State and Local

October 31, 2014 — Blame the essence of how memories are formed — not Charlie Baker — for the mistaken details surrounding the Republican gubernatorial hopeful’s tearful story about a New Bedford fisherman during Tuesday’s debate.

Baker and his Democratic opponent Martha Coakley were asked about the last time they cried. Baker spoke about a conversation he had with a New Bedford fisherman who had pressured his two sons into becoming fishermen, forcing them to give up football scholarships to college. Baker paused several times during the speech, tears welling in his eyes.

That story, Baker would later admit, comes from a 2009 meeting with fisherman in New Bedford. He first told the story during his 2010 bid for governor, and it has been a favorite on this campaign trail ever since.

In the days since that touching moment, reporters haven’t been able to locate or identify the fisherman who supposedly told the tale. The Boston Globe couldn’t locate the family. Neither could the New Bedford Standard-Times.

That’s because, as Baker admitted on Thursday, the story could be slightly untrue.

“There may be a detail or two that I got wrong,” he told The Boston Globe, “but obviously the image and the message from him has stayed with me for a very long time.”

Read the full story from The Boston Globe

November 5, 2014 — Federal regulators are canceling the commercial fishing season for shrimp in the Gulf of Maine for a second straight year, citing a population collapse blamed partly on rising ocean temperatures.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section voted Wednesday in Portland to cancel the upcoming winter season. Regulators say the region’s population of northern shrimp fell dramatically from 2011 to 2013.

Regulators voted to set aside the entire shrimp quota of 25 metric tons for research, according to Marin Hawk, the commission’s management coordinator for the species.

Twenty-five metric tons is a minuscule amount of shrimp compared with landings of recent years. In 2010, which recorded the largest shrimp catch since 1996, fishermen landed 5,566 metric tons of shrimp, valued at $6.6 million. By 2012, the shrimp catch had plummeted to 2,185 metric tons with a value of $4.6 million.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

November 4, 2014 — Alaska's minimum wage initiative flew mostly under the radar this fall, overshadowed by high-profile Congressional races. But ballot measure three proposes a big change to state's minimum wage structure — increasing it by two dollars over the next two years, to $9.75 an hour. After that, it would be adjusted for inflation.

In Unalaska, at least 83 percent of voters supported that plan. The seafood industry — which is the biggest source of minimum wage jobs in Unalaska — didn't expect anything less.

Leading up to the election, they were already considering ways to scale back their workforce.

"We'll have people who, as they retire out of the industry, we just won't replace them," says Alyeska Seafoods plant manager Don Goodfellow. "Machinery will take over a lot of those jobs."

Eventually, Goodfellow thinks up to 30 percent of Unalaska's processing workers could be automated. He says the seafood business is well overdue to make that kind of change.

Read the full story at KUCB

November 3, 2014 — At last week’s 73rd annual meeting of the The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board approved Addendum IV which established new fishing mortality reference points as recommended by the 2013 benchmark stock assessment.

Under the addendum coastal states will be required to implement a 25 percent harvest reduction from 2013 levels, which was labeled Option B in the draft. All states will craft regulations prior to the start of the regulations the 2015 season to meet the reduction.

While each state will be able to develop their own plans to meet the target, a one-fish limit at 28 inches or 32 inches appeared to garner the most favor at three public hearings on the addendum held in New Jersey in September. Nine separate alternatives were listed under Option B in the addendum to achieve the goal and they can be reviewed at www.asmfc.org under Public Input.

The Commission’s Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board also initiated the development of Draft Addendum XXVI to the Summer Flounder Fishery Management Plan.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

November 3, 2014 — Tougher laws to protect sea turtles could be hurting local fishermen.

From Emerald Isle to the South Carolina line, the NC Division of Marine Fisheries monitors how many sea turtles come in contact with commercial fishermen. If too many interactions occur, Marine Fisheries will shut down all gill net fishing for that area.

"We were concerned from seeing two live sea turtles on the first day of fishing," said Chris Batsavage, the protected resources section chief for the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. "If that trend continued, then we would quickly hit our allow number of sea turtle takes for the management unit down your way."

From September 25 through November 2, no gill net fishing was allowed because of two sea turtles spotted in the northern part of the state. A closure local fisherman, Randy King, does not support.

“I disagree with that," King said. "I think if this county isn't catching any turtles I don't think it should be closed."

King has been a local commercially fisherman for the past 35 year, but the recent fishing restrictions have negatively impacted his income.

Read the full story at WECT

November 1, 2014 — Anyone considering commercial fishing in Alaska as a way of life would do well to turn off reality TV and pick up “Dead Reckoning” by Dave Atcheson of Sterling. In this short but enthralling memoir, Atcheson, a veteran of many summers plying the waters off the state’s coast, offers readers a peek into the world of fishermen during three key seasons of his career.

