As seen from the Museum’s Davis Observation Deck, New Bedford’s inner harbor is crammed with vessels of every size and draft, as showers and a soupy haze descends. In the distance, the Hurricane Barrier remains open, but is scheduled to close as Hurricane Irene makes landfall over Long Island.

That’s how Captain John Ayer of the American Star described New Bedford Harbor in a news article in the Standard-Times – a seasoned mariner’s compliment for this deep water port, which is protected by a nearly four-mile long hurricane barrier. The harbor’s geographical position has always made it an excellent shelter from northeast gales, more typical here in fall and winter than the occasional hurricane. When hurricanes do make landfall to the west of Buzzards Bay, storm surge piles up in its myriad coves and inlets. The bay is like a 3-sided box, and with no where for it to go, the sea floods inland.

In the Great Hurricane of 1938, before the barrier was built, the water rose 11.53 feet above high tide. With additional hurricanes in 1944, 1954, and 1960, the decision was made to build the barrier. It took four years and $18.5 million. The work was nonstop from 1962 to 1966.

American Star is one of the vessels of American Cruise Lines, whose  passengers are frequent visitors to the Whaling Museum and we are glad they’re tucked in, safe and sound tonight, as Hurricane Irene makes her approach.

New Bedford Harbor and its famed fishing fleet, as seen from the Whaling Museum cupola.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum will host the New England Science Writers and other journalists as they delve into “The Science of Counting Fish” on Saturday, June 18 at 2:00 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater.

The discussion will focus on new technologies that are under development that will help to more accurately “count” fish. These new methods for assessing fish populations promise to put an end to disputes over whether or not fisheries are being overfished, not just in this part of the world but most everywhere. Case in point: On Massachusetts’ South Coast, fishermen and some scientists claim that reports of overfishing are “a myth,” while other marine scientists and government officials claim that certain species are dangerously overfished, which has led to the implementation of catch limits – limits that, according to the fishing community, are too harsh.

Assessing fish populations has always been an inexact science. But that is changing. Joining us to speak about these technologies are ocean engineer Hanumant Singh, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and marine biologist Kevin Stokesbury, School for Marine Science & Technology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Both scientists are at the forefront of new approaches, and they will describe why the old ways of counting fish can be so misleading and the advantages of these new technologies.

Admission to the talk: $10/per person at the door, which includes admission to all Museum galleries. To attend, please email Ann Parson: parson-a@verizon.net by June 16th.

New England Science Writers is a professional organization of about 240 reporters, writers, freelancers, producers, bloggers, authors and communicators. NESW hosts meetings and workshops and provides other forums to network and keep up with the rapidly changing worlds of science, technology and journalism. NESW communicates with its members primarily by email, including job announcements and freelance opportunities. We are based in the Boston area with members mostly from the New England region of the United States.

Man and Whales: Changing Views Through Time

The lecture titled The Gulf of Mexico: Spilling Crude Oil Where We Once Spilled Sperm Oil, is presented by Judy N. Lund and Deborah Cramer.

New Bedford has a deep-rooted connection to the one large ocean that covers more than 70% of our planet. Tonight we will examine our historic link to one place in our marine environment and how the continued quest for oil has impacted this region.

Judith N. Lund, former Curator, New Bedford Whaling Museum, will provide us with a historical overview of whaling in the Gulf of Mexico, an endeavor that until recently was not well documented. Using her soon-to-be-published paper as the foundation, Judy will explain how this smaller whale fishery fit in with the larger Atlantic whale fishery. Her most recent works includes a definitive two-volume reference, American Offshore Whaling Voyages, 1667-1927, published by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society – New Bedford Whaling Museum in 2010.

Deborah Cramer, Visiting Scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will explore the short term impact of the BP oil spill and the longer term consequence of oil drilling and shipping on the marshes of southeastern Louisiana and the wider Gulf, sharing her recent visit there and showing stunning photographs from her book, Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water Our World.

Both speakers will be available to sign their books at the pre-lecture reception.

Man & Whales lecture series will continue on April 20 and May 18.

As a finale to the lectures, the Whaling Museum is offering a unique opportunity to meet whales on Saturday, May 21. A special whale watch trip is available in partnership with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, departing from the Whaling Museum at 8:00 a.m. to Capt. John Boats, Plymouth, MA. Tickets are $75 per person, payable in advance, and includes roundtrip transportation. Reservations are required and seating is limited. Proceeds will benefit the Whaling Museum and WDCS. Please call 508-997-0046 ext.100, to RSVP for the free lectures and/or sign up for the whale watch.

Man & Whales is sponsored by ECHO (Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations) a program administered by the U.S. Dept. of Education. Offered in partnership with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Vessels and casks crowd Merrill's Wharf along side the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. (right) in this 1896 photograph by Orville Bassett.

