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Potomac or not, fishing fleet should protest.

With the decision by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke not to override New England Fishery Management Council ruling denying larger catches for the New Bedford fleet, a Standard-Times editorial proposed a protest on the Potomac. They should go one better: Block all shipping lanes up and down the East Coast.

Local fishermen will have no trouble recruiting their brethren from Maine to Florida. The Coast Guard would never be able to keep up with this action. Then maybe the other bureaucrats in Washington will finally take notice.

Read the complete letter at The South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

Oceana announced today that Susan Rockefeller, a respected documentary filmmaker, author and environmentalist, has joined its Board of Directors.

Rockefeller is a member of the Oceana Ocean Council, serving as its chair since February of 2009, and she also serves as the co-host of two major events which benefit Oceana. In the spring, Susan and her husband David Rockefeller are the co-hosts for the second annual Christie's Green Auction: A Bid to Save the Earth, which will be held on March 29 in New York. The auction benefits Oceana as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Conservation International, the Central Park Conservancy and Runway to Green. Rockefeller is also the co-host, along with Ocean Council member Lois Robbins, of the Hamptons Splash Party which will be held this summer on Long Island.

"I have always had a connection with the ocean," said Rockefeller. "I'm joining Oceana's Board of Directors because I am passionate about the need to protect our oceans."

Read the complete announcement from PR-USA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Northeast Seafood Coalition is holding a big money raffle at the Gloucester House Restaurant on February 26, 2011.

1st Prize: $10,000.00

2nd Prize: $5,000.00

3rd Prize: $2,000.00

4th Prize: $1,000.00

5th Prize: $500.00

Special Sellers Prize: $500.00

Read the announcement from the Northeast Seafood Coalition.

 

 

 

 

 

New Bedford is known as an early whaling capital, from where Herman Melville sailed before writing the novel, “Moby-Dick.” More recently, its scalloping industry has rebounded from near ruin to make New Bedford the nation’s top revenue fishing port for 10 years running.

But the protagonist in the independent film “Whaling City” works in the shrinking groundfishing fleet, which has contracted amid toughening rules aimed at stopping overfishing and rebuilding stocks such as flounder and cod.

Burke will discuss only the script’s basics: his protagonist, Sean, is a third-generation fisherman fighting to save his boat amid the increasingly strict rules. In a side story, Sean develops a romantic interest in a fisheries scientist.

The script was vetted by locals and the movie features locals, such as a working fish dealer. It was filmed during 14-hour days in October in locations around New Bedford, from fishermen’s bars to an old whaleman’s chapel. Lead actor P.J. Sosko, recalls hurrying between four locations in a day — “unheard of” — and scrambling to find a new fishing boat after the weather forced the original boat to head to sea to beat an approaching storm.

Read the complete story from The Cabin.

 

 

 

 

 

The FBI is probing Plymouth boat graffiti that has fishermen — already feuding with the federal government over catch limits— fearful they now could be targets of an anarchist environmental group.

“It creates quite a bit of apprehension as to how vulnerable we are,” said Timothy Barrett, owner of the 40-foot dragger Odessa, one of the 12 boats vandalized.

“Commercial fishing first class rape,” and “sea life kidnapped, murdered, maliciously” were among the messages found sprayed across the topsides of fishing boats Monday morning after a late-night attack at Jesse’s Marine in North Plymouth.

Signed below the messages on many of the boats were the letters “E.L.F.” — acronym of the radical Earth Liberation Front, an underground group the FBI calls “domestic terrorists” for alleged guerilla attacks.

Read the complete story from The Boston Herald.

 

 

 

 

 

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Dec. 20, 2010 — The organizers of New Bedford’s 2010 Commercial Marine Expo have announced an innovative seafood sourcing and buying event called FirstSource: Retail Seafood. Sustainability expert Peter Redmond with present the keynote address. The industry gathering will bring select U.S. seafood buyers and suppliers together February 22-24, 2011 at the Tuscany Suites and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“FirstSource: Retail Seafood is a new way to introduce products to buyers that is cost- and time-efficient, unlike the hit-or-miss contacts at large tradeshows, or by making individual sales calls to 25 qualified buyers' individual headquarters,” said Brian Perkins, one of the event’s organizers.

The exclusive event opens with a reception Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, key suppliers deliver presentations about their products to a room of 25 leading supermarket buyers in the United States. Following the presentations, Tuscany chefs serve carefully prepared tasting samples of each supplier’s product to the buyers. On Thursday, buyers take part in private one-on-one meetings with suppliers of their choice to discuss pricing, production, and delivery capabilities.

Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Peter Redmond to Present Keynote

In addition, the event will feature two and a half days of one-on-one networking opportunities including gala receptions, dinners, luncheons and breakfasts. Peter Redmond, Vice President of Global Market Development for the Global Aquaculture Alliance, has been selected as keynote speaker for the event. Mr. Redmond will address the increasingly important role of sustainability in the sourcing and marketing of seafood products, and the effects of sustainability on the supply chain.

In addition to his presentation to the ninety high-level attendees during the event’s Wednesday luncheon, Mr. Redmond will be available both days to meet individually with interested supply and retail executives looking for guidance and insight in the complex and rapidly changing sustainability arena.

