Saving Seafood

North American lobster industry confronts ‘ropeless’ traps after whale entanglements

June 7, 2023 — An emerging technology to fish for lobsters virtually ropeless to prevent whale entanglements is exciting conservationists, but getting a frigid reception from harvesters worried it will drive them out of business and upend their way of life.

Injuries to endangered North Atlantic Right Whales ensnared in fishing gear have fueled a prominent campaign by environmental groups to pressure the industry to adopt on-demand equipment that only suspends ropes in the water briefly before traps are pulled from the water.

Since the start of the year, four North Atlantic Right Whales have been injured after getting entangled in fishing rope, according to government data, including one filmed in North Carolina trailing a pair of lobster traps that U.S. authorities believe came from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia hundreds of miles away.

Such entanglements have killed at least nine North Atlantic Right Whales since 2017, making it the second biggest cause of death behind strikes from boats and ships, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

That is a large number, given there are fewer than 350 North Atlantic Right Whales remaining, including just 70 breeding females, say regulators, researchers and conservationists. North Atlantic Right Whales who live off the eastern North American coast stretching from Florida to the Canadian Maritimes provinces are now on the verge of extinction

Read the full article at Reuters

MAINE: Rare orange lobster caught off coast of Maine

June 5, 2023 — A rare orange lobster was caught recently off the coast of Maine by a Scarborough fisherman.

The lobster, which has one claw, was caught in Casco Bay by Capt. Gregg Turner and his crew, Sage Blake and Mandy Cyr while fishing on the boat Deborah and Megan, according to a statement by Cyr.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen one and the second time Captain Gregg has,” Cyr said. “It’s pretty exciting.”

The orange lobster is not destined for a pot of boiling water. It has been kept at Turners Lobsters on Pine Point Road in Scarborough while awaiting transfer to its new home at the University of New England’s Arthur P. Girard Marine Science Center in Biddeford. Turner and his crew caught a Calico lobster last winter and also donated it to UNE. Students named that lobster “Sprinkles.”

Read the full article at The Press Herald

MAINE: Don’t make this mistake about Maine women who catch lobster

May 30, 2023 — When Ali Farrell was doing press for her book, “Pretty Rugged: True Stories From Women of the Sea,” reporters would often ask her why she used the “wrong” word when referring to women in the lobster industry.

“One hundred percent of the women I talked to called themselves lobstermen, and some people asked me why I used what they said was an inappropriate word,” Farrell said. “I had to explain to them that female lobstermen aren’t lobsterwomen, or lobster fishers. They are lobstermen.”

Across the board, lobstermen is the preferred term for anyone who works on a lobster boat in Maine. It doesn’t matter what age, background, sexual orientation or gender you are: If you’re working on a boat, you’re a lobsterman. Same goes for sternman, if you’re prepping bait and sorting through the day’s catch.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

Commission adopts new lobster rules to avoid overfishing

May 15, 2023 — The American Lobster Management Board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has approved new measures that could be used to provide additional protections to spawning lobsters. Addendum XXVII establishes a trigger mechanism that would automatically put into place annual gauge and escape vent sizes to increase the proportion of the population of lobsters that are “able to reproduce before being harvested, and to enhance stock resiliency by protecting larger lobsters of both sexes,” the board reported in a press release following its vote.

The vote on adoption came at the ASMFC’s 2023 Spring Meeting on May 2 in Arlington, Va.

According to Caitlin Starks, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator at ASMFC, if lobster surveys register a decline in “recruit” stock of 35 percent or more from a reference level (equal to the three-year average from 2016 to 2018), a multi-year series of incremental changes to gauge and vent size will be initiated in the following fishing year.

Currently, the minimum gauge size for a lobster in Maine is 3-1/4 inches. This means that a lobster must be at least 3-1/4 inches from eye socket to edge of the carapace at the tail in order to be kept. Lobsters that are smaller than this size must be thrown back into the ocean.

The first change, coming in the spring following the year in which the trigger is reached, increases the minimum gauge size to 3-5/16 inches, up 1/16th inch. The next year’s (Year 3) change would increase that to 3-3/8, representing another 1/16th inch increase. In Year 4, required escape vents would increase in size as well.

