State and Local

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — July 30, 2014 — A federal judge in Alaska has dismissed the state's lawsuit over the closure of national wildlife refuges during the partial federal government shutdown last year.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason called the case moot in siding with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Interior, which asked for the case to be tossed.

The case dates to last October, when the Fish and Wildlife Service restricted access to refuges nationwide because of the government shutdown. On Oct. 9, an official with the state Department of Fish and Game asked the federal agency if Fish and Game staff would be barred from entering the refuges for research and management activities. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official responded that such activities would not be allowed, according to Gleason's decision.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Houston Chronicle

July 30, 2014 — As lunches go, this one had a particularly international flavor, even if it was served at the offices of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, tucked away in a little corner of the Blackburn Industrial Park. The hostess and chef was Angela Sanfilippo, the president of the Fishermen’s Wives Association, and the honored guest was Akifumi Hoshina, a reporter with the Japanese newspaper, Ishinomaki Kahoku.

Hoshina, accompanied by his Boston-based interpreter Yutaka Yatz, has spent much of the past week following Sanfilippo on her daily rounds throughout Gloucester for a story Hoshina is writing on Gloucester and its efforts to rebound from the fishing disaster that has gripped it at the beginning of the second decade of the new millennium.

Read the full story from The Gloucester Daily Times

July 29, 2014 — When people think of New Jersey — the Garden State — they usually think of fresh produce.

However, in 2012, New Jersey landed 108.5 million pounds of fin and shell fish, valued at $187.7 million, according to Lynne Richmond, spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture.

The Port of Cape May itself is ranked 11th in the nation for value of landings which totaled $72 million in 2012.

Not to mention, the commercial fishing industry accounts for more than 50,700 jobs in the state.

Joe Atchison, agriculture marketing specialist for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, said the Jersey Seafood label serves as both a marketing/branding program and as a quality grading program.

"Any wild-harvest fish or shellfish landed in New Jersey may be referred to as 'Jersey Seafood,'" Atchison said. "However, for aquacultured (farm-raised) shellfish to carry the designation of Jersey Seafood on its packaging, the grower must have an Aquatic Farmer License issued by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture and the product must follow strict HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) guidelines for safe storage and shipping to assure freshness and quality."

Read the full story from the South Jersey Times at New Jersey On-line

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — July 25, 2014 — When children participating in the Trips for Kids summer program first come to its headquarters at the Victory Park Warming House, Bernadette Souza takes them to the pond at the side of the house, filled with fish and turtles.

There, she tells them to close their eyes and tell her what they hear.

Children strain to listen, confused when they are met by silence, she said. Then they realize the answer is just that: they hear nothing.

"Kids nowadays come in with so much noise," from video games, television and the like, Souza said.

But the Trips for Kids summer program, which takes in a different group of 13 children or less every week for seven weeks, takes them from the inner city and introduces them to nature.

An incentive to get children to join is that children ride their bicycles to the different spots they visit, said JoAnn Tschaen, who founded the program more than a decade ago.

"It is the biggest carrot there is," she said, adding riding bikes is popular with the kids.

Read the full story the New Bedford Standard-Times

July 28, 2014 — Members of the state’s congressional delegation have joined Massachusetts officials in urging NOAA to expedite the disbursement of the direct financial assistance to commercial fishermen that is part of the federal fishery disaster aid package.

In a letter to Eileen Sobeck, assistant administrator for NOAA fisheries, five members, including U.S. Rep. John Tierney and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, pointed out that it has been nearly eight months since Congress appropriated $75 million in fishery disaster aid and expressed disappointment that the Commerce Department, through NOAA, “has yet to disburse a single dollar.”

Massachusetts is set to receive $14.5 million under the first two phases of the distribution plan agreed to by the fishery directors of the five New England coastal states and New York and approved by NOAA.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

FREEPORT, Maine — July 28, 2014 — Despite cautious optimism earlier this year that midcoast mudflats would be spared, invasive European green crabs were apparently only waiting for warmer water to scurry back into the area and begin wreaking havoc on the shellfish industry.

“Since the beginning of last week, they’ve increased considerably,” said Sara Randall of the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education, which is conducting six studies on the crustaceans in Freeport. “Compared to exactly this time last year there aren’t as many, but we think that within the next couple of weeks we’ll see a lot more.”

“They’re here,” said Brunswick’s Marine Resource Officer, Dan Devereaux. “Not to the extent that they were here last year — I still think the catches are about 80 percent down from last year — but they’ve doubled in the last couple of weeks.”

For the last couple of years, the crabs have decimated lucrative clam flats in Casco Bay, prompting researchers to study why the crabs are here and how best to eradicate them.

