Safety

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has determined that all waters of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will likely no longer meet the requirements for an open status in shellfishing due to anticipated unacceptable water quality resulting from predicted heavy rain, storm surge and coastal flooding from Hurricane Irene.

Under authority of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 130, sections 74A and 75,  Massachusetts waters are being placed in a "Closed" status to the taking of all Shellfish effective l2:0l AM, Sunday, August 28, 2011.

 

Read the complete announcement from The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — Fishing vessels were heading home Thursday, as Hurricane Irene churned toward the North Carolina coastline, and Harbor Development Director Kristin Decas said her office has been deluged with requests from mariners seeking refuge in the city's inner harbor.

She said some boats will be on moorings and larger ones will be given heavy Navy anchors. Decas said that the city is encouraging boaters to come ashore to ride out the storm on land. "It will get bumpy out there" on the water, she said.

Assistant harbormaster Bob Bouley said the goal is to get as many boats as possible out on moorings, not clustered on the piers. "We dropped 20 moorings in today," he said Thursday evening. "We don't want to turn any boats away."

High water on Sunday evening coincides with a new moon, bringing higher than normal tidal ranges. The timing is important because the storm seems likely to arrive around the high tide mark at 8 p.m. Tidal extremes might even force the temporary closing of the New Bedford hurricane barrier between now and Irene's landfall.

"I remember during Hurricane Bob, some boats got shut out when the barrier closed," said Phil Mello, a manager at Bergie's Seafood. "They had to ride it out in the deeper water on Buzzards Bay."

The South Terminal will be a busy place for the next two days, Mello said. "We have to stay open till the last minute to unload boats, so we will be jockeying. Once the barrier closes, I expect all the boats will raft up here," he said.

Hurricane Irene could be a "strong Category 2 and borderline Category 3" as it barrels into southern New England on Sunday, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Taunton said Thursday.

 

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD – They are already preparing with police and fire meeting with the port director and coast guard as the sheer number of fishing boats are a major consideration.

But they have a structural advantage most ports do not.

Irene is now a deadly hurricane, plowing through Puerto Rico, killing one woman, and cutting power to a million people.

Streets and homes were flooded on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.

And now the Atlantic seaboard is in her sights, from Florida through New England with significant impact expected later in the week, first in North Carolina.

"So prepare. Plan for the worst and pray for the best. That's what we do in North Carolina. And we know how to do that," said Gov. Beverly Perdue, (D) of North Carolina.   

Hundreds of miles away, on one of the nicest days of the summer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, it's hard to believe there is a massive storm soon likely to be churning up the coast.

But Port Director Kristin Decas says this city, one of the largest fishing ports in the East, is already preparing.

 

Read the complete story from NECN.com

 

 

 

 

 

The Coast Guard and a good Samaritan came to the aid of a local fisherman Thursday after his 35-foot commercial fishing vessel began sinking.

U.S. Coast Guard Sector Boston was notified at 8:23 a.m. that the fishing vessel Little Hunter was taking on water near Eastern Point in Gloucester Harbor. The call was made by the crew of the Gunsmoke, which was in the area, according to Ensign 4 Vuthy Pav, of Station Gloucester.

Coast Guard personnel launched Station Gloucester's 25-foot response boat and arrived at the sinking vessel at 8:33 a.m. Once on scene, rescue crews asked the operator to put on his life jacket as they began to set up a pump to try to remove water from the fishing vessel, according to a Coast Guard press release.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — The hurricane barrier is structurally sound and appears to meet all of the criteria that would lead to federal recertification, according to Ron Labelle, the city's Department of Public Infrastructure commissioner.

Labelle, citing a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers draft "evaluation summary" of the barrier he received last week, said "structurally and theoretically, it will meet its design capability."

The structure met a slew of federal criteria, ranging from embankment protection to interior drainage, which means the barrier can be included in the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps, said Labelle. That development likely means the new flood map will not differ greatly from the old one.

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More than a year after last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a nagging question lingers: Is it safe to eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico?

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium's annual Cooking for Solutions Sustainable Foods Institute last week, marine scientists, experts from environmental groups, and members of the fishing community—who rarely agree on anything—answered that question with a unanimous "yes."

"There is still a lot of science to be done, but it seems like we dodged a bullet. We got lucky," said Tim Fitzgerald of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Fitzgerald, who created EDF's SeafoodSafe program to monitor chemical contamination in fish, has spent much of the last year focusing on the Gulf.

Read the complete story from The Atlantic.

 

 

 

 

May 20, 2011 – New York State officials issued a health warning Friday for the public to avoid eating certain shellfish harvested from bays on parts of the South Fork and North Shore after marine biotoxins forced the temporary closure of shell fishing areas in those parts of Long Island.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health issued the warnings against eating carnivorous gastropods (snails, such as whelks, conchs and moonsnails) and the tomalley—a soft, green substance—of blue claw crabs and lobsters caught in Western Shinnecock Bay, Huntington Bay, Huntington Harbor, Lloyd Harbor, Northport Bay, Northport Harbor, Centerport Harbor and Duck Island Harbor.

Read the complete story from Long Island Press.

 

 

 

 

 

The first Red Tide closure of clam beds in Essex County this season — covering most of the beds from Manchester through Gloucester, Rockport and Essex to the New Hampshire line — has been announced today by the state's Division of Marine Fisheries.

Dave Sargent, the Gloucester Shellfish Warden, said he received a notice from the state shortly after noon.

He said there are about 100 commercial and between 300 and 400 recreational clammers in Gloucester, and about 500 to 600 acres of clam flats here in Gloucester.

The marine algae is poisonous, causing paraletic shellfish poisoning, and potentially deadly to humans in extreme concentrations. The toxins accumulate in the bodies of clams and other bivalves that flush seawater for nutrients.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — The Coast Guard is searching for three people Thursday after two boats collided in the Gulf of Mexico off the Mississippi coast.

Lt. Junior Grade Israel Parker said the Eurus London, a 660-foot commercial cargo boat, and the Sandy Point, a 163-foot fishing boat, collided about eight miles south of Gulfport between Cat Island and Ship Island around 8:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Read the complete story by the AP at Google.

 

 

 

 

 

Due to Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP) toxin (also known as “Red Tide”) in shellfish, the Division of Marine Fisheries has closed the below-defined areas.

Therefore, under authority of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 130, Section 74A and 75, the status of the below-defined areas have been changed to "CLOSED TO SHELLFISHING," effective immediately. Digging, harvesting or collecting and/or attempting to dig, harvest or collect shellfish and the possession of shellfish, including carnivorous snails, from the below- defined areas is prohibited.

Under authority of 322 CMR 7.01(7) all permits issued thereunder are hereby conditioned to prohibit the taking, selling or possession of shellfish from the below-defined areas.

AREAS CLOSED TO THE HARVEST OF ALL SHELLFISH, CARNIVOROUS SNAILS AND WHOLE SEA SCALLOPS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF SEA SCALLOP ADDUCTOR MUSCLE

The waters, flats and tributaries in shellfish growing areas N1, N3, N6, N7, N8, N9, N10, N11, N12, N13 and N14 in the towns of Salisbury, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Essex, and Rockport, the Cities of Newburyport and Gloucester and marine waters managed by the Commonwealth from the New Hampshire/Massachusetts state boundary to the southern reach of area N14.

Read the notice.