Patrice McCarron, policy director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said her group opposed Addendum XXVII because it would create a size disparity with lobsters caught by Canadian fishermen and exported to the United States.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Press

MAINE: Maine lobstermen facing another rule that may affect their catch

May 9, 2023 — An Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission board has enacted new rules that could change the size of lobsters Maine fishermen can legally harvest in the hope that the changes will ultimately preserve the fishery.

The American Lobster Board has passed a policy that will put new size limits in place if data shows a 35% decrease in the local lobster population compared with counts from previous years.

If the fishery reaches that trigger point, the regulations would increase the minimum size of lobsters that lobstermen can keep.

The board has passed the policy in order to “improve the resiliency” of the lobster population in Maine waters by increasing the number of younger, breeding lobster that go unharvested. The policy comes amid data showing that warming waters related to climate change, which were at first a boon to Maine’s lobstering industry, could soon be its downfall.

Read the full article at the PRESS HERALD

Regulators approve new lobster size limits in Maine to preserve young population

May 8, 2023 — An Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission board has approved new measures that could change the minimum and maximum catch sizes for lobster in certain parts of Maine.

The fisheries commission said it will gradually implement changes to measurement sizes by fractions of an inch in certain parts of the Gulf of Maine — but only if it observes a 35 percent decline in the young lobster population through trawl and trap survey data.

Recent assessments have shown a 23 percent decline in juvenile lobsters, said Pat Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

Restricted waters test of on-demand lobster gear in southern New England

May 3, 2023 — The largest deployment of on-demand, or “ropeless” fishing gear in southern New England recently concluded with up to 30 federally permitted lobster and Jonah crab vessels fishing waters closed to traditional trap and vertical-line setups. The collaboration between the National Marine Fisheries Service, its Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and southern New England pot and trap fishermen is an effort to test a potential long-term solution to prevent whale entanglements.

Participating fishermen were allowed 10 trawls each, using different designs of on-demand gear, activated by acoustic signals for retrieval, in federal waters of the South Island Restricted Area and the Massachusetts Restricted Area. Testing ran from Feb. 1 to April 30 under an Exempted Fishing Permit issued to the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

“It’s been nice because a couple of years ago fishermen would say ropeless would never work,” Henry Milliken, a supervisory research fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Now they say it will be the technology that keeps them on the water.”

No participating fishermen responded to requests for comment and NMFS refused to release the names of participating fishermen. There have been allegations of harassment and threats levied at fishermen on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts who have participated in prior on-demand and ropeless tests.

Read the full articles the National Fisherman

MAINE: Rock lobster concert to raise funds for Maine industry

April 17, 2023 — Todd Erickson, bassist and singer for the band Holy Smoke, has been a musician all his life. His son, Eliot Erickson, is taking a different path.

At 22-years-old, this is the younger Erickson’s third season lobstering out of Portland Harbor aboard his own boat, the Lisa Lee.

With the lobstering industry under pressure from increased federal regulation, blacklisting by environmental groups and looming wind power projects, Todd Erickson knew he wanted to help his son, somehow.

So he’s doing what he knows how to do best: put on a show and rock-n-roll like crazy.

On Sunday, May 7th, rock and lobster will combine for Band Together: A Concert to Celebrate Maine’s Lobstering Heritage. Featuring four bands and two comedians, the show kicks off at 2 p.m. at the Portland Elks Lodge on outer Congress Street.

All proceeds from the show will go to the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance, a Kennebunk-based, non-profit organization supporting the Maine Lobstermen’s Association’s Save Maine Lobstermen campaign.

Through that campaign, the Lobstermen’s Association filed suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Secretary of Commerce in Sept. 2021, challenging a 10-year whale plan that Maine lobstermen believed would decimate the industry. The lawsuit is now in appeal.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

Luke’s Lobster introducing BIPOC youth to lobster industry through Lift All Boats Project

April 12, 2023 — Saco, Maine, U.S.A.-based Luke’s Lobster restaurant chain has taken the initiative to increase BIPOC youth involvement in the Maine lobster industry through its growing Lift All Boats mentorship program, which gives students a chance to take part in the industry.

Luke’s Lobster began the Lift All Boats Project in summer 2022 with four high school students in Portland, Maine from diverse backgrounds . The students worked on the water with local fishermen in Portland and representatives from Luke’s Lobster to learn about the lobstering processes and network to seek potential future employment opportunities.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource