Saving Seafood

New York lobster exporter accused of money laundering, collusion with Chinese government

September 4, 2024 — The owner of Forest Hills, New York, U.S.A.-based seafood company Foodie Fisherman has been charged with money laundering – among other crimes – and his wife, a New York political official, has been charged with taking payoffs in exchange for pursuing actions that benefited China.

On 3 September, Christopher Hu was arrested along with his wife, Linda Sun, who’s accused of acting as an agent of the Chinese government in her earlier role as an aide to former New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

What the Lobstermen of Maine Tell Us About the Election

August 26, 2024 — Mid-July is peak season on the central Maine coast. The blueberries — the small, low-bush kind long prized by the state’s jam makers and pie bakers — had started to appear in the farmers markets, along with the first of the tomatoes. Bright orange tiger lilies burst from front yards, while Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod line the two-lane roads. The summer light dazzles, falling in soft waves upon the spruce and cedar, and brightening the paint on both midcentury saltboxes and grander Victorian homes. It’s no wonder that people want to come here.

Stonington is, without a doubt, one of the prettiest towns on the Maine coast. Over breakfast one morning at Stonecutters Kitchen, I asked Linda Nelson, the town’s economic and community development director, how many Hallmark movies had been filmed there.

“Not enough,” she replied.

Stonington also happens to be the largest lobster port in America. Dozens of fishing boats are anchored in the harbor, while lobsters caught in nearby Blue Hill, Jericho and Isle au Haut Bays are exported across the country and, more recently, across the globe. I was told by locals that not one of the beautiful wooden homes that form Stonington’s classic picture postcard view is owned by a fishing family, who now live elsewhere on Deer Isle or over the bridge on the mainland. From the perspective of a lobsterman, many of whom have deep Maine roots, the P.F.A.s — People From Away, as locals call them — are a presence to be tolerated. The lobster fishermen and the tourists and part-time residents coexist in two separate worlds, one that is changing beneath the surface.

In a significant political year, when a small group of voters in a few places will most likely shape the answers to pivotal questions about our government, how does a community living out climate change feel to its residents? This part of Maine is represented by a Democrat in Congress, but the district, Maine’s second, has voted for Donald Trump twice by decent margins; this is one of those places where every vote can matter. Here, the punishing demands of the present, how hard everyday work is, how important costs and prices are, make the pivotal nature of this time feel very distant from politics.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Feds announce funding push for ropeless fishing gear that spares rare whales

August 16, 2024 — New efforts to convert some types of commercial fishing to ropeless gear that is safer for rare whales will be supported by millions of dollars in funding, federal authorities said.

Federal fishing managers are promoting the use of ropeless gear in the lobster and crab fishing industries because of the plight of North Atlantic right whales. The whales number less than 360, and they face existential threats from entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with large ships.

The federal government is committing nearly $10 million to saving right whales, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Tuesday. Nearly $7 million of that will support the development of ropeless gear by providing funds to fishing industry members to assess and provide feedback on the technology, the agency said.

Lobster fishing is typically performed with traps on the ocean bottom that are connected to the surface via a vertical line. In ropeless fishing methods, fishermen use systems such an inflatable lift bag that brings the trap to the surface.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Game of inches: Lobster fishermen say tiny change in legal sizes could disrupt imperiled industry

August 14, 2024 — Gerry Cushman has seen Maine’s iconic lobster industry survive numerous threats in his three decades on the water, but the latest challenge — which might sound tiny — could be the biggest one yet.

Lobster fishing is a game of inches, and the number of inches is about to change. Fishing regulators are instituting a new rule that lobster fishermen must abide by stricter minimum sizes for crustaceans they harvest.

The impending change might be only 1/16th of an inch or 1.6 millimeters, but it will make a huge difference for fishermen when the fishery is already facing major threats from climate change and new rules designed to protect whales, numerous lobster fishers told The Associated Press.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Lobster fishery set for temporary reprieve on size limits

August 14, 2024 — A second delay to implementing minimum gauge and vent sizes for lobsters caught in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and Outer Cape Cod was initiated last week by the American Lobster Board, which operates under the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), a measure that Maine lobstermen — and Congressman Jared Golden — have hoped and pushed for.

The new implementation date would be July 1, 2025, if the measure is approved by the ASMFC’s American Lobster Board.

An earlier delay the ASMFC approved had pushed back to Jan. 1, 2025, the new gauge and escape vent sizes in lobster traps for commercial lobster fisheries in the targeted lobster management areas. When the measure was first approved, it was to take effect based on a “trigger” mechanism.

The trigger is based on survey data showing a decrease of lobster recruits, that is, young lobsters. But many lobstermen fishing in the Gulf of Maine said what they observed on the water was different than the survey data reported. And, the first trigger was reached just months after the mechanism was approved, which led to the first implementation delay.

Read the full article at Ellsworth American

Lobster Habitat in the Gulf of Maine Has Changed, Scientists Say

August 13, 2024 — Lobster fishing has been a good business in the Gulf of Maine for a long time. With the exception of a few notable dips, both the landings and value of the catch have been on an upward swing for decades.

Between 1984 and 2014, the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine jumped an estimated 515%, while simultaneously declining by 78% in southern New England as the water warmed in both regions.

While it’s started to decline in recent years, numbers are still far higher than they were several decades ago.

The result? A lobster housing crisis.

“The warming sea temperatures have actually created a real sweet spot for lobster reproduction,” said Brian Skerry, a National Geographic photographer and producer on the recent GBH/PBS series Sea Change, which explores the impact of climate change on the Gulf of Maine.

Skerry, who lives in York, has been diving in the Gulf of Maine since childhood. But when he began diving on the Isles of Shoals for his most recent project, he saw something he’d never seen before: lobsters crawling all over the bottom, digging foxholes in the sand.

“I wasn’t used to seeing that,” said Skerry. “Usually they’re tucked away in rocky crevices and dens.”

Win Watson, a lobster scientist at the University of New Hampshire, clued him in. “He said, ‘Well, what you’re seeing, Brian, is actually a direct result of climate change.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

US lobster fishery faces delay in gauge-size increase; Canadian harvesters call for government to do more to combat illegal fishing

August 13, 2024 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Board has initiated the process to delay a gauge size increase for the U.S. lobster fishery until 1 July 2025.

The ASMFC first delayed an increase in the lobster gauge size in October 2023, after lobster trawl surveys indicated a decline in the population of sub-legal lobsters. The gauge size increase was first initiated in 2017 as a proactive measure to improve the resiliency of the lobster stock in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, but that process was paused to focus on issues related to entanglement of  North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US capable of achieving seafood independence, study shows

August 13, 2024 — From lobster to haddock and seaweed, seafood plays an important role in the U.S. economy, diet and culture. The nation is one of the top producers of marine and aquatic foods worldwide, but also the second largest seafood importer.

Through extensive data analysis and calculations, University of Maine researchers found the U.S. could achieve  independence, or meet its entire seafood needs through its own production. But according to their new study in the journal Ocean Sustainability, “achieving greater seafood independence would require shifts in , investments in infrastructure and continual adaptation in the face of climate change.”

Becoming seafood independent offers opportunities for the U.S. to improve dietary outcomes as well as individual and national food security, particularly against disruptions in , according to the research team. Despite its capacity to rely solely on the seafood it produces, the nation exports the majority of it and imports 80–90% of the seafood Americans consume.

Read the full article at PHYS.org

U.S. and Canada held talks on lobster gauge increase

August 12, 2024 — This article was first published in Landings, the Maine Lobster Community Alliance (MLCA)  newspaper, in August 2024.

U.S. and Canadian lobster fishery representatives met in Saint John, New Brunswick in late June to discuss the implications of the U.S. gauge increase for Lobster Management Area 1 (LMA 1) scheduled to take effect in January 2025. The meeting was in response to the concerns raised by Maine’s lobster industry at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) American Lobster Board meeting in May.

Background

ASMFC adopted Addendum 27 in May 2023 as a proactive measure which would automatically trigger a gauge increase for LMA 1 if the abundance of young lobster showed a 35% decline. The addendum was developed over five years. It was initiated in 2017 but delayed twice – in 2018 and in 2022 – because the lobster industry was deeply embroiled in management and litigation concerning right whale conservation requirements. Following the Maine Lobstermen’s Association’s (MLA) historic court victory and Congressional action to delay new whale rules for six years, the ASMFC held public hearings in March 2023 and adopted Addendum 27 in May.

Addendum 27 garnered little attention until last fall when, to everyone’s surprise, scientists determined that the abundance of young lobsters had dropped 39% from the historic high, thus triggering the management action just three months after the addendum was adopted. Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner Patrick Keliher urged ASFMC to delay implementation of the gauge increase from June 2024 to January 2025.“I don’t think when we were sitting here in May that we expected to be hitting the trigger as quickly as we did,” he said. He argued that more time was needed to continue discussions with Canada on the implications of having differing gauge sizes between the two countries. The ASMFC moved the date to January 2025.

At the Lobster Institute’s U.S.-Canada Town Meeting in January 2024 in Moncton, New Brunswick, the gauge increase was discussed by an international audience; many in Canada’s lobster industry were surprised to learn about the U.S. gauge increase. They were concerned that a U.S.-only gauge increase would disrupt lobster supply and markets due to the interdependence of the U.S. and Canadian lobster industries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

New regulations on lobstering delayed amid pushback from Seacoast lobstermen

August 9, 2024 — New federal regulations on the lobstering industry are being delayed after months of pushback from local lobstermen.

The rules would increase the minimum acceptable size for lobsters that can be caught and require bigger escape vents to be added to traps.

Regulators with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission told News9 the goal of the new rules, laid out in policy called Addendum 27, are aimed at protecting the population of younger lobsters and allowing them to grow to a size where they can reproduce and be suitable for harvesting.

“We’re looking at those lobsters that are kind of forecasting that would be available to the fisheries next year,” said Caitlin Starks, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator. Plan Coordinator.

The commission voted this week to delay the start of new rules from January to July.

Starks said the number of those younger lobsters have declined in research counts in recent years, triggering the new regulations.

However, local lobstermen have cast doubt on those studies and railed against the rules laid out in Addendum 27.

Read the full article at WMUR