Saving Seafood

US Court of Appeals considering Monterey Bay Aquarium effort to appeal Maine lobster rating lawsuit

October 9, 2025 — The U.S. Court of Appeals has agreed to hear an appeal by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (MBAF) regarding a defamation lawsuit launched against it by the Maine lobster industry.

Several members of the Maine lobster industry – including Bean Maine Lobster Inc., the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Atwood Lobster LLC, and Bug Catcher Inc., owned by Gerry Cushman, a sixth-generation fisherman from Port Clyde, Maine, U.S.A. – along with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) sued the MBAF over the foundation’s “red” listing of lobster.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: New Marine Resources survey sheds light on how Maine lobstermen feel about the industry

October 9, 2025 — This summer, Maine’s Department of Marine Resources surveyed commercial lobstermen on how they feel about and perceive their industry, for the first time since 2008. Results indicate that most lobstermen are concerned more about economics and whale regulations, than the lobster fishery itself.

But as the department shares its findings at Lobster Zone Council meetings up and down the coast, the agency says it is hearing a lot of thoughts and feelings that didn’t show up on paper.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Lobsters face serious risks as oceans heat up

October 6, 2025 — The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than almost every other ocean region on Earth. That single fact has scientists worried about the future of the American lobster, the backbone of a two billion dollar fishery.

Warming, acidification, and marine heatwaves are not just abstract trends here. They are daily realities, reshaping one of the most iconic species in New England waters.

Communities along the coast depend on lobsters not only for income but also for identity. A shift in lobster health could ripple far beyond science labs and touch entire economies.

To understand what lies ahead, researchers at William & Mary’s Batten School and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have been testing how lobster embryos respond to future ocean conditions. The results point to temperature as the main danger.

Read the full article at Earth.com

MAINE: Survey finds Maine lobster fishers remain wary of whale conservation measures, but optimistic for industry

October 6, 2025 — A recently released survey of Maine lobster harvesters and processers found the industry remains worried that right whale conservation measures will impact their business, although roughly half of respondents expressed optimism for the fishery’s future.

The Maine Department of Marine Resource (DMR) said 1,366 people responded to its survey, which it released in September. Nearly all of the respondents were harvesters, although 66 dealers also participated. According to DMR, roughly 29 percent of the people involved in the state lobster industry took part in the survey.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEFMC tables ropeless gear proposal following pushback

October 2, 2025 — The New England Fishery Management Council has tabled an alternative gear marking proposal that could enable more Maine lobster fishers to use ropeless gear in closed areas following public opposition from commercial fishing groups and a Maine legislator.

“A packed house of fishermen – with NEFSA members making up the strong majority – made their concerns loud and clear both in person and through the flood of public comments leading up to the vote. This is another major win for American commercial fisheries,” New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) said in a social media post.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Management council votes to postpone rope-less lobster gear rule in Maine

October 2, 2025 — At its meeting on September 25 in Gloucester, Mass., the New England Fishery Management Council voted to postpone its decision allowing lobstermen fishing in federal waters to use alternative, rope-less gear.

The decision was welcome news to the lobster industry and to congressman Jared Golden, who urged NEFMC to abandon the proposal in a letter dated September 23.

“Maine’s lobstermen are facing tremendous uncertainty, with various agencies operating in parallel considering new regulations that would fundamentally alter what it looks like to haul traps off the coast of Maine,” Golden said. “Congress enacted a moratorium on requiring this kind of gear, and that moratorium is still in effect while more data is gathered and studied. This framework, if adopted, would muddy the waters about what is required of Maine’s harvesters, and there’s no need for it.”

The moratorium Golden referred to was adopted in the U.S. congressional budget for 2023 with the unanimous support of Maine’s senators and representatives. The moratorium at the federal level paused the development of new lobster gear requirements until 2028.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Press

US representative Jared Golden urges New England regulators to abandon proposal that could expand ropeless gear use

September 25, 2025 — U.S. Representative Jared Golden (D-Maine) is urging regulators not to take any action that would enable the use of more ropeless gear in the Maine lobster fishery, arguing that it would undermine other regulatory efforts.

In a letter to the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC), Golden asked regulators to abandon the Joint Alternative Gear-Marking Framework, a proposal that could eventually allow fishers to use ropeless, or on-demand, gear within its jurisdiction.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US lobster in the spotlight for National Lobster Day, Maine Lobster Week

September 24, 2025 —  The Maine lobster industry, along with e-commerce suppliers and restaurants, are promoting the crustacean during National Lobster Day on 25 September and Maine Lobster Week, which runs from 21-28 September.

National Lobster Day honors the hardworking individuals who sustain Maine’s iconic lobster fishery, the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative (MLMC) said in a press release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHSUETTS: No more feeling blue- lobster comes to live at UMass Dartmouth

September 16, 2025 — Only about one in two million lobsters are born blue and only 10 to 20 blue lobsters are found a year, including one recently acquired by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology.

Lobsters can have an excess of a protein that causes some blue spots, but almost all lobsters have some red, according to UMass Dartmouth sea-water lab manager Forrest Kennedy. The all blue mutation is caused by the blue protein binding to the red protein.

The lobster was caught by a fisherman on the “Michael and Erin” in Beverly in early to mid June, who called the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries with the condition that the lobster not be eaten. As UMass Dartmouth shares a building with Marine Fisheries, the university is now housing the lobster.

“We can offer him a good home here,” Kennedy.

The lobster is male based on his large claw size and fins. He is estimated to be about seven to nine years old, and weighs 1.25 pounds. Lobsters are estimated to live up to 100 years, so UMass could have him for a long time.

Read the full article at The Week Today

FLORIDA: Immigration raids and tariffs threaten to sink Florida Keys lobster industry

September 15, 2025 — In Marathon, Florida, almost halfway between Miami and Key West, lobster fishermen are being hired at $250 a day. But beware — commercial fishing has nothing glamorous about it, and many who showed up quit after the very first day. A “long” day means heading out to the Gulf of Mexico at 1 a.m. and returning at 6 p.m., after hauling and resetting 500 wooden traps that weigh nearly 150 pounds (70 kilos) each when filled with lobsters. The work is an orchestrated frenzy: one man hauls up the trap, another pulls out the lobsters, measures them, and stows them, while another cleans the wooden cage and stacks it, ready to go back into the sea — a choreography of orange overalls.

It’s brutal, dangerous labor that requires fishing to be in your blood. Many of the captains of the lobster boats in the Keys descend from long lines of fishermen, and most of the crews are from Corn Island and Bluefields, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, where the grueling work of artisanal shellfishing has been the main livelihood for centuries.

Read the full article at El Pais