Saving Seafood

Maine lobstermen sue California-based aquarium for recent ‘red listing’

March 14, 2023 — Maine lobstermen are suing the California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium over its decision to strip U-S lobster fisheries of their sustainability certification.

The aquarium’s Seafood Watch program “red-listed” lobster last fall, arguing that the fisheries pose a threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. The new rating means that the aquarium is urging businesses and consumers to avoid buying lobster.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in federal district court, Maine lobstermen argue that the aquarium has ignored the scientific data on right whale entanglements and that it made defamatory statements causing them economic harm.

“The aquarium leveraged its significant influence over public opinion and the commercial decisions of major lobster purchasers, using its public platform to pressure those parties into cutting off business with plaintiffs,” the complaint reads.

The plaintiffs include the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and three lobster producers and sellers. All say they’ve suffered monetary damages worth at least $75,000 each because of the aquarium’s new rating.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Officials consider new lobster size limits in Maine to protect young population

March 9, 2023 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering tighter rules on the minimum and maximum sizes of lobster that fishermen in Maine are allowed to catch.

Recent assessments show a troubling decline in young lobsters, commission and Maine Department of Marine Resources officials say, and because the state’s lobster catch is by far the largest and most valuable of any New England fishery, proactive measures might be necessary to protect the spawning stock.

Read the full article at CAI

MAINE: Maine Lobstermen’s Association takes stock at annual meeting

March 8, 2023 — Offshore wind energy and the legal fight against federal lobster fishing regulations led the agenda for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) in 2022, two big issues that remain in the forefront for 2023, Executive Director Patrice McCarron told a packed room Mar. 3 at the Maine Fisherman’s Forum in Rockport.

Between increased fishing restrictions, significantly lower lobster landings in 2022 than in 2021, spiraling fishing costs, offshore wind development and juvenile stocks reportedly in decline, “we’re not exaggerating our concern about the future of the fishery,” McCarron said. “The fight is real.”

But with federal offshore wind energy in development on the outer continental shelf, including the Gulf of Maine, she acknowledged that the push is a national initiative. “The Gulf of Maine is actually the slowest [to be developed] on the list,” she said.

That offshore wind energy looms over the fishing industry is evident by the Forum opening Mar. 2 with a slate of seminars dedicated to the issue, with Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials on hand.

Read the full article at Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Maine lobstermen land $389M haul last year, the lowest in a decade

March 6, 2023 — Maine fishermen brought in nearly $389 million dollars worth of lobster last year, the lowest in a decade. It’s an almost 48% drop from 2021’s record-breaking catch, according to preliminary data that the Maine Department of Marine Resources released Friday.

Kristan Porter, a Cutler fisherman and president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said 2021 was an exceptional year.

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: Maine lobstermen have slower year amid industry challenges

March 3, 2023 — Fishers of Maine lobster, one of the most lucrative seafood species in the U.S., had a smaller haul during a year in which the industry battled surging fuel and bait prices, rebukes from key retailers and the looming possibility of new fishing restrictions.

Maine lobster has exploded in value in recent years in part due to growing international demand from countries such as China. The industry brought about 98 million pounds of lobster to the docks worth about $389 million in 2022, Maine regulators said Friday. That was more than 11% less than the previous year, in which they harvested more than 110 million pounds of lobster worth more than $740 million.

The value of lobsters also fell to a little less than $4 per pound at the docks, the lowest since 2017, a year after setting a record of more than $6.70 in 2021.

The industry has experienced growth in recent years, as fishermen have caught more than 96 million pounds of lobster per year for 13 years in a row after never previously reaching that mark. But it is also wrangling with threats such as proposed rules to protect rare North Atlantic right whales, which are vulnerable to entanglement in gear.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

In class action lawsuit, lobstermen fight efforts to ‘red list’ their catch

March 3, 2023 — Four Massachusetts lobstermen have filed a class action suit against the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Marine Stewardship Council, groups that urged distributors and grocery stores to avoid purchasing lobster because of the fishery’s impact on North Atlantic right whales.

“We’ve always been like the punching bag for, like, the whale people. So I’m glad we’re finally striking back,” said plaintiff Jarrett Drake, a lobsterman who fishes out of New Bedford, “because it gives us a chance to try to at least defend ourselves.”

In September, the seafood watch groups argued that “red listing” American lobster is necessary because entanglement in trap pot gear used for lobster fishing is a leading cause of death for the critically endangered whales. Their population now stands around 340.

The “Red List” is used by more than 25,000 restaurants, stores, and distributors to help guide purchasing and menu choices.

Read the full article at CAI

State and federal officials for the first time allow ropeless lobstering in areas closed to protect right whales

March 2, 2023 — For nine years, Rob Martin spent winters with most of his 800 traps stacked in his front yard, struggling to stay solvent over the long three months when regulators closed the region’s lobster fishery to protect critically endangered whales.

Over the years, the 58-year-old lobsterman has attended countless public meetings, pleading with officials to find a way that would allow him and others to resume fishing during those hard months.

Now, after years of controversy, state and federal officials are allowing Martin and more than a dozen other lobstermen to fish in closed areas off Massachusetts. The only caveat: They must use a new kind of fishing gear that uses limited amounts of rope and aims to eliminate the threat that lobstering poses to North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Federal bill would undo six-year right whale regulatory pause championed by Maine delegation

March 2, 2023 — The bill has a long name: The Restoring Effective Science-based Conservation Under Environmental Laws Protecting Whales, or the RESCUE Whales Act.

But the legislation, introduced earlier this week by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, would have a simple outcome. It would eliminate a provision that pauses the development of new federal right whale regulations on the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries for the next six years, a measure that Maine’s congressional delegation slipped into the latest federal spending bill during the final days of 2022.

In joint statement, all four members of the Maine delegation defended the provision, which they described as a “lifeline” to the state’s lobster industry that provides “time to pinpoint the true cause of the decline in the right whale population.”

The Rescue Whales Act, they said, would “unfairly target Maine’s lobster industry without any data or taking into account the reality in the Gulf of Maine.”

Read the full article at Maine Public

Maine Lobstermen’s court appeal heard; new attempt to rescind gear delay

March 1, 2023 — A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. is considering the Maine Lobstermen’s Association appeal of the government’s fishing gear restrictions aimed at saving endangered whales.

In arguments Feb. 24, the MLA’s lead attorney Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general during the Bush administration, laid out the fishermen’s case, arguing the National Marine Fisheries Service went overboard in making worst-case assumptions about the danger of Maine lobster gear entangling whales.

The North Atlantic right whale is highly endangered, with fewer than 350 animals believed to be surviving, with ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement leading causes of mortality. Clement made the MLA’s case that none in recent years have been documented to involve Maine lobster gear.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Rep. Allison Hepler: More and better data can protect lobstering and right whales

February 28, 2o23 — The word “reprieve” is being used to describe the late-December federal action that produced a 6-year delay in implementing federal whale rules, as well as new funding for research and gear innovations in the lobster fishery. A reprieve is welcome, but it does not mean that the industry can step back and go about business as usual. Fortunately, that’s not what is happening.

This past summer, the National Oceanic and Aeronautical Administration (NOAA) had fast-tracked its implementation of rules around the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, which would have made immediate and dramatic changes to Maine’s lobster fishery in two years rather than 10. In response, in the midst of our early-winter coastal storm that occurred just before Christmas last year, Maine’s federal delegation secured a 6-year pause in the implementation of those regulations, and also provided $55 million in funding for research and monitoring. This action was a welcome break for Maine lobstermen.

Science is at the heart of the work that needs to be done. Some of the funding will allow for continued research into better understanding the behavior and distribution of right whales as a result of the changing environmental situation in the Gulf of Maine. It is dramatically warming, and the whales’ favorite food is shifting east into Canadian waters. Organizations such as Bigelow Laboratories are likely to receive some of this funding to continue its research on the impact of this shift.

Read the full article at the Press Herald