Mr. Redmond was employed by Wal-Mart Stores for 17 years in a variety of critical roles and capacities: store operations, international assignments, as a senior buyer and for seven years, as Vice President and Divisional Manager for Deli and Seafood. While in this capacity, Mr. Redmond was charged with developing the company’s seafood strategy for environmental sustainability. The resulting program and work are well known throughout the seafood industry and NGO groups.

In 2008, Mr. Redmond left Wal-Mart and formed Epiphany Group LLC, a company that focuses on consulting to the deli and seafood industry on environmental and business solutions. Through Epiphany, Mr. Redmond has worked with some of the largest retailers in the world, both nationally and internationally, along with a plethora of manufacturers and NGOs.

Hotel, airfare and meals for invited buyers are covered by FirstSource: Retail Seafood organizers. A limited number of pre-screened suppliers pay a fee to take part in the event.

FirstSource: Retail Seafood is the first of a series of FirstSource hosted-buyer events the company has on tap for vertical product specialties in the perishable food categories in the U.S. and Europe. "Our ability to combine high-level meetings and precisely executed product tastings makes the FirstSource concept unique and in the vanguard of food product marketing," Perkins explained.

For information on participating in FirstSource: Retail Seafood, visit www.FirstSourceEvents.com/RetailSeafood or contact Brian Perkins at +1 207-233-4475 or bperkins@highlinerevents.com.

 

 

 

 

More than two months before biologists threw their first net into the water to gauge the success of this year’s striped bass reproduction, Ed Martino had the answer, and he never had to leave his desk.

Rockfish reproduction, Martino determined in May, would be “well below average.”

The researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Cooperative Oxford Laboratory came up with his conclusion by going online and looking at March though May river flows monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey and temperature data from Baltimore-Washington International Airport for the same period, then plugging the information into a mathematical model.

While Martino crunched numbers in his office, a team of biologists from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources waded into the water at 22 locations once a month from July through September. At each site, they did two sweeps through the water with a 100-foot seine net, then counted everything they caught.

Read the complete story from The Chesapeake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carlos Rafael, nicknamed "The Codfather" for his stature in the New Bedford fishing industry, is originally from Corvo Island, Portugal. Since immigrating to the United States in March 1968, Rafael has dedicated his life to the fishing business. Today, as the owner of Carlos Seafood, supplying many wholesalers with 316 employees and a fleet of 40 boats, Rafael has achieved his American dream.

Q: How did you get involved in the fishing industry?

A: I used to work in a mill in the '70s, and my father and mother went to work in a fish house. I was working 90 hours a week and was 17 years old, making $157. My parents were working 40 hours a week, sometimes 44 hours a week and would bring home $100. So numbers are numbers. If I work 90 (hours) and bring home $157, if they work 40 (hours) and they bring home $100, I am not doing too well at what I am doing. I decided to leave the job and go work in a fish place.

Q: Did anyone influence you to get involved in the fishing industry?

A: When I was a kid, my grandfather had been in the United States, and I remember him telling my mother: "Filomena, remember one thing. In America the business to be in when America is in trouble is food because people need to eat. It doesn't matter how bad things are, they need to eat." So, fish is food. It doesn't matter how bad things are, people always need to eat. So, we're always going to find money to eat, but if it's clothes or shoes, we can do without some of those items.

Read the complete interview from The South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

Sure, I knew what scallops were. They were fleshy, white cylinders from the sea—three-dimensional, silver dollar-sized bites of mild-tasting seafood with a high calorie count but a deliciously creamy texture. However, I didn’t know much beyond that. I certainly didn’t know what it took to catch them.

Once we got to the bay, I helped Daniels throw four blade drudges into the water. These are wire frames the size with a chain-like netting underneath. The idea is that once the boat starts going, these baskets drag along the bottom of the bay, scraping up whatever lies in their path. We only drove about two to three knots because any faster and the net wouldn’t catch the shells, Daniels said. Any slower, and the weight of the drudge would cause the mollusks to burrow further into the sand.

After about five minutes of drudging, Daniels turned off the motor and we lifted our bounty to the sides of the boat, tipping all of its contents into a plastic bucket.

“Wow! Look at all of that!” I squealed.

“Junk,” Daniels said. And he was right.

Sure enough, during our first round in the bay, we had amassed a few conk shells, a couple clams, several lady crabs, and a good portion of empty scallop shells. “You have to see how much junk there is, that’s the key.”

Read the complete narrative from The Sag Harbor Express.

 

 

 

 

"It is abundantly clear that the Cape Wind facility offers significant benefits that are not currently available from any other renewable resource," Ann Berwick, chair of the state utilities department, wrote in a press release. "These benefits outweigh the costs of the project."

The Cape Wind project, which has bitterly divided residents and power brokers in Massachusetts for the past decade, consists of 130 wind turbines to be located off the coast in the iconic Nantucket Sound.

The late Sen. Edward Kennedy, a champion of green energy and recreational sailor whose family compound in Hyannis would overlook the turbines, was among those who opposed the effort. But it had the support of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a fellow Democrat, and, ultimately, President Barack Obama's administration.

Read the complete story from CNN.