BOSTON—The state has closed Nauset Harbor on Cape Cod to shellfishing after the first red tide outbreak of the year in Massachusetts.
The closure announced Wednesday by the Division of Marine Fisheries also covers the rest of the Nauset Marsh System, including Mill Pond in Orleans, Salt Pond in Eastham and the waters of Town Cove in both Orleans and Eastham.
Read the complete story by The AP at The Boston Globe.
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — 7 March 2012 – The Working Waterfront Festival is pleased to announce our annual design contest. Artists 16 years and older are invited to submit a creative design for the 2012 Festival. Designs will be used for the Festival t-shirt, poster and program guide. Designs should convey festival’s emphasis on the commercial fishing industry, the working port and the 2012 theme. The winning entry will receive a $100 cash prize. Entries must be emailed by or postmarked no later than Monday, May 7th. The winning entry and designer will be announced at Commercial Marine Expo on June 13th. Interested artists/designers are encouraged to visit the festival web site to learn more about the event and to download an application: www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org. Applications may also be received by contacting the festival office at 508-993-8894 or info@workingwaterfrontfestival.org.
The theme of the 2012 event slated for September 29th & 30th is Fishtales: Fact, Fiction and Narrative Tradition in Commercial Fishing Culture. Festival programming will explore enduring myths, local legends, and fact and fiction in contemporary fisheries issues. Storytellers and singers will present traditional and contemporary tales and ballads of the sea. Industry raconteurs will share stories of Close Calls, Unusual Catches and Workplace Pranks. Novelists whose work is set in fishing communities as well as authors of non-fiction works that explore issues of relevance to the industry and the marine environment will read from their works. Occupational demonstrators will use fishing gear and other industry objects to relate real life stories and explore commonly held myths. Fisheries scientists and fishermen engaged in cooperative research will share their findings. Film screenings will focus on portrayals of the fishing industry in popular culture and the media as well as short documentaries and at sea footage shot by fishermen. Foodways programming will highlight stories from galley cooks and fishermen’s wives and consider elements of fact and fiction surrounding seafood consumption. Fishtales, an on-site oral history station, will collect and record commercial fishing stories from fishing community members as part of our ongoing community oral history project.
The Working Waterfront Festival is an award winning, family friendly event celebrating the history and culture of New England's commercial fishing industry. The free festival presents all that goes into bringing seafood from the ocean to the table in a way that is hands-on, educational and fun and features: live music, children’s activities, cooking demonstrations, vessel and harbor tours, fisherman’s contests, author readings, film screenings, local seafood, festival bookstore, maritime artisans marketplace & more. Navigate to the Festival at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org
Working Waterfront Festival
PH: 508-993-8894
P.O. Box 6553
New Bedford, MA 02742
Navigate to us on the web at: www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org
2012 Festival Dates: September 29 & 30
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – 7 March 2012 – After witnessing large fishing vessels from out of state scoop up thousands of tons of herring from its inshore waters, the Rhode Island Legislature is considering measures to restrict one such method of large-scale harvesting.
A bill sponsored by Teresa Tanzi, a state representative from the South Kingstown and Narragansett district, seeks to impose a one-year ban on pair trawling, the practice by which two boats work in tandem to tow a large net between them.
In New Bedford, where the NORPEL plant on Fish Island processes herring, operations manager Eoin Rochford opposes any further fishing bans.
Eliminating boats from a fishery is shortsighted and threatens the processors, he said. "A boat needs an infrastructure to operate commercially," Rochford said. "If there isn't enough supply for the buyers to meet their overheads, the commercial fishery could collapse."
Read the story in the Standard-Times
NEW BEDFORD — The Patrick administration says it has budgeted $35 million for the construction of the proposed marine commerce terminal in New Bedford and that more money may be coming.
"The Patrick-Murray administration's current capital plan includes $29 million for the terminal, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center will help contribute towards additional costs," MassCEC's CEO Patrick Cloney said in a statement.
The CEC later said it had budgeted an additional $6 million and that there might be more from other sources later.
The full cost of the project will not be known until it clears the required EPA permitting and is put out for bid, Cloney said.
Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.
SANDY HOOK, N.J. – In a room lit by a few red bulbs, dozens of black sea bass approach the glass of a massive tank, their protruding eyes watching two scientists who stare back at them.
t's February, but the fish are acting as though it's May. The males, larger and darker, dart at one another, protecting harems of females that hover near the sandy bottom. Researchers have manipulated temperature and light to shorten the weeks and change the season so the 60 fish inside will reproduce, yielding eggs the scientists will use to examine how climate change affects the species.
But if President Obama's federal budget is approved as written, the fish will be gazing into a Maryland laboratory, and the scientists will have to decide whether to go with them. The 50-year-old laboratory is expected to shut down.
Read the complete story from Philly.com
Pat Judge, an avid sport fisherman, has been walking around with a $500 check in his pocket for a week, trying to decide whether to cash it. That’s because the money comes with a catch: Judge must agree to turn in his $10 recreational saltwater fishing license for the year.
In an unusual experiment being conducted only in Massachusetts, the federal government is surveying anglers to figure out how much it would cost to persuade Judge and 1,899 others not to fish off the coast.
But officials say the purpose is not to actually reduce fishing. Instead, they say, the survey is intended to measure the worth of recreational saltwater fishing to the estimated 1.2 million residents and visitors who do it annually.
Read the complete story from The Boston Globe.
An endangered species listing for the Atlantic sturgeon is threatening New Jersey’s spring trawl survey and creating concerns it could eventually halt some fishing operations.
The state is struggling to conform to the federal mandate to protect sturgeon and for now is telling fishermen to keep fishing.
“As of right now, they should continue as usual,” said Brandon Muffley, head of the N.J. Bureau of Marine Fisheries.
Sturgeon, a prehistoric fish once abundant in New Jersey, particularly in the Delaware Bay, will officially become an endangered species April 6.
Read the complete story from The Press of Atlantic City.
PROVIDENCE — A bill imposing a one-year ban on the use of large, double-boat fishing trawlers cleared the House of Representatives on Feb. 28. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Teresa Tanzi, D-South Kingstown/Narragansett, moved quickly through the hearing process after large out-of-state trawlers nearly depleted the winter herring catch limit in a just a few weeks in February.
The Senate Committee on the Environment and Agriculture is expected to hold a hearing on its bill soon.
At a special Senate hearing Feb. 15, state officials noted that out-of-state pair-trawlers descended on local waters two years ago, but that a ban wasn't broadly supported by the fishing industry. This year, however, after 90 percent of the 22-metic-ton limit was reached, there was no opposition. The House passed the bill 66-0.
Read the complete story from Eco RI News.
A new exhibition paying tribute to Cape Ann's ships at sea is set to debut this weekend at the Cape Ann Museum.
"Ships at Sea: A Celebration of Cape Ann's Role in the Maritime Trades" will open Saturday with a free public reception from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Gloucester museum.
The exhibition, which runs through May 27, features a selection of marine paintings, prints and ephemera.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.
BOSTON — Massachusetts fishermen descended on the State House Tuesday to renew debate over a controversial proposal that would ban commercial fishing of striped bass, creating a rift between recreational and commercial anglers.
Concerned about indications of a dwindling striper population, a national conservation group called Stripers Forever initially sought a game-fish designation for the species in 2010. The proposal has led to a series of emotional debates over several legislative sessions.
“We understand that this is a politically contentious issue, yet the welfare of the bass must come first or there will be nothing left to fight over,” Dean Clark of Stripers Forever told the Legislature’s Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture.
Read the complete story from The Patriot Ledger.