Saving Seafood

News for the New England Region

MASSACHUSETTS: MassCEC scrubs plan for Ocean Renewable Energy Center

March 24, 2025 — The state’s alternative energy agency won’t be putting up a building to house a renewable energy research and development center on the New Bedford waterfront, but will pursue the work by other means, an agency official said on Friday.

Months after plans stalled in the City Council in the face of local opposition to the proposed waterfront location, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is shifting course, due in part to questions about the Trump administration, which has expressed opposition to alternative energy.

The new endeavor called the Ocean Innovation Network Initiative will use existing companies and develop the city waterfront to cultivate ocean-related alternative energy technologies, including but not limited to wind power.

“Ocean innovation is poised to be a major economic driver for the South Coast and we are grateful for the City of New Bedford’s collaboration throughout the evolution of this important project,” Bruce Carlisle, MassCEC’s managing director of offshore wind, said in a statement released Friday morning.

Read the full article at the The New Bedford Light

American Food Partners acquires Rhode Island calamari firm The Town Dock

March 21, 2025 — Narragansett, Rhode Island, U.S.A.-based American Food Partners (AFP) has acquired seafood supplier NGC, Inc., which conducts business under the name The Town Dock, and its affiliated fleet of vessels.

The acquisition of The Town Dock, a supplier specializing in squid and calamari, reflects AFP’s “growing presence in the U.S. market,” AFP said in a press release. By adding The Town Dock, AFP now has several seafood brands in its portfolio, including SeaFresh USA and Handrigan Seafood.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: GMRI series, A new report for the Gulf of Maine, where we stand today

March 20, 2025 — Dr. Duffy Anderson at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, dissected the 2024 warming report, updating Mainers on the conditions across our almost 3500 miles of coastline. The report reviews 2024 as the 12th warmest year for the Gulf of Maine.

The body of water is positioned at the intersection of two major currents—the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current. This productive body of water has continued to evolve since warming began in 2012.

Read the full article at WMTW

MASSACHUSETTS: Bourne woman worked to keep fishing sustainable off Cape Cod. Cuts to NOAA hit her job.

March 19, 2025 — Sarah Cierpich isn’t holding her breath after learning her termination from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been ‘rescinded.’

The Bourne resident received a letter on March 17 from the U.S. Department of Commerce saying her Feb. 27 termination has been stayed by a federal judge. Her termination was part of the ongoing effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy and budget.

According to the letter, she was reinstated to her position “retroactive to the effective date of your termination, and placed in a paid, non-duty status until such time as this litigation is resolved or the Department of Commerce determines to take other administrative action with respect to your employment.”

Cierpich was a fisheries management specialist working out of Woods Hole. She managed NOAA’s observer deployment systems and worked on algorithms for a program that put trained observers on commercial fishing vessels. Observers collect data that is used in fishery stock assessments and fisheries management measures.

“It’s data on marine mammals, turtles, birds, information on all creatures in the ocean and the sustainability of that resource,” she said in an interview March 13. “It ensures the long-term sustainability of commercial fishery resources.”

Read the full article at Cape Cod Times

MAINE: MLA honors board, rallies for the future at annual meeting

March 18, 2025 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) annual meeting took place at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum and was anything but routine this year.

As industry leaders gathered to discuss the latest challenges and victories in the state’s lobster industry, they also took a moment to recognize the end of an era—Kristan Porter, the longtime MLA board president and Cutler fisherman, announced his retirement from the role, along with board vice president Craig Stewart from Long Island, and Laurin Brooks who fishes out from Kennebunk. 

Lawsuits, Offshore Wind, Industry Resilience

Among the key updates shared, the MLA’s acting COO, Patrice McCarron, reaffirmed their stance against offshore wind development, highlighting progress in its legal battle with Monterey Bay Aquarium, and urged lobstermen to stay engaged in policy discussions, especially regarding the controversial gauge increase.

“You may have also heard the good news: the Monterey Bay Aquarium lawsuit will get the green light to go forward,” McCarron said. “We haven’t won the case, but we do now have the green light so that we would be expecting discovery and possibly going to trial in the near future.”

The lawsuit, a defamation case launched by the MLA and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA), challenges the Aquarium’s controversial decision to red-list Maine lobster over concerns about North Atlantic right whale entanglements. The case moving forward signals a significant step in the industry’s ongoing fight for fair representation.

The MLA also addressed other regulatory battles, including a pushback on federal electronic tracking mandates. “We certainly know where people are; we no longer have to guess, but they should not be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” McCarron stated. “You guys should not be tracked when using your vessels for personal reasons.”

The Maine lobster fishery continues to grapple with bait shortages and federal policy shifts, but as the meeting made clear, the industry is far from standing still.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

43rd edition of Seafood Expo North America opens in Boston

March 17, 2025 —  Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, North America’s largest seafood trade event, kicked off on 16 March in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

North America’s largest seafood trade event – produced by Diversified – opened for its 43rd edition, running from 16 March through 18 March. The latest edition of the event occupies 249,665 net square feet with 1,215 exhibiting companies from 51 countries – including new participating countries from Bahrain, Croatia, Ireland, Mauritius, Puerto Rico, and United Arab Emirates; and an increased presence from countries including China, Ecuador, France, Japan, Norway and Vietnam, Diversified said. [Editor’s note: Diversified also owns and operates SeafoodSource.]

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Local partnership helps Maine schools serve up healthier meals

March 13, 2025 — Thanks to the partnership between Hannaford Supermarkets and the nonprofit Full Plates Full Potential,  an effort is being made to get more students in Maine healthier, locally sourced meals at school. The initiative aims to replace heavily processed foods with fresh food while helping schools meet new federal nutrition guidelines designed to improve student health.

At Saccarappa Elementary School in Westbrook, which has already adopted these practices, lunchtime looks slightly different. On the menu: Gulf of Maine fish sticks with pineapple salsa—made from scratch.

Mary Emerson, nutrition director for Westbrook Public Schools, says the shift toward fresh food is a priority.

“We want high-quality, good food that kids enjoy eating that’s nourishing for them,” Emerson said. “Kids have to be well fed in order to learn. So, that’s our commitment to our students.”

Full Plates Full Potential is helping schools transition away from processed meals by incorporating more fresh, locally sourced ingredients into their lunch programs. The effort is an alternative way to comply with new federal nutrition standards that limit salt and added sugar in school meals.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

MASSACHUSETTS: Trump firings hit NOAA scientists, analysts on South Coast

March 11, 2025 — Editor’s note: The Washington bureaucracy referred to in this article was likely an automatic review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) which is a statutory part of the Office of Management and Budget within the Executive Office of the President. That review was triggered automatically due to the size of the quota reduction agreed to by the New England Fishery Management Council with the support of the limited access Atlantic scallop fishery in order to maintain the health and sustainability of the fishery.  That review requirement was addressed in Washington on Monday, and the process is now back on track, and proceeding as it does in most years, with the next step being publication in the Federal Register.  Unless there is a Government shutdown, the process should be complete by early to mid-April, which although past the April 1 target, is no more unusual that most years.

Federal cuts ordered by the Trump administration reached Massachusetts in late February, when the NOAA Fisheries’ workforce from Maine to North Carolina was slashed.

Hundreds more cuts may happen this week, when department heads must meet a deadline to submit proposals for “large-scale” reductions in force at their respective agencies to not only terminate people, but eliminate their positions altogether.

This means more scientists and analysts who protect and manage the country’s commercial fisheries may soon lose their jobs. Their terminations have raised concerns about the future of the fishing industry, the science that underlies its management, and the people who rely on it for work and for food. That’s especially true in New Bedford, the country’s highest-value fishing port, where the new scallop season is about to start.

NOAA Fisheries terminations: what we know

NOAA Fisheries is the federal steward of the oceans and their resources, including endangered marine mammals. With science as its foundation and guide, it manages more than 400 fish stocks.

NOAA Fisheries’ parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which hosts the critically important National Weather Service, has seen about 1,300 terminations already, per the New York Times. Another 10% could be cut in this next round, one source told The Light.

The agency and the Office of Personnel Management did not answer questions from The Light on how many people were terminated in Massachusetts (or nationally) in February, and what their positions were.

During a conference hosted by U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Janet Coit, the assistant administrator at NOAA Fisheries who resigned in January, said at least 20 employees in NOAA Fisheries’ Rhode Island and Woods Hole offices were terminated.

She called the terminations of “some of the best and the brightest” indiscriminate and not strategic, saying the Trump administration used a loophole to fire long-term employees with institutional knowledge, who were technically probationary because they had received a promotion or assumed a new position.

Some probationary members who were terminated had worked for the agency for many years as contract workers, and had only recently been onboarded as federal employees.

Terminations included the head of NOAA’s marine carbon dioxide removal office and the director of NOAA’s ocean acidification program, both of which research issues critical to the fishing industry and its future viability.

The Trump administration’s cuts also have extended to advisory committees, including one established in 1971: the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. It was staffed by representatives from universities, the commercial fishing industry, environmental nonprofits and seafood companies.

Sarah Schumann, a commercial fisherman in Rhode Island who was serving her third year as a committee member, said it was an excellent venue for fishermen to have their interests and concerns heard by the higher levels of government on how fisheries can be better managed.

“We’ve been robbed of a voice,” she said. “It felt like a real place to collaboratively, honestly evaluate the larger scale trajectory of fisheries management in the U.S. And now that that’s gone.”

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

DOGE Considering Canceling some NOAA Building Leases

March 11, 2025 — Late last month, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, mandated that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration get rid of 31 of its rental offices and facilities, including three in New England, The Public’s Radio has learned.

Former NOAA scientists say they especially fear the ramifications of losing a building on the list in East Falmouth, Mass., which has long housed the entire Northeast Coast’s fisheries observer program and is tasked with tracking the number and habits of fish from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the Gulf of Maine, and helping ensure fishers are not catching too many fish or illegal species.

Several workers from that program were already terminated in mass firings on Feb. 27, and scientists say losing the East Falmouth building would cause further disruptions, potentially resulting in massive declines in fish populations in the region and declines in enforcement of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Read the full article at the Northern Journal

RODA asks Supreme Court to hear Vineyard Wind case

March 11, 2025 — Commercial fishing industry advocates appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge of federal permits that authorized the ongoing Vineyard Wind 1 project off southern New England.

The first approved commercial-scale wind energy project in federal waters, the Vineyard Wind federal “approval sets the precedent for all future U.S. offshore wind development,” said the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing groups and communities.

The case was brought March 10 on behalf of fishermen by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative legal advocacy group. It asks the high court to reverse a federal appeals court decision that upheld federal permits for the 804-megawatt Vineyard Wind project.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman