EXTRA...

Canal plant for sale; Herring anyone? Cod existence threatened; Gessner is "Soaring"; Cape seeks "Women of the Year"; Nantucket seeks sand

TODAY IN HISTORY: In 1963, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher sank during deep-diving tests off Cape Cod, in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.

Cod stocks in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, from the Gaspé to Cape Breton, have hit an all-time low, according to biologists from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Moncton-based DFO biologist Doug Swain said only around 50,000 tonnes of cod are left in the area — about 15,000 less than the 65,000 tonnes in 1993, shortly after a moratorium on cod fishing was introduced across Atlantic Canada.

Swain said the latest numbers have him concerned about the cod's future.

"The last assessment, the estimate of the spawning stock biomass, is the lowest that's ever been observed in the 58-year record that we have," Swain said.  "Even if there's no fishing, the stock is likely to decline, so it's a very difficult situation"...  Read the rest of this CBC story here.  Leave a comment  
See story about Mas. Governor asking $22M in new Federal aid for local fishing communities.
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The US utility company Mirant Corp. may seekbuyer
Cape Cod Canal power plant is part of its holdings

NEW YORK: Mirant, a U.S. electricity producer that emerged from bankruptcy and made a failed bid for rival NRG Energy last year, said Monday that it might seek a buyer.

Additional strategic alternatives under consideration by the board include returning "excess cash" from asset sales to shareholders, said Mirant, which has a market value exceeding $10 billion.

The news follows Mirant's agreement in January to sell six power plants to LS Power Group for $1.41 billion and another in December to sell its Philippine power plants to Marubeni and Tokyo Electric Power for $3.4 billion... The Cape Cod plant employs 91 and pays the town of Sandwich $2.4 million a year in lieu of taxes.  Read the rest of this International Herald Tribune story here.  

Have run will travel - Off Cape run has enough for all
Only Native Americans can now take herring

 The herring are running, but taking the fish is banned for everyone but American Indians.  Herring are protected by a three-year moratorium imposed by the state. The once plentiful fish had neared depletion, made a comeback, but are again threatened.

Their numbers plummeted by 75 percent in the last five years. Because of the drastic decline, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have banned the fishing of river herring until January 2009.  The two types of herring, alewives and bluebacks, are a critical link in the marine food chain, providing food for birds and other marshland foragers. It's also a popular bait among fishermen for catching bigger fish like stripers and bluefish...

The Middleboro-Lakeville herring run, considered one of the best on the East Coast, is plentiful enough to continue using it to stock other runs. It is one of only two in the state that is controlled by home rule rather than the state. The other is on Martha's Vineyard and is controlled by the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe...  Read the rest of this Brockton Enterprise story here.  Leave a comment
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Don't call 'Soaring' a bird book
David Gessner really likes ospreys

One thing you need to know about David Gessner: He really, really likes ospreys.

The nature writer spent an entire breeding season tracking several pairs of the fishing-eating marine hawks around Cape Cod for his 2001 book, Return of the Osprey, shortly before heading south to join the creative writing faculty at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

(It was an auspicious move: One of the aliases for ospreys - along with fishhawk, fish eagle and aguila pescador, or "eagle fisherman," as it's known in Cuba - is "seahawk," which makes it the UNCW mascot.)

Return of the Osprey, however, only covered part of the story: The birds nesting and raising their young in New England coastal waters. For his new book, Soaring With Fidel, Gessner followed the autumn migration south, as the ospreys headed down the Eastern Seaboard toward Cuba, across the Caribbean to Venezuela and points south. (The birds have been known to fly as far as Argentina.)

However, Gessner insists, "This is not a bird book."  Ospreys are in it, of course, and Gessner sketches a vivid picture of their behavior: Their pack-rat habits (naked Barbie dolls have been found stuffed in their nests), their knack for using thermal updrafts and the updrafts around hills and mountains to gain altitude and speed, their uncanny vision... Read the rest of this Star-News review here.  
Read David Gessner's blog here.  Leave a comment
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Nominations Being Sought for Cape Cod's Woman of the Year

Nominations are now being sought for the sixth annual Mercy Otis Warren Women of the Year Award.  Brochures with details about this unique and prestigious award will be available at all Cape Cod town halls by May 1, 2007 with a nomination deadline of May 31, 2007. The brochure describes criteria for the award, the guidelines for nomination, lists the sponsors of the award, and gives highlights of the life of Mercy Otis Warren shown on right standing in front of the county courthouse.

The presentation of the award will take place at 9:00 a.m., before the 4^th of July parade on the lawn of the courthouse in Barnstable village. The award, a maquette of the statue of Mercy Otis Warren was created by local sculptor David Lewis. It will be presented to an outstanding woman who meets the following criteria:

…is a resident of Cape Cod and has demonstrated leadership in the Cape Cod community and has made a significant contribution to any of the following: the arts, education, business, community involvement embracing the ideals of patriotism.

The committee and the sponsors of the Woman of the Year Award operate under the auspices of Tales of Cape Cod. We look forward to enthusiastic community involvements as we honor the 2007 Mercy Otis Warren Woman of the Year.

For further information call Alice George 508-362-6906.  Leave a comment
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Nantucket seeks permission to replenish 3 miles of beach

The Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund is seeking a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers to conduct work in conjunction with a large scale beach nourishment project proposed on Nantucket Island, Mass.

The proposed project involves work below the mean high water line and the discharge of dredged or fill material in order to construct a large-scale beach nourishment project proposed to protect approximately 3.1 miles of eroding coast along the eastern shoreline of Nantucket Island.

Approximately 2.6 million cubic yards of beach compatible sediment would be hydraulically dredged from a 195-acre borrow site located approximately 2.9 miles east of Nantucket in water that is 30-60ft deep.  See the full report here.