Disputed waters no refuge for right whales
Published onOne marine conservation expert has questions about the efforts on the part of Fisheries and Oceans after North Atlantic right whales were detected in the Bay of Fundy in recent weeks, including in an area where both Canadian and American fishermen catch lobster. Read more
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Scientists puzzled by rise in local whale, dolphin strandings
Published onIts been a record-setting year for whale and dolphin strandings in Southeastern Massachusetts, raising questions from scientists and fueling speculation from offshore wind opponents. Read more
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Lobster trap tree pays homage to Conn. fishing village
Published onThe Lobster Trap Tree is back in Stonington for a fourth year. Its a way to create a joyous holiday exhibition to bring people to our community, Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce's Lisa Konicki said. Also pay homage to the state of Connecticuts last commercial fishing village. Read more
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Grant will help Mass. fishermen gather data
Published onWhen Aubrey Church first started her career in fisheries research, captains told her they stuck thermometers inside fish to try and learn what the temperature was on the ocean bottom. Thanks to a $2 million grant from the state, fishermen will be able to collect far more precise information over a much greater expanse of ocean. Read more
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Trump win celebrated on New Bedford fish piers
Published onFishermen on the New Bedford waterfront met the news of a second Trump term with vengeful enthusiasm on Wednesday morning. There was hope that the president-elect would scale back regulation, stop offshore wind development and open new fishing grounds breaking the slump of declining revenues and ushering in a period of relative prosperity for the industry. Read more
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Commentary: Scallops fail to show for opening of N.Y. bay
Published onIt was Benjamin Franklin who penned the phrase old habits are hard to break in a 1758 article in the London Chronicle. Who knew? Its a phrase that I can most certainly relate to, especially as it pertains to bay scallops. Read more
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Salvage effort begins on sunken trawler off N.J. beach
Published onPOINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ Salvage efforts were set to get underway off Point Pleasant Beach this week to remove a commercial fishing vessel that sank in November 2023. Read more
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Lawsuit charges New York with failing to protect sturgeon
Published onThe Atlantic sturgeon survived the ice age and outlasted the dinosaurs, but the 250 million-year-old forage fish might not survive the modern age. In the Hudson River, there were just 450 adults in 2014, about half the number recorded in 1998, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Read more
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Vineyard Wind readying for new turbine blades
Published onNEW BEDFORD As companies involved with the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm execute an updated Incident and Response Action Plan after the partial collapse of a damaged turbine blade back in July, large vessels were observed last week bringing what appeared to be full-size turbine blades into and out of New Bedford Harbor. Read more
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Federal court open to fishermen getting tab for observers
Published onNov 4 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Monday appeared open to upholding a federal rule requiring commercial fishermen to fund a program to monitor for overfishing of herring off New England's coast even after the U.S. Supreme Court in that same case issued a landmark ruling curbing agencies' regulatory power. Read more
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2024 Highliner of the year: Marty Scanlon
Published onStories about someones successful career often begin with their start on the ground floor. For Marty Scanlon, that was the bottom of Great South Bay. I started clamming when I got out of high school. Back then in the early 1970s there was a big set of clams on Great South Bay, said Scanlon. Today Scanlon, 70, of Hauppauge, N.Y., is captain of the Provider II, a 43-foot longline vessel that he pilots on trips of seven to ten days from New England for tuna and swordfish. A longtime figure in the tightly knit East Coast fleet, Scanlon started pelagic longlining in 1985 and has been president of the Blue Water Fishermens Association since 2017. Scanlon was young when he first began working on the water back around 1970. The economy was not ideal, with inflation rising and then a Mideast oil embargo and energy crisis. I was ...
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What does it mean to be part of a fishing family?
Published onI recently edited a college essay for the son of some dear friends of mine, an 18-year-old named William. He wrote about fishing with an older lobsterman on Long Island, Maine, who has become a little bit of a legend in the small community where we live. Tommy Marr, who lobstered in his youth, joined the Navy, and then went from ferry boat captain to captaining a fuel barge, tug boats, and finally back to lobstering, is still going strong deep into his eighties. Since the 80s, Tommy has taught many a boy to fish on this island. My husband was once one of those boys, so I instantly connected to the words William had written. The essay spoke of how Tommy taught him more than how to catch lobster, more than how to tie a knot, or how to get through the early mornings. Tommy taught him ...
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Maine town seeks to lift restrictions on fish house repairs
Published onThe Harpswell Select Board has directed town staff to lobby Maines congressional delegation to lift new federal restrictions on rebuilding damaged fish houses and other coastal structures. Read more
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Election jitters, industry headwinds mute Gulf of Maine auction
Published onOct 29 (Reuters)A U.S. auction ofoffshorewind development rights in the Gulf of Maine on Tuesday drew bids for only half of the eight offered leases, for a total of just $21.9 million in high bids, in the latest sign of deep industry malaise. Read more
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Wind companies bid $21.9 million for Gulf of Maine leases
Published onWind power developers Avangrid and Invenergy offered $21.9 million in winning bids for the first four offshore tracts in the deepwater Gulf of Maine federal waters, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Tuesday. Maine state official and energy planners see offshore wind energy as a major source by mid-century, but the technology and port infrastructure for floating wind turbines are still far off. Nevertheless Avangrid Renewables, LLC and Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, LLC are provisional winners for tracts east of Massachusetts and south of Maine. Avangrid won Lease OCS-564 at $4.92 million for 98,565 acres, and Lease OCS-568 at $6.24 million for 124,897 acres, all lying about 29.5 nautical miles offshore. Invenergy will get Lease OCS-562 for $4.89 million, consisting of 97,854 acres about 46.2 nm off Maine, and Lease OCS-567 for $5.88 million ...
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Fishing group lands $91K to empower young Maine fishermen
Published onLast week, NOAAs National Sea Grant Office announced federal funding aimed at securing the future of the fishing industry, and Maines fishermen are set to benefit. As part of the FY2024 Young Fishermens Career Development Projects competition, $987,361 in federal funding was awarded across four initiatives in Maine, California, and Washington, with each project providing a 25% non-federal match. These efforts are focused on enhancing education, training, workshops, and technical support to strengthen the next generation of fishers. The Maine Coast Fishermens Association (MCFA) received $91,000 to create video-based learning modules to help the next generation of fishermen build successful fishing businesses, cultivate their own physical and mental resilience, and become leaders in their communities. The modules will focus on three areas: Physical health: Fishermen are described as tactical athletes who need strength, flexibility, sleep, and good nutrition to meet the demands of their work safely ...
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