A new exhibit titled Changing Tides: The New Bedford Waterfront in Transition, opens on AHA! Night, Thursday, February 10, at 6:30 p.m. Admission to the opening is free.

Once as America’s richest whaling port, to its current status as the nation’s #1 commercial fishing port, the New Bedford waterfront and the work that goes on there have seen enormous transformation. Installed in the San Francisco Room, which overlooks the harbor, the exhibit explores the port’s many changes with images selected from the Museum’s immense photo collection. The photographs date from the 1870s to the 1980s, revealing the port’s many transitions and the evolution of the vessels calling it home.

Kate Mello, the Whaling Museum’s Photo Archivist, is curator for the exhibit. “These images were selected from thousands of photos in our collection because they illustrate how dynamic the changes in the port have been over last 150 years. They underscore the ongoing change that only seems to accelerate with every passing year,” said Ms. Mello.

From the San Francisco Room, the exhibit overlooks New Bedford’s famed commercial fishing fleet – a major economic engine for the region – and hailed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick as “a vital part of our history and economy” in his recent letter to President Obama seeking regulatory redress for the fishery.

This program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Changing Tides closes June 19, 2011.

Robert Rocha, Science Programs Manager

Robert C. Rocha, Jr., Science Programs Manager of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, has been named to NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Committee as Education Alternate Member. “It’s an honor to be chosen to play a part in managing this critical natural resource with such a diverse group of people and user groups. I’m sure that the meetings will never be dull,” Mr. Rocha said.

Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary Advisory Council was established in March 2001 to assure continuous public participation in the management of the sanctuary. The volunteer council’s 17 voting members and six ex-officio members represent a variety of local user groups, the general public, and state and federal governmental jurisdictions.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 842 square miles of ocean, stretching between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. The sanctuary supports a diversity of marine life including 22 species of marine mammals, more than 30 species of seabirds, more than 60 species of fishes and hundreds of marine invertebrates and plants.

Scientists from NOAA Fisheries Service and its state and nonprofit partners successfully used at-sea chemical sedation to help cut the remaining ropes from a young North Atlantic right whale on January 15 off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla. The sedative given to the whale allowed the disentanglement team to safely approach the animal and remove 50 feet of rope which was wrapped through its mouth and around its flippers.

The sedative given to the whale allowed the disentanglement team to safely approach the animal. (Photo credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

This is only the second time a free-swimming whale has been successfully sedated to enable disentanglement efforts. The first time a whale was successfully sedated and disentangled was in March 2009 off the coast of Florida.

“Our recent progress with chemical sedation is important because it’s less stressful for the animal, and minimizes the amount of time spent working on these animals while maximizing the effectiveness of disentanglement operations,” said Jamison Smith, Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Coordinator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “This disentanglement was especially complex, but proved successful due to the detailed planning and collective expertise of the many response partners involved.”

Congressman Barney Frank

Senator John Kerry

The Whaling Museum was the site today of  major annoucements concerning the New England Fishery by Congressman Barney Frank and Senator John Kerry regarding new initiatives by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and NOAA head, Dr. Lubchenco to exercise “emergency authorty to increase catch limits due to economic conditions (Section 305 (c) (1)),” pending review of “sound scientific data to meet these requirements.”

Other issues covered in the press conference included Commerce Dept’s interest in the U.S./Canada Transboundary Resources Understanding, as well as the “need to increase the precision of stock assessments and for greater involvement of fishermen in collection of scientific information…”.

Congressman Frank also noted the Commerce Department “will be sending a  transfer request to Congress requesting reallocation of $15 million… for stock assessments and cooperative projects nationwide.” Senator Kerry called the Whaling Museum “a treasure” noting New Bedford’s rich maritime heritage and likening fishermen as “farmers of the sea.”

New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang, Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk and a representative of Governor Deval Patrick also addressed a large audience of  industry representatives, fishermen, community leaders and the press.

Steve Urbon, senior correspondent of The Standard-Times:

NEW BEDFORD — The Northeast Fisheries Summit drew almost 300 people to the city Monday, a veritable “Who’s Who” of the fishing industry, giving the new NOAA fisheries director an earful about what they view as the coming crisis in the Northeast fishing industry.

Eric Schwaab, just three weeks into his job as the assistant administrator for fisheries at NOAA, sat in the front row of the whaling museum’s packed auditorium and heard one speaker after another assail his agency for its policies, its attitude and its law enforcement.

Representatives of all kinds of players in the fishing industry were encouraged to put their cards on the table, and they did, in 10-minute presentations that were sometimes angry, sometimes emotional.

