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. The only one in North America that produces not fish roe but high quality real caviar. What makes this real? "If its not from sturgeon its not caviar," says Wall who runs marketing and sales for Atlantic Caviar and Sturgeon. The company was dreamed up by four friends back in 2000. "One of them was a cargo pilot. And he was flying in and out of Russia where he would refuel his jets and also himself on a little bit of caviar."

But, says Wall, he was more than just a consumer. He was also a realist and a conservationist who saw what over-fishing and the dramatic jump in caviar production after the fall of the Soviet Union would create. "He could see that pretty soon most of the fish were going to be endangered. And today all sturgeon are."

Read the full story and listen to the audio from WFAE 

 

December 11, 2014 — The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council (RIMFC) met last week to make recommendations on 2015 regulations for commercial scup, black sea bass, monkfish and summer flounder (fluke).  The Council reviewed stock status and public comments on proposed recommendations for specie management plans and voted status quo (no regulation changes) for all species reviewed.

The Council also assessed the new workshop/public hearing approach that combined four nights of specie advisory panel meetings and a public hearing into one night.  The approach was viewed as a success, allowing for greater fishermen input and is expected to save fishermen and DEM staffers hundreds of hours of time and thousands of dollars as input and decisions are made in a more effective and cost efficient manner. 

Jason McNamee, DEM marine biologist, said, "We had greater participation form fishermen with over 30 in attendance.  In the past with multiple meetings on separate nights we often had three or four fishermen attend some specie advisory panels."

The new approach is part of DEM's and Director Janet Coit's "lean initiative".  Overall the Council looked favorably on the process with the recommendation of continuing to provide information in advance of the meeting to allow user groups to formulate alternative recommendations before workshop/public hearings and then continue to allow public comment one week after the public hearing. 

Read the full story at the Warwick Beacon

December 11, 2014 — Governor Chris Christie vetoed legislation banning fish-choking beads in soaps and toothpastes.

The plastic abrasives, washed down bathroom drains, evade treatment-plant filters and accumulate in waterways. Research shows evidence of the beads, about the width of a pencil tip, and their chemical traces in the organs and bloodstreams of Great Lakes fish. Scientists suspect the components may pose a hazard to the wider food supply.

Christie, a 52-year-old Republican, said he would reconsider the veto if New Jersey lawmakers lessen the proposed punishment for retailers who “perhaps unwittingly” continue to push their stock.

Though manufacturers including L’Oreal SA (OR) and Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) have said they will stop using the ingredients, some U.S. and state lawmakers are calling for bans.

New Jersey legislators in October approved penalties for retailers of as much as $10,000 a product per day starting in 2019. That’s too harsh, Christie said.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

December 12, 2014 — The Department of Marine Resources has released the results of its Spring Scallop Survey for state waters between Penobscot Bay and Lubec. For fishermen already barred from harvesting scallops along large sections of the coast, the news was mixed at best.

DMR surveyed all seven of the “rotational management areas” in Scallop Management Zone 2 that are open to harvesters during the fishing season that began Dec. 1. The survey included 139 tows with a standard scallop drag, about 40 fewer than during the 2013 spring survey.

The aim of the survey was to determine the approximate density of harvestable, sublegal and seed scallops in each area. Harvestable scallops have a shell height of 4 inches of more and scallops with a shell height between 2.5 and 3.9 inches are classified as sublegal. Smaller scallops are considered seed.

Read the full story from The Ellsworth American

 

December 11, 2014 — Proposed changes to fishing regulations could impact Maine fishermen who operate in federal waters.

The Department of Marine Resources hosted a meeting in Ellsworth Wednesday night to answer questions related to what the New England Fishery Management Council is calling – Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2.

The council is periodically required to revise and update conservation measures.

If approved, certain areas off Maine’s coast could be temporarily closed to harvesting scallop, quahog, halibut, shrimp, herring, and ground-fish.

Read the full story and watch the video from WABI