Massachusetts fishermen look to cut red tape, access waters booming with scallops

Massachusetts fishermen are looking to cut red tape that has blocked them from accessing an area of ocean booming with scallops compared to surrounding waters grappling with a decline in catchable biomass The New England Fishery Management Council a regional council established through federal statute has closed off access to square miles in the northeast region of Georges Bank bordering Canadian waters since Fishery regulators have labeled the Northern Edge as a habitat area of particular concern citing the importance to juvenile Atlantic cod and lobster as well as the Atlantic herring but scallopers argue it s well past time that they take to the high seas to tend to their livelihood in the region New Bedford resident Tony Alvarez is not buying the rationale behind the decades-long closure The second-generation fisherman who got his start in the s says he has killed countless spawning cod fish over the years I know where they spawn he announced and I can tell you where they greater part definitely don t spawn the Northern Edge I ve mentioned it times over to various scientists and they look at me cross-eyed Alvarez spoke out during a hearing that the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight held at the State House on Wednesday highlighting the state of the Massachusetts sea scallop fishery federal regulations impacting the industry and scalloping s impact on the financial market Sea scalloping has a massive impact on the Massachusetts financial sector according to bureaucrats The Bay State is the leading seafood-producing state on the East Coast with at least half of that value coming from sea scallops Division of Marine Fisheries Director Daniel McKiernan mentioned The ports of New Bedford and Fairhaven are the epicenter for commercial landings and seafood processing across the region he added The value in scallop landings however has fallen over the past sparse years dropping to million in down from when highs exceeded million McKiernan declared Of unit was the famous post-COVID year when seafood prices for everything reached record highs he commented The current very high vessel prices and retail sector prices are buoying the revenues in the industry for the time being Cate O Keefe executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council highlighted how voting members started to consider a rotational project on the Northern Edge in with action and discussions furthering in and the early part of last year But the council then voted in April to discontinue the action O Keefe revealed citing difficulty in identifying the appropriate area and season and that opening the area could undermine long-term optimum yield of scallops The executive director who is not a voting member of the council also pointed out that sea scallop abundance increased between and driven by large recruitment events Half of the total scallop biomass though is too small to be captured by a commercial dredge O Keefe noted Georges Bank accounted for roughly of all landings in recording million scallops marking a shift from the Mid-Atlantic a region that saw just million last year New England Fisheries Management Council map Sen Mark Montigny a New Bedford Democrat who chairs the committee that held Wednesday s hearing recounted how he attended council meetings from time to time in the past acknowledging the process members have to go through It s stunning to me how this has been closed for decades Montigny disclosed The Department of Commerce has selected to review a petition that the Fisheries Survival Fund submitted in an attempt to restore scallop fishing access to the Northern Edge The feds are viewing the conflict as a national deregulatory priority I would have preferred it not to be the politics of Donald Trump Montigny mentioned I would really have loved to see a normal scientific process acted on years ago or decades ago If the answer is no based on the science people like me might back off but I didn t see any of that O Keefe responded to Montigny s comments saying Has the council ignored it for quite a period of time Yes but in recent days they tried to take action on it The second part of it potentially too a large number of conflicting interests around what people expected for the Northern Edge is what ultimately led to the discontinuation of the action The New Bedford Light shared last year that while scallop populations have declined in areas open to fishing the Northern Edge has boomed growing from an estimated million pounds in to million pounds last year according to a combination of leadership surveys Drew Minkiewicz an attorney for the Sustainable Scallop Fund a nonprofit that promotes sustainable practices in the scallop industry called the reopening of the Northern Edge an immediate opportunity to sponsorship the fleet and commercial sector Reopening this area thoroughly and selectively could provide much-needed relief to the fleet he mentioned generate major landings for New Bedford and protect long-term reserve physical condition by spreading out fishing effort