It was an outpouring of frustration at a federal agency many believe is trying to put them out of business when it isn’t treating them like children or criminals. The summit, organized by UMass and the mayor’s office, followed on the heels of a Capitol Hill “United We Fish” protest in late February, an inspector general’s report blasting fisheries law enforcement, and sworn congressional hearings in which it was revealed that NOAA’s top law enforcement official shredded documents while under investigation.

The summit was intended to clarify issues and show where everyone stands, said Mayor Scott W. Lang, who opened the conference. He enlisted former Mayor John K. Bullard as moderator, UMass School of Marine Science and Technology dean emeritus Dr. Brian Rothschild as organizer and lead scientific and policy adviser, and a wide-ranging cast of state lawmakers, boat owners, attorneys, fishing regulators, environmentalists, and fishing families as panelists and participants.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration became the prime target.

State Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, D-Gloucester, drew applause when she announced, “I want to see the day when the agency respects the fishing industry.”

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., criticized NOAA and the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which he and many others believe needs amendment for being too rigid. “The problem is that the basic law is wrong,” he said. Regulators today are sticking with current law the way people in Medieval times believed the sun revolved around the Earth. Evidence mounted that the theory was wrong, but they kept making pained explanations, “but it was hard to maintain the theory. People don’t like to give up on their theories.”

But with Magnuson, “the fundamental basis is flawed,” Frank said. “People have tried to put certainty where it doesn’t belong.”

Later, Gov. Deval Patrick, who hadn’t heard the earlier comments, likewise assailed NOAA for ignoring this region’s request in spring of 2009 that the science behind the fishing regulations be re-examined.

Maine fisherman Jimmy Odlin, a member of the New England Fishery Management Council, joined those who accused NOAA of being “arrogant” by making policy based on flawed science and in doing so harming fishing families and communities. He drew applause when he said that he is angry at the idea that unsound science should be used to get people out of the business.”

Bud Walsh, who actually helped write the original Magnuson Act, defended the idea that “sectors” management is necessary to the health of the industry, but he expressed surprise that the rules have become so complex. “I have never seen such Byzantine regulations,” he said. He suggested that the fishing industry adopt a corporate model to organize itself around the sectors and compete in the global market. But his suggestion was rejected by one participant who objected that such a move would remove all local control.

Again and again, participants returned to the concept of “catch shares” — pieces of the overall catch that they will be allowed to land, based on their previous fishing experience. As they have said in other places, the catch shares are believed to be unreasonably small, don’t provide for the “optimum yield” for fisheries, and threaten to stop fishing entirely as soon as the quota is reached for the most restricted fish.

When that happens, boats will go idle and if they stay in business their catch shares for the next year will shrink because they are based on the current year’s suboptimal take.

It is all in pursuit of what many called an impossible goal: to bring all fish species to their maximum level in a 10-year span. Vito Giacolone of the New England Seafood Coalition said, “the law demands at face value what we all know is unachievable.” Setting deadlines for fish population growth is “absolutely not attainable” he said. But the industry has no choice but to play along, he said, “because all resources are going clearly toward sector management,” and away from “days at sea.”

New Bedford boat owner Carlos Rafael bluntly told fellow fishermen that unless catch shares are postponed this spring, “50 percent of you will be out of business by August.” He suggested, to enthusiastic applause, that the National Marine Fisheries service be cut in half when that happens, and the $150 million in savings be used to start a boat buyback program.

See the original article here.

]]> http://whalingmuseumblog.org/2010/03/09/at-the-museum-northeast-fisheries-summit/feed/ 0 whaleblog UN.1016.21 http://whalingmuseumblog.org/2010/03/05/northeast-fisheries-summit/ http://whalingmuseumblog.org/2010/03/05/northeast-fisheries-summit/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:53:40 +0000 whaleblog http://whalingmuseumblog.org/?p=1817 ]]> March 8th forum to be held at the New Bedford Whaling Museum

Mayor Scott W. Lang has announced the Northeast Fisheries Summit, a day-long discussion that will focus on the future and sustainability of the fishing industry in New England and near- and mid-Atlantic ports. The Summit is co-hosted by the Mayor’s Ocean and Fisheries Council, the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute. Expected to attend is Eric Scwhaab, the newly appointed Assistant Administrator for Fisheries with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Congressman Barney Frank; and industry leaders, scientists, elected officials, environmentalists, and government officials from across the Northeastern region.

“We all recognize the importance of achieving a sustainable fisheries management plan,” said Mayor Lang. “I look forward to an open discussion about how we can ensure a balance of sensible conservation practices with the economic vitality of the fishing industry. It is appropriate that this discussion take place in New Bedford, the nation’s top-ranked value port.”

The Summit will include panel discussions on catch shares and sectors, scallops and scallop by-catch, and amending the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

The Summit will begin at 9:00am on March 8th at the Whaling Museum, located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill in New Bedford. The public is welcome to attend.