Saving Seafood

News for the New England Region

MASSACHUSETTS: Fuel, diesel oil spills and bilge leaks continue to plague New Bedford Harbor

September 21, 2023 — They are called “mystery” spills, and they can be caused by a fuel line dislodging, a bilge leak or a diesel spill like the one that occurred near the State Pier on New Year’s Eve.

Andrew Jones, an environmental analyst in the Department of Environmental Protection’s Lakeville office, has been an emergency responder with the emergency response section for the last 24 years.  He said it’s called a “mystery” spill when there is no way of knowing its source or who caused it. He said it could have been an accident, a boat sinking, a land source or an elicit bilge discharge or another cause.

“I have been working with my supervisor, Dan Crafton, and my supervisor that preceded him, on efforts to figure out how to address a persistent and complex mystery sheen-oil spill problem that has been occurring in New Bedford Harbor for what amounts to decades essentially,” he said.

Read the full article at the Standard-Times

Our View: Wind industry lull calls for better plan, not paying more

September 21, 2o23 — The stalling offshore wind industry has been the talk of the summer among supporters and foes in early adopter New Jersey. Now it’s official. A big headline in The Wall Street Journal this month proclaimed “U.S. wind-farm revolution is broken.”

The week before, world’s largest offshore wind-farm developer Ørsted announced that the nation’s first offshore wind farm off Atlantic City will start producing power a year later than planned, in 2026. The Danish company cited supply chain issues, higher interest rates and insufficient federal tax credits among reasons for the delay.

Ørsted has several other East Coast projects at earlier stages of development. These so far won’t be delayed, including a second wind farm off Atlantic City and ones in New York and Rhode Island. Two, in Maryland and Delaware, will be changed to make their finances acceptable to the company. The New Jersey Legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy sweetened the financing of the first farm earlier this year by allowing Ørsted to keep federal tax credits that were to be passed through to ratepayers.

Read the full article at the Press of Atlantic City

MASSACHUSETTS: NMFS plans to end ‘Massachusetts Wedge’ exemption for trap gear

September 21, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is taking public comments until Oct. 18 on its plan to make the so-called Massachusetts Restricted Area Wedge fully covered by seasonal prohibitions on fishing trap and fish pot gear with vertical buoy lines.

The change is in a proposed amendment to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan for expanding boundaries of the Massachusetts Restricted Area to include the wedge between state and federal waters. Previously exempted from the strictest gear limits, the was closed by emergency rulemaking in 2022 and 2023 when federal officials said there was immediate risk to North Atlantic right whales from “mortality and serious injury caused by buoy lines in an area with a high co-occurrence of whales and buoy lines. This risk is expected to recur annually.”

Closing the wedge closes a gap in protection for right, fin and humpback whales from entanglement danger during the existing Massachusetts Restricted Area seasonal closure from February 1 through April 30 every year, according to the agency. Its proposed rule and draft environmental assessment can be found on the NOAA Fisheries webpage.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

UNE group developing device to reduce accidental death of sharks by fisherman

September 20, 2023 — A University of New England assistant professor and his students are testing a device they hope will cause reduce the accidental death of sharks by fisherman.

“We’re heading about 12 miles off shore out to Tantas Ledge and we are hoping to encounter spiny dog fish,” John Mohan, a UNE marine science assistant professor said.

Mohan and a few students are taking part in an open ocean lab class. It’s the latest opportunity to collect more data for their ongoing shark research.

“If we can continue to refine this technology and convince fishermen that it’s worth using then we think it could have a big effect on decreasing bycatch worldwide,” Mohan said.

The Bycatch Reduction Device was first developed around 2020 and tested inside tanks at UNE’s Marine Science Center.

Each emits a small electrical pulse only a shark can detect. The device is attached directly to a fishing line and only inches from the bait.

Read the full article at WMTV

Can Fishing and Offshore Wind Coexist in the Gulf of Maine? It Depends, Experts Say

September 19, 2023 — Fisherman David Goethel is looking at the prospect of large scale wind production in the Gulf of Maine and what changes that may mean to fish behavior, marine environment and life as it has been known on the ocean for centuries.

He told an online seminar for the New Hampshire Network for Environmental, Energy and Climate Monday night that “Europe built first and studied later,” the impacts to turbines in their waters.

He said people should also think of food security versus energy security when they look at impacts.

“It’s just as vital and yet, I don’t think it’s getting enough discussion,” he told about 60 people listening to the presentation entitled “Planning for Offshore Wind AND Sustainable Fisheries in New England.”

The central question discussed was can both fishing and renewable wind harvesting coexist and what would the impacts be?

Panelists said it depends on what is built, where and who provides input in the planning.

