State and Local

September 29, 2014 — The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will hold a public meeting 6-8 p.m. at Somers Point City Hall Monday, Sept. 29 to gather input on a range of issued to be considered in the Comprehensive Summer Flounder Amendment.

The meeting launches a series of scoping hearings being held through Oct. 22 in coastal states from Massachusetts to North Carolina, according to organizers.

“We chose Somers Point for this important public hearing due to its accessibility to the state’s southern fisheries, recreational fishermen and fishing industry representatives,” said Tom Baum, supervising biologist for the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, and the New Jersey representative for the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. “We want those most invested in this amendment to have full access to the hearing and voice their comment.”

Read the full story at the Mainland Current

DENNYSVILLE, Maine — September 29, 2014 — Maine fishing regulators are discussing the health of the scallop fishery with fishermen and residents near Cobscook Bay, one of the state's most critical scallop grounds.

Maine Department of Marine Resources staff are hosting the Monday afternoon meeting at the Dennysville Congregational Church, near the bay. Cobscook Bay is Maine's most productive scallop fishery. State officials planned to discuss a recent Cobscook Bay scallop survey.

Read the full story at WMTW

September 30, 2014 — Every year, the first faint hint of a cool snap kick-starts the migration of tiny bay anchovies by the billions out of the tidal creeks and back bays of the East Coast. Then, for a few weeks, the rolling sea turns into bloody mayhem as the little fish run into packs of hungry false albacore slashing through the schools of baitfish, lighting up the waves beneath Montauk Point with their glinting green flanks.

When they are on the feed moving through the balled-up and terrified bait, the sound is like the whooshing of a hundred scythes reaping through a field of grain. Add to that agitated bands of sea gulls hovering, diving and making a commotion as they jostle for the albies’ leave-behinds, and you have got a natural riot.

For local anglers, the return of the false albacore is like the beginning of spring training. But where the baseball player gets to work his way into shape with pitching that is not yet in midsummer form, the albacore angler has to face the equivalent of a 95-mile-an-hour fastball, chin high and terrifyingly inside.

On one of those bluebird days that September bestows as a late gift of summer, I made a beeline for the albies of the East End with my friend Kerry Heffernan, a Manhattan chef currently working on a project to introduce sustainable and less familiar wild fish to seafood menus.

I met Heffernan 20 years ago at a chefs’ outing on Esopus Creek in the Catskills, where I gave a fly-casting clinic. Heffernan was a newbie at that time. Since then he has surpassed my fly rod skills, adding to his mastery of conventional tackle, spear-gun fishing, surfboarding and kayaking. In short, he is a man very much at home on, in and under the water.

Capt. Paul Dixon, the dean of East End fly fishing, had called a few days previously to report that the autumn albacore scrum was on. “They’re raging,” were his words, which, calibrating for fishing guide hyperbole, meant it was probably worth our driving out and taking a shot.

Read the full story from the New York Times

 

 

September 30, 2014 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Courting votes at the country’s most lucrative fishing port, Democrat and Republican candidates cast themselves as opponents of federal fishing regulators.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Martha Coakley and her Republican opponent Charlie Baker’s running mate Karyn Polito attended the Working Waterfront Festival on Saturday, as did U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, Democratic attorney general candidate Maura Healey and Republican treasurer candidate Mike Heffernan.

Coakley and Baker are facing three independents in the race for governor: Scott Lively, an anti-gay Springfield preacher; Jeff McCormick, an investor; and Evan Falchuk, who made a career at a health diagnostics company.

The festival highlights the fishing industry, offering tours of boats and demonstrations of net-making and scallop shucking. Democrats, who often defend environmental regulations, have aligned themselves with the fishing industry against what they have said are catch limits with a murky scientific foundation based on old systems of measurement.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — September 29, 2014 — Scallop hunters used to travel to Citrus County to launch their search for the tasty bivalves nestled in shallow sea-grass beds in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now Hernando County is gaining a reputation among scallop enthusiasts, and that could account for the boost in people patronizing local motels, tackle shops and other businesses this year during the months of scallop-hunting season.