The book offers a vivid picture of daily life onboard a fishing vessel, vacillating between hard labor and sheer tedium, as well as the inevitable personality conflicts that arise when people share close quarters. It all unfolds amid the stunning beauty along Alaska’s coast — along with the extended stretches of time off that make the lifestyle so addictive. It all culminates in a horrific account of an otherwise routine trip to Bristol Bay that unexpectedly turned into an extended disaster during which Atcheson nearly lost his life.  

Over the first half of the book, Atcheson alternates between two story threads. In one, we follow his 1997 trip to Bristol Bay, an uneventful journey spent getting to know his thoroughly professional captain and highly competent fellow crewmen, a group that would prove well prepared for the fate that awaited them.

First Alaska Job

The other story arc follows Atcheson to Alaska for his first summer in 1984, when he came north from New York state, a college student seeking adventure. Shortly after arriving in Seward, adventure found him through an acquaintance who was also looking for seasonal work.

Read the full story from Alaska Dispatch News

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (AP) — Coastal waters in the southern part of North Carolina are reopening to anchored, large-mesh gill nets.

Officials with the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources say the waters will reopen shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday. The affected waters are located between the N.C. 58 bridge to Emerald Isle and the South Carolina state line.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WECT

November 3, 2014 — Thursday’s passing of longtime Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has sparked countless stories about the beloved mayor’s dealings with fellow politicians and citizens alike.

And those stories stretch to Gloucester, where Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association and head of the regional Fishing Partnership Support Services, recalled Friday how Menino helped the Fishermen’s Wives get an inside track to The White House in their fight against federal fishing regulations.

It was 1994, Sanfilippo said Friday, and she and others in the local fishing community had not yet even met the “new” Boston mayor who had just been elected the previous fall. 

But Boston Harbor had become a flashpoint in a fight over NOAA’s push at the time for new fishing regulations that would limit fishermen’s days at sea and cast other limits most saw as a real threat to the industry. As a show of strength, Sanfilippo recalled, New Bedford fishermen had taken their boats to protest in a jammed Boston Harbor, some Gloucester fishermen followed suit, and it was “chaos,” she said.

Sanfilippo knew the fishing community had to take its case not to the city of Boston, but right to the feds. And she read a report that then-President Clinton was coming to Boston for a fund-raiser.

“We talked about going to that, what it might cost to go to that, and we found out if as something like $5,000 a plate — so we said forget that,” she recounted. Then she learned that the president would be speaking publicly at Boston Harbor Hotel, and set about plans for having some of the fishermen’s wives attend.

Those plans were set, but would anyone be able to get access to the president, to tell him of the fishermen’s plight?

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

November 3, 2014 — Gloucester state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, who is facing her own challenge Tuesday in a race with Rockport Republican Mike Boucher, also focused Sunday on Martha Coakley’s run for governor, disputing the existence of the “fisherman” that Republican Charlie Baker tearfully described in Tuesday’s debate.

And she also questioned why, if Baker was so moved by the alleged fisherman he met five years ago, why he has not worked to help fishermen in their communities over the course of that time as well. 

Ferrante, who grew up in a Gloucester fishing family and has worked extensively with the industry, first as an attorney and then in her three terms as a state legislator, said Sunday that she believes Baker’s characterization of the fisherman denying his sons’ pursuit of higher education has been harmful by feeding inaccurate, negative stereotypes of fishermen.

“The entire fishing industry has been buzzing about Charlie Baker’s story from the debate – I don’t believe ‘Charlie Baker’s fisherman’ exists,” Ferrante said. “If Charlie was truly moved to tears by the plight of fishermen five years ago, where has he been?

“Charlie Baker is a man of resources and contacts,” she said. “He could have helped the fishermen when it was reported that House Congressional Republicans were holding up disaster assistance for fishermen. But he didn’t. For an industry so desperate for friends and help, Charlie didn’t show up.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

 

November 3, 2014 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

A meeting scheduled for tonight, November 3rd in Ellsworth from 6pm to 8pm, by Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher to discuss next steps for the shrimp fishery has been cancelled due to continued power outages.
 
The meeting scheduled for November 4th in Portland will continue as planned.
 
The purpose of these meetings is to share preliminary information from the Technical Committee’s summary report and their recommendation for next season, and also to collect industry input on future management of the fishery.  
 
Time and location of tomorrow’s meeting is as follows:
 
November 4th:  Casco Bay Lines Conference Room, Portland, 6pm -8pm
 
Following the November 4th meeting, the ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section will meet November 5th at the Holiday Inn in Portland (9:30 am – 3:00 pm), and will review the 2014 stock assessment update, consider the 2015 specifications, and consider approval of the Draft Amendment 3 Public Information Document for public comment.  
 
For more information, call the Department of Marine Resources at 624-6553.