Read the full story from the Bangor Daily News

SEARSPORT, Maine — July 27, 2014 — Locavores who live in or visit the Pine Tree State can meander along the Maine Beer Trail, sipping their way from one microbrewery to the next. They could eat their way from lobster roll to lobster roll along the coast or farm hop to see where their food is grown.

There is another type of trail to add to the Maine mix: the Downeast Fisheries Trail, which showcases the state’s fisheries heritage, from salmon farming to lobster fishing to the crucial sardine canneries of yore.

“A trend in travel is that people want to connect to the real thing on the ground,” Natalie Springuel of Maine Sea Grant, the coordinator of the trail, said recently. “They want to connect with local people. They want to know how they make a living. They want to know how to lobster, and how to pull up a trap. They want really concrete experiences to understand a place on a deeper level, and then they want to taste it at the end. So yeah, I think the fisheries trail provides a deeper understanding of a place and its people.”

The trail was first developed in a much smaller form in Washington County in 2000, featuring just 14 sites. But several years ago, a number of organizations there decided to revive it and expand it to foster tourism. The trail was broadened to include Hancock County and a little bit beyond.

The Downeast Fisheries Trail includes nearly 50 sites, ranging from historical societies and small fisheries museums to places such as the Cherryfield Cable Pool, where Atlantic salmon fly fishermen would flock every year.

“The project has really focused on celebrating what exists and pulling it together,” Springuel said. “One of the things that has been so neat about the project is that it has sparked incredible collaboration between the fishing industry and the tourism industry — two industries in Maine that don’t often talk. That’s been really great.”

Read the full story from the Bangor Daily News

JUNEAU, Alaska — July 25, 2014 — Gov. Sean Parnell has asked a federal agency to buy about 1 million cases of canned pink salmon to ease a glut that has weighed down prices for Alaska fishermen this year.

Parnell made the request in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this week. He wants the USDA to purchase $37 million worth of canned pink salmon under a federal law that allows for buying surplus food from farmers and donating it to food banks or other programs.

USDA purchased $20 million worth of salmon earlier this year, which Parnell called an important first step in reducing inventories to help slow a price decline that he said threatened the 2014 fishing season.

He said remaining unsold inventories are driving prices to levels that threaten harvest activity this year and next, with the price of canned pink salmon 23 percent lower than a year ago and the advance price paid to fishermen down about 33 percent.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Times

 

IPSWICH, Mass. — July 23, 2014 — The Southwest is not the only border under siege.

Ipswich is taking emergency action to deal with clammers coming across the Essex and Gloucester border on Sundays to harvest on the richest clamming beach in Ipswich.

It’s not as serious, of course, as the problems on the Texas border, but it’s not trivial, either, to the roughly 100 commercial clammers in Ipswich.

To deal with the situation, selectmen have voted to endorse an emergency measure that would open a small section of the town’s beaches, in an area called the spit, on Sunday to clammers licensed by Ipswich. During summer, all the town’s beaches have been closed to clam diggers on Sundays.

“I’ve heard multiple reports of diggers coming over from other towns and digging our clams,” Ipswich’s shellfish constable, Scott LePreste, told selectmen Monday night. Those communities ordinarily allow digging on Sunday.

“We’re losing to them,” LePreste said, shaking his head as he considered the quality of the harvest on the spit. “The clams, they are beautiful clams.”

LePreste has already opened the spit on past Sundays, taking advantage of his ability to act in an emergency capacity. He asked selectmen to OK Sunday openings to the end of the summer. The hope is that allowing Ipswich clammers in will keep the unlicensed Essex and Gloucester diggers out.

“If we have some of our clammers on the flat,” nodded selectman William Craft, “that will help police the encroachment going on.” He cautioned, “Let’s be clear. This is not internecine warfare out in the flats.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times

BOSTON — July 24, 2014 — Gov. Deval Patrick plans to visit the New England Aquarium on Thursday morning to sign a bill that bans the possession and sale of shark fins in Massachusetts, according to a group supporting the legislation.

The bill creates a punishment of between $500 and $1,000 per fin and up to 60 days of imprisonment.

"With the passing of this law Massachusetts builds upon its long history of animal protection and environmental stewardship," Patrick said in a press release circulated Wednesday by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "I congratulate the passionate animal welfare and ocean conservation leaders who worked together to ensure the conservation of sharks and our oceans for generations to come."

Nine-year-old shark advocate Sean Lesniak of Lowell, who wrote a letter urging the Senate to pass the bill (H 4088), will attend the 11 a.m. bill-signing ceremony.

Although federal law prohibits shark finning, the bill’s lead sponsor Sen. Jason Lewis (D-Winchester) said in June that “more than a dozen” restaurants in Massachusetts serve shark fin soup.

According to the MSPCA, the economic market for fins continues to promote shark finning in international waters despite state and federal laws against it.

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times