Occupancy at area motels and hotels in June and July increased .4 percent, while innkeepars raised their daily rates an average of 2.34 percent during this year’s scallop season, according to statistics from the Hernando County Tourism Bureau. Lodging revenue went up 1.37 percent, the bureau reported. August numbers were not available at the end of last week.

Dwayne Adams, manager of Hernando Beach Suites & Condos, said his business was booked almost every weekend with scallop hunters. He called it his best season ever.

Adams said people prefer coming to Hernando to avoid the crowds in Citrus.

“Scallops are getting more known in this area,” Adams said. “Citrus County was always the big draw, and people started realizing that Hernando has scallops, too.”

Read the full story from Hernando Today

 

OAK ISLAND, N.C. — September 29, 2014 — Why did dozens of dead sharks wash ashore on a beach in Oak Island, North Carolina over the weekend? The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries is looking into the matter, according to a report on WECT.com.

A North Carolina man said he discovered about 50 dead sharks while he walked along the beach Sunday morning. The sharks, he said, were between one and five-feet long.

Read the full story from WTVR

BRIGANTINE­­, N.J. — September 29, 2014 — The grant request from the city indicated a need to “make the bay side of the island more resilient by creating living shorelines.”

he National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently notified the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that it had been awarded a grant of $3,440,000 to support the Building Ecological Solutions to Coastal Community Hazards project. The award was made on the condition that these funds are matched by $894,888 in additional funds contributed by the NJDEP specifically for the project.

Rutala and Associates, the city’s grant consultant, had submitted a grant proposal on behalf of the city in December 2013 to develop a “coastal resilience project” and will receive a grant of $125,000 with a 50 percent match that can include “salaries, fringes, indirect and use of municipal equipment” as well as nonfederal funds.

Read the full story from Shore News Today

 

September 27, 2014 — James Brown is the Godfather of Soul. Phil Padulsky may be the Godfather of Sole.

Padulski, food service director for Gloucester Public Schools, is the district's point man in a new program designed to include freshly caught local seafood in the school system's lunch menus.

Working in conjunction with Cape Ann Fresh Catch, Padulski has initiated a pilot program at Gloucester High School that incorporates freshly caught local seafood entrees on Friday lunch menus in a more nautical version of a "Farm to School" program that stresses the inclusion of fresh, local produce in school lunch meals.

"It's something we started this semester and something we're going to try to build up over time," Padulsky said. "It's early, but it seems to be going well so far."

Fish for the Fishermen. What a concept. It may have been too long in coming, but the idea remains just too logical to ignore.

Consider the benefits: The GHS kids get a healthier lunch option, with all of the lean protein and Omega-3 benefits inherent in seafood. That's all good, especially in this age of exploding concerns over the levels of obesity among U.S. children.

Read the full story from The Gloucester Daily Times

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — September 29, 2014 — Aboard the Schooner Ernestina in the city harbor, a long tradition dating to the Ancient Greeks continued Sunday.

There, the Rev. Constantine Bebis, along with public officials and other members of the clergy, blessed the fleet of ships in the harbor, and asked for the safety of the fishermen, and a bountiful catch.

The event was part of the Working Waterfront Festival over the weekend, and was organized by the Offshore Mariners' Wives Association.

For those living in the city and surrounding area, Bebis said, "Fishing fleets, boats and their fine heroic and dedicated crews go out in the deep, turbulent and dangerous seas in order to catch and bring to us the precious fish" for sustenance, but also for the fishermen's own living.

Bebis asked for the protection and safety of fishermen, and also took the time to remember those who have been lost at sea.

Read the full story from The New Bedford Standard-Times

September 25, 2014 — The chairman of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, Paul Rose of Moyock, passed away on Wednesday of an apparent heart attack at age 52.

Rose was a commercial crabber, pound-netter and fish dealer who ran Paul Rose Seafood.

 “He was very proud of his service as the chairman of the commission, and he took the job very seriously,” said Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

Read the full story from North Carolina Sportsman