September 22, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries reported that the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has recently joined its marine mammal stranding network.
Read the full article at MV Times
September 22, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries reported that the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has recently joined its marine mammal stranding network.
Read the full article at MV Times
September 22, 2022 — Ferries and charter boats could move a lot slower in Rhode Island during the off-season if federal regulators accept new nautical speed limits to protect an endangered species of whale.
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have proposed restricting existing nautical speed limits to 10 knots per hour for all vessels greater than 35 feet in length. If approved, the new rule would go into effect between Nov. 1 and May 30 and apply to all vessels sailing along the Atlantic seaboard from Massachusetts to North Carolina – including all of Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound.
The rule is intended to curb the amount of vessel strikes on the Atlantic’s already limited right whale population, which is close to extinction. NOAA estimates at least four right whales have died from colliding with marine vessels since 2017.
“The biggest impact to charter boats is the loss of fishing time for our clients,” said Capt. Rick Bellavance, president of the Rhode Island Party and Charter Boat Association. “If we’re driving 10 miles an hour instead of 15, that’s 5 miles of travel every hour. It could be a half hour or an hour each day of less fishing and more driving.”
The off season isn’t quite as off it used to be. Bellavance says more and more customers charter boats to fish for tautog, also known as blackfish, which has had a resurgence thanks to careful conservation by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM), and is almost an attraction for the state in November and December.
September 22, 2022 — Maine’s lobster industry has launched an online petition seeking to convince a California-based seafood group to back off its calls for a boycott of the popular crustacean food.
The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative’s petition calls on the Monterey Bay Aquarium to remove lobster caught in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank from its “red” list of food to avoid, saying the designation is “not supported by the facts.”
“Maine Lobster has always been sustainable, and the baseless decision by the Seafood Watch program greatly impacts an industry that is the backbone of the economy in Maine, supporting entire communities, composed of generations of fishermen who have always prioritized the health of the fishery and the Gulf of Maine,” the petition reads.
Read the full article at The Center Square
September 21, 2022 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association said it will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that new restrictions on their fishery can proceed to protect endangered right whales, calling the plan “scientifically flawed” and “draconian.”
In an opinion issued Sept. 8, U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg turned aside the lobstermen’s arguments that the National Marine Fisheries Service acted arbitrarily and overstated the hazard their gear poses to whales.
The association had sued NMFS and allied environmental groups to block implementation of the new rules. It was the latest in several years of action in Boasberg’s Washington, D.C. courtroom as NMFS, environmental groups and fishermen battled over measures to protect the right whales – now estimated to number just about 340 animals – from entanglement in fishing trap lines.
“We refuse to let a single judge’s decision be the last word,” MLA President Kristan Porter said in announcing the new appeal. “The facts are clear. Maine lobstermen are not driving the whale towards extinction. There has never been a known right whale mortality associated with Maine lobster gear, and there has not been a single known right whale entanglement with Maine lobster gear in nearly two decades.”
September 21, 2022 — Lobstermen from Maine are speaking out over recent warnings about the product they catch to make their living after a West Coast aquarium discouraged consumers from purchasing lobsters.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium, in Monterey, California, is standing by its decision to “red-list” the lobster industry over concerns that North Atlantic right whales are harmed in the fishing process.
“We stand by our science-based assessments,” Seafood Watch, a sustainable seafood advisory list released by the aquarium, told FOX Business via email.
Specifically, they charge that North Atlantic right whales, which number less than 340, become entangled in the lobstermen’s buoy lines.
The Seafood Watch website’s “red list” advises consumers to “take a pass on these [species] for now; they’re overfished, lack strong management or are caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment.”
Other lobsters included in the warning include a green “best choice,” a yellow “good alternative” and a blue “certified.”
The aquarium told FOX Business via email that Seafood Watch “started the assessments [you’re] inquiring about in 2018,” after 17 North Atlantic right whales were reported dead in the United States and Canada the previous year.
September 21, 2022 — Several New England and national environmental groups say the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is making a mistake by moving forward to designate wind energy areas in the Gulf of Maine.
The Conservation Law Foundation and other groups asked BOEM in May to do “a comprehensive environmental review” before proceeding with outlining potential areas for wind projects. Activists are criticizing the agency, which on Aug. 19 published a “request for interest” from wind development companies.
Read the full article at the National Fisherman
September 20, 2022 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that rejected its lawsuit challenging new restrictions on the harvesting of lobster off the Maine coast.
The MLA filed the lawsuit in September 2021.
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg denied the MLA’s request in a Sept. 8 ruling. It’s the latest in a string of legal setbacks for lobster fishermen who are coping with increasingly strict fishing rules meant to save North Atlantic right whales, which number less than 340 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear.
September 20, 2022 — A new report from an environmental nonprofit finds that Massachusetts’ southern coast will see increased flooding and erosion, as well as more destructive bombardment from storms. The report, from the Trustees of Reservations, says that sea levels along the South Coast are projected to rise over two feet by 2050.
The Trustees is the largest private owner of coastal land in in Massachusetts, overseeing 120 miles of coastline. In 2020, after seeing increased flooding and erosion on their properties, the group began to produce annual reports on the current and expected effects of climate change on the Massachusetts coast.
Their first report looked at the North Shore; the 2021 report covered Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Gosnold; this year’s focuses on the 14 South Coast towns that border Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay.
Like previous reports, the latest predicts big climate change impacts on these towns over the next few decades. Here are five takeaways:
After being battered by hurricanes in 1938, 1944 and 1954, engineers built a harbor barrier to protect the Port of New Bedford, the most prosperous seafood port in the country. The barrier keeps water in the harbor at a level that protects infrastructure from flooding; when a storm threatens high water, the Army Corps of Engineers closes the gates. In 2019, they closed the barrier 26 times. With projected 2050 sea level rise, they’ll have to close the barrier at every high tide — that means 1-2 times a day.
“That’s clearly not doable for a working port, it’s not sustainable,” said Cynthia Dittbrenner, director of Coast and Natural Resources at the Trustees of Reservations.
The New Bedford Port Authority and the Town of Fairhaven are looking at ways to make critical infrastructure in the harbor more resilient to flooding, either by raising, moving or replacing it.
September 20, 2022 — The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative (MLMC) is urging consumers to support the lobster fishery in the U.S. state of Maine on National Lobster Day and beyond after Seafood Watch downgraded the fishery to “red/avoid”.
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch’s lower rating of North American lobster and Canadian snow crab was primarily due to potential impacts the fisheries could be having on North Atlantic right whales.
September 20, 2022 — The following was released by the Conservation Law Foundation:
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has declined to conduct a comprehensive environmental review before designating areas for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine. Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and several partners had pushed for a full review to be done before wind areas are chosen.
“This decision epitomizes short-term thinking that will only cause problems in the long run,” said Erica Fuller, Senior Attorney at CLF. “It’s simply backwards to choose areas for offshore wind development before doing a full environmental analysis, which would ultimately save time and money if done now. It is critical to advance offshore wind to respond to the climate crisis and clean up our electric grid, but it must be done in a science-based, inclusive and transparent way.”
Considered to be one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, the Gulf of Maine plays a significant role in the culture of New England and is the foundation for a coastal economy characterized by commercial and recreational fishing, aquaculture, recreational boating, shipping, and tourism.
CLF was joined in this effort by 350NH, Acadia Center, Blue Ocean Society, Friends of Casco Bay, Island Institute, League of Conservation Voters, Maine Conservation Voters, Maine Audubon, Mass. Audubon, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Council of Maine, NRDC, New England Aquarium, New Hampshire Audubon, Oceana, and Surfrider Foundation.