Read the full article at InDepthNH.org

NPR and PBS Frontline document immigration and employment law flaws allowing staffing agencies to send under age employees to seafood companies

September 18, 2023 — Most of the teens said they were hired through staffing agencies that supply workers to seafood processors. Some didn’t know the names of the companies where they worked or the agencies that hired them. Nearly every teen said they applied for their jobs with fake IDs that showed they were over 18.

All of the teens said they had to work to pay debts to smugglers, send money home to their families, or support themselves. None could afford the months-long wait for a permit that would allow them to work in the U.S. legally. The teens said they felt working at seafood processing plants was the only way they could earn money.

As unprecedented numbers of children have crossed the border in recent years, the federal government opened new emergency intake sites, which have come under scrutiny for exposing children to physical and emotional harm.

In February, The New York Times revealed that, under pressure from the Biden administration to release children from shelters quickly, ORR ignored or missed warnings and sent migrant teens to live with adults who expected them to work.

Nathanael and Joel said that Workforce Unlimited charged them $12 a day for the van ride to and from work. On paydays, they said, the van took all the workers to a check cashing store in Providence. There, the driver brought their checks inside and then returned with cash for each worker — minus deductions for the ride and the cost of cashing the check.

Read the full article at PBS

 

Blue Harvest files for bankruptcy, appears headed for liquidation

September 13, 2023 — Blue Harvest Fisheries, a private equity-backed venture that launched in 2015 at New Bedford and grew to become the largest groundfish permit owner on the East Coast, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The move comes after operations abruptly ended Sept. 1 at the company’s New Bedford plant. Publicly the company has been silent but fishermen who worked for it as independent contractors were told the company would stop fishing.

The Sept. 8 filings in federal court in Delaware show private equity firm Bregal Partners, with ties to the wealthy Brenninkmeijer family of Dutch industrialists, as owning 89.5 percent  of the parent company that owns Blue Harvest vessels, permits and other assets, the New Bedford Light reported Sept. 11.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Vineyard Wind and Foss begin moving turbine components offshore

September 12, 2023 — Vineyard Wind and its U.S. service contractor Foss Maritime began shipping pieces for the project’s first GE Haliade-X wind turbine out of the port of New Bedford, Mass., Sept. 6 to the first installation site more than 30 miles off Cape Cod.

It was a landmark for the joint venture by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to install 804 megawatts of capacity on the first utility-scale offshore wind array in U.S. federal waters. Foss Maritime is using two purpose-built 400’ deck barges, the Marmac and Foss Prevailing Wind, for Jones Act-compliant delivery of turbine components to  construction partner DEME Group’s Denmark-flagged 433’x150’ Sea Installer vessel with 300’ deep legs stationed 65 miles from New Bedford south of Martha’s Vineyard.

The barges were built using Barge Master technology that uses a patented control system and cylinders that support a platform and actively compensate the motions of the barge. The wind turbine components are fastened to the motion compensated platform for a smooth ride in ocean conditions.

“It may look easy, but the safe transportation of these components miles over the open water is no small feat,” Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Moeller said in an announcement of the first barge movement out of New Bedford.  “While we’ve had many firsts, once this turbine is installed, it will stand as a proud symbol of American’s energy transition.  I want to thank all of our partners for their continued collaboration and look forward to celebrating the progress of our industry.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest Fisheries files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

September 12, 2023 — New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Blue Harvest Fisheries has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

A Chapter 7 filing means the company has officially ceased all operations and its assets will be sold off in order to compensate its creditors. Blue Harvest’s fishing partners in New Bedford reported in late August the firm planned to terminate operations imminently.

Read the full articles SeafoodSource

Brian Helgeland’s ‘Finestkind’ is a New Bedford fishing story — and his most personal film yet

September 12, 2023 — Early in “Finestkind,” a Massachusetts-based family drama that recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, the crew of a New Bedford fishing boat huddles together, lit only by the glow of a flashlight. During a pause in the chatter, the boat’s rookie poses a crucial question to the group: “What the hell does ‘finestkind’ mean? You guys always say it.”

Brian Helgeland, the writer and director of “Finestkind,” is still sorting out the answer. “It means anything and everything,” he said over lunch just a few hours before his film’s premiere. “It’s kind of like you have to live the word to know what it means.”

Set and shot in New Bedford, “Finestkind” follows Charlie (Toby Wallace), a recent college graduate with an English degree, as he joins his older half brother, Tom (Ben Foster), on a commercial fishing boat named Finestkind. Tom, a huffy but experienced captain, accepts his kid brother onto his crew grudgingly; he believes that Charlie, who grew up wealthy, should be working a white-collar job instead. The pair nonetheless grow close, until a work mishap strains their relationship and puts them in the tough situation of needing a load of cash fast. The film also features Tommy Lee Jones as Tom’s cantankerous father, a veteran fisherman facing health issues.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe