Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: A landmark celebration of fishing heritage and community

September 3, 2024 — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center has installed a striking new landmark in the heart of the City’s Seaport Historic District. Catch the Tradition captures the spirit and enduring legacy of New Bedford, the nation’s most valuable fishing port, and invites visitors to explore the story of commercial fishing, one of the world’s oldest industries, through the Fishing Heritage Center. The public is invited to attend an official unveiling and dedication of the installation on Thursday, September 12 (AHA Night) at 6:00 PM.

Catch the Tradition features an authentic fishing net draped across the entire facade of a historic building at 38 Bethel Street and seven massive documentary images ranging in size, with the largest being 17 feet tall. The images, captured by four emerging and established local photographers (Shareen Davis, Phil Mello, Leia Onofrey, and Peter Pereira), provide a window into the lives of those who work to bring seafood from boat to table.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Fishermen stage floating protest at Vineyard Wind site

August 27, 2024 — As concerns mount over the July collapse of one Vineyard Wind turbine blade, a “flotilla” of about two dozen commercial and recreational fishing vessels steamed to the wind farm on Sunday to protest offshore wind development and its impact on the marine ecosystem.

The vessels, hoisting anti-offshore wind flags and blasting air horns, departed early Sunday morning from ports in New Bedford, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Rhode Island and along the Cape, converging at about noon on the site of the crippled Vineyard Wind turbine.

“The blade collapse was an eye-opener to a lot of people who before didn’t know that offshore wind is a disaster for the ocean,” said Shawn Machie, 54, who is captain of the New Bedford scalloper F/V Capt. John.

On July 13, one of the three blades on turbine AW38 sustained damage while undergoing testing. Five days later, a 300-foot section of the blade collapsed into the water leaving fiberglass debris floating in fishing grounds and scattered across beaches, mostly on Nantucket. It marked an inflection point as the first industrial energy incident in this era of offshore wind development in waters off the Northeast coast.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light

Feds allow Vineyard Wind to resume partial installation

August 14, 2024 –A fully loaded feeder barge with turbine components, which for weeks has been sitting in New Bedford, left port and headed out to the Vineyard Wind site Tuesday morning. There, a vessel will offload the nacelle and tower components, but the blades will stay on and return to port.

The federal government this week updated its suspension order, allowing the project-on-pause to resume partial installation of new turbines as the parties continue to analyze the blade failure, which happened one month ago.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)’s latest suspension order continues to prohibit further blade installation or power production at this time.

In response to a request for comment, a BSEE spokesperson said the agency issued the latest suspension order on August 10. The order requires “risk analysis and mitigation approved by BSEE prior to being able to conduct any activities on the damaged turbine.”

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Scallopers assail continued closure of Northern Edge

July 29, 2024 — Fisheries regulators voted this month to “discontinue” development of a plan to reopen the Northern Edge of Georges Bank — a lucrative scallop ground that has long been closed to commercial fishing.

In April, the New England Fishery Management Council agreed to consider requests to reopen the fishing grounds at the urging of both the scallop industry and Mayor Jon Mitchell. He and industry representatives cited significant headwinds for the region’s top fishery, including a slump in prices and fewer days at sea for fishermen. They added that opening the Northern Edge would benefit the whole port economy and surrounding businesses.

But in the midst of a four-day meeting in Freeport, Maine, the Council voted not to continue discussing plans to reopen the area in order to focus on the “long-term productivity of the Georges Bank scallop resource.” For regulators, it’s a balancing act to weigh sustainability and the economic pressures on fishermen to sustain their livelihoods.

“We know there is a high density of scallops there. But you need those dense aggregations to have spawning success in the future,” said Jonathon Peros, who is the Council’s lead fishery analyst for sea scallops. He explained that scallops spawning in the region act as a seed source to other active scalloping grounds.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: CLT Marine proposal of ‘Boat people doing boat stuff’ on New Bedford State Pier

July 22, 2024 — Ed Anthes-Washburn is very familiar with the Port of New Bedford.

His background includes 11 years with the New Bedford Port Authority, the last six as port director.

Today, he’s the managing director of Coast Line Transfers, or CLT Marine, which is one of the seven firms seeking to become part of the New Bedford State Pier’s redevelopment.

CLT is a commercial marine service provider to the expanding offshore wind industry, as well as the marine industry in the Northeast.

Their focus is on crew-transfer vessels, as well as offshore supply vessels, and they provide support to marine services in southern New England.

Proposing use of existing Buildings 1 and 2

In simple terms, Anthes-Washburn said during a presentation hosted by MassDevelopment in May, “We’re boat people who want to do boat stuff on the east face” of State Pier.

MassDevelopment, the state’s development finance agency and land bank, manages the state-owned, 8-acre pier.

A MassDevelopment review committee is evaluating the proposals.

The seven proposals before the committee could be approved together, separately or denied altogether. A decision deadline has not been announced.

Read the full article at South Coast Today

MASSACHUSETTS: Inside look at the plans for State Pier

July 16, 2024 — A marine industrial hub. A “boat-to-table” restaurant. A public fish auction hosting culinary seafood experiences.

These are just a few of the proposals submitted in May to MassDevelopment to redevelop a central but “underutilized” strip of New Bedford’s waterfront: the State Pier. After many false starts and a bitter power struggle between state and city politicians, each side has expressed relief that the long-awaited overhaul is moving forward.

“I want to salute the business community for mobilizing to shake up the static condition of that pier,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said, speaking in May at a gathering for businesses to present their development proposals to MassDevelopment, state legislators and the public. “You have the city and the port authority’s full support on this.”

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: The Codfather’s 2nd act: ‘I’m the bank now’

July 10, 2024 — Carlos Rafael made an offer the bank couldn’t refuse.

It was February 2021, and Rafael, the infamous New Bedford fishing mogul known as “the Codfather,” was serving out the final stretch of an almost four-year prison sentence. He and his two daughters placed a $770,000 bid to acquire the Merchants National Bank building in downtown New Bedford.

The historic sandstone building with tall, arched windows and an ornate ceiling no longer functions as a commercial bank. It’s vacant, and there is no money locked behind its heavy, iron vaults. But for the 71-year-old Rafael — flush with more than $70 million in cash from the court-mandated sale of his fleet and barred from ever again involving himself in the commercial fishing industry — acquiring the bank set the stage for a second act.

Three years after his release from prison, Rafael, still banned from owning fishing vessels, has embarked on a different business venture: a multimillion-dollar real estate financing operation sprawling across New Bedford and its suburbs.

“I’m the bank now,” Rafael said in a recent interview, leaning back in his dark leather office chair in his South End industrial warehouse. The wall behind him was adorned with paintings of Catholic saints, multiple sketches of Tony Montana (Al Pacino’s gangster protagonist in “Scarface”) and a sea-green miniature replica of one of the three-dozen fishing vessels once part of his fabled fleet.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: New England Wind bid now has federal approval. What could that mean for New Bedford?

July 8, 2024 — Avangrid, Inc. — one of the entities connected to the offshore wind farm project known as Vineyard Wind 1 — announced this week that its Construction and Operations Plan, or COP, for the New England Wind 1 and 2 offshore projects now has “full federal approval.” If one or both are selected to move forward, Avangrid has plans to bring an industry-first to New Bedford, according to the company.

In its announcement, Avangrid, Inc. called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval “a critical milestone” that “largely completes the federal, state, and local permitting process for Avangrid’s 791 Megawatt New England Wind 1 project.” New England Wind 2 is contingent upon a version of the plans in which New England Wind 1 also moves forward. Another version accounts for New England Wind 1 moving forward alone. Decisions on proposals for the next round of wind projects involving Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut should be made by state officials sometime in August, according to Avangrid’s release.

“New England Wind 1 is the only project in the solicitation that has all federal, state, and local permits; the ability to start construction in 2025; and deliver power by 2029,” the release reads.

Read the full article at The Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Mayor Jon Mitchell responds to work being halted on Northern Edge scalloping grounds

July 3, 2024 — The New England Fishery Management Council has decided to halt work on opening the Northern Edge scalloping grounds to commercial fishermen.

Back in April, Mayor Jon Mitchell before the board in Mystic, Conn. and said that making these areas available would benefit the industry greatly, to create a “key new source of scallops.”

“While there are multiple species that are harvested by New Bedford fishing vessels, scallops are the prime drivers of economic activity within the Port of New Bedford,” he said.

“The fishermen of New Bedford know this, and they take great care in maintaining the resource and recognize the strategic long-term importance of managing the biomass,” he continued.

Read the full article at ABC 6