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The five-armed creatures appeared by the thousands last Sunday at Scusset Beach State Reservation – spiny-skinned organisms so resilient that if one of their arms gets lopped off, it grows right back.

A starfish invasion is underway.

Enormous mats of the spiny creatures are infesting pockets of New England waters from Narragansett Bay to Cape Cod Bay this spring, charming beachcombers but tormenting some fishermen who worry they could devour the region’s bounty of oysters, scallops, clams, and mussels. Starfish have little economic value – even seagulls gag when eating them – but their colorful skin and iconic shape bring squeals of delight from children and have made them a popular trinket in beachside tourist shops.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

Charlie Brighton, owner of the F/V Kelsi & Morgan, landed 1.6 million pounds of baitfish last year. This year, with strict rules imposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service that effectively shut off groundfishing for federal permit holders effective May 1, Brighton said he won’t be catching bait anymore.

Instead, he said, he’s trying to learn how to catch squid.

“The groundfishing rules ruined me,” Brighton said. “So now I’m trying to catch squid. The other day, there were 25 draggers out of Point Judith west of East Matunuck Beach and we were all trying to chase squid. We must have looked terrible to all those people on the beach. In their mind they must be thinking ‘They’re raping the ocean.’ But the government has put everyone in the position to be chasing one little creature.”

Meanwhile, over at the Bait Co. in Galilee, owner Andrea Incollingo said her prospects are looking “bleak.” Before the new rules went into effect, she relied on a small group of federal permit holders to supply her with skate, most of it caught with flounder. That baitfish is then sold to the region’s lobstermen, who pay between $40 and $50 per 500-pound barrel.

Read the complete story at South County Independent.

Maine fisherman and author Linda Greenlaw, who survived the nor’easter that was the basis for the book and movie "The Perfect Storm," has been fined more than $30,000 for fishing illegally in Canadian waters.

Greenlaw wasn’t required to attend Tuesday’s sentencing in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The Canadian government also seized her swordfish catch

The 48-year-old Greenlaw says she was on the deck of her 63-foot vessel in September attempting to retrieve fishing gear that had been dragged by another boat when she strayed into Canadian waters. She says she knew she was near Canada’s coast but didn’t realize she had breached the 200-mile limit.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

Brothers Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand are captains of the Time Bandit on Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch.

They battle the frigid Bering Sea fishing for opilio and Alaska king crab, doing one of the world’s deadliest jobs.The Hillstrands are the sons of a successful fisherman, and grew up loving the water.

In their interview with Neal Conan, Johnathan remembered, "We’d pretend to be pirates and crab fishermen."

Hear the complete interview at NPR.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries has closed indefinitely shellfish beds in Scituate, Hull and Cohasset because of the toxic algae known as “red tide.”

Digging, harvesting or collecting, or attempting to dig, harvest or collect shellfish and the possession of shellfish, including carnivorous snails, is prohibited. Eating shellfish with high levels of the algae can cause potentially fatal paralytic shellfish poisoning.

In a written release, Director Paul J. Diodati said the boundary of the prohibition includes waters and flats from Point Allerton in Hull and south to a line from the northern side of the mouth of the North River in Scituate.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

A local seafood buyer and processor and at least four Cape Ann inshore fishing vessels resorted to Plan Bs to keep working either throughout or during part of the April and May inshore spawning area shutdowns that prohibited commercial groundfishing and drastically ebbed badly-needed regular landings of quality cod, haddock and flounder.

One dragger crew even spent part of the closure replacing a critical piece of deck equipment before it could put its Plan B into action. The four vessels resumed groundfishing Monday.

Pigeon Cove Whole Foods at the Head of the Harbor had a hard time the past two months getting enough whole haddock, cod and greysole — whitefish — to fill its fillet orders for the more than 50 Whole Foods stores it supplies, primarily throughout the United States.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

NOAA Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco , will give the keynote address to leading government policy makers, scientists, non-governmental groups and federal agency officials at the opening session of the Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) Symposium, hosted by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF), on June 9th at the Reserve Officers Association building on Capitol Hill.

The theme for this year’s eighth annual CHOW symposium, scheduled for June 9-11, is The BLUE Economy: Understanding the Ocean’s Role in Our Nation’s Financial Future. The goal of this year’s Capitol Hill Ocean Week is to highlight the inextricable link between the ocean and the economy, and to suggest tangible ways sound ocean policies might impact improvements in our economy.

"What began as a ‘day’ in June of 2001, a year later became a ‘week,’ and since then has evolved into an important and much anticipated annual ocean policy forum held in our nation’s capitol," said Joy Williams , acting president and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. "This year’s symposium is more timely and important than ever because our nation’s economic well-being is tied directly to the health of our ocean."

Read the complete story at PRNewswire.

A ban on soft shell clams and razor clams harvesting in some parts of Massachusetts coastline has been lifted.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries said Friday that an area stretching from Boston to the New Hampshire border would reopen to the harvesting of soft shell clams and razor clams.

But official said the area remains closed to the harvesting of blue mussels, surf clams, carnivorous snails and whole sea scallops.

The Cape Ann area, which includes Gloucester, had been closed to the taking of all bivalve shellfish for about a week because of the toxic algae bloom.

Sea scallop adductor muscle is excluded from the ban.

Read the complete story at South Coast Today.

Phil Bolger was a renowned and prolific boat designer, author and eccentric — with a playful creative streak and a penchant to make boating easy.

Sunday, he killed himself by handgun behind his West Gloucester house overlooking the Jones River where decades ago he perfected the wooden kayak.

His wife and business partner, Susanne Altenburger, said yesterday his decision to take his own life was a long-contemplated, reasoned and principled act — though Bolger gave her no advance warning or hints in recent behavior.

"How he died is part of his narrative," Altenburger said. "He died an extraordinarily violent, purposeful and soberly considered death."

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has ordered a halt to all harvesting of blue mussels, surf clams, carnivorous snails, and whole sea scallops from Boston to the New Hampshire border because of an outbreak of red tide.

On Cape Ann, the ban was more extensive, including all bivalve shellfish, the division said yesterday.

Red tide is a naturallyoccurring toxic algal bloom noted for its reddish-brown color. Consuming shellfish that have been exposed to red tide can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans, which is potentially fatal.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.