Saving Seafood

Plan for stricter lobster fishing rules delayed as species shows decline in babies

October 23, 2024 — Fishing regulators are delaying a plan for stricter fishing rules amid concerns about a decline in baby lobsters in the warming waters off New England.

The regulators are looking to institute a new rule that fishermen need to abide by a larger minimum size for the lobsters they trap. The change is only 1/16th of an inch or 1.6 millimeters, but regulators have said it will help preserve the population of the valuable crustaceans, as many small lobsters will need to be tossed back to the ocean.

Some fishermen have argued the change is unnecessary and will be disruptive to one of the country’s most lucrative seafood industries when it is already stressed by warming waters, surging expenses and new rules to protect whales. They’ve argued for the new rules to be delayed or scrapped.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has said the minimum size must be changed because of a recent decline of more than 35% of the young lobster stock in the Gulf of Maine, a key fishing ground. But the commission voted Monday to push back the implementation of the change from Jan. 1 to July 1, 2025.

Read the full article at ABC News

Regulators delay lobster size limits for six months

October 22, 2024 — Fisheries regulators have given the lobster industry a brief reprieve by delaying new size limits for six months.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said increasing the minimum lobster size by fractions of an inch will help rebuild stocks affected by troubling declines in young lobsters.

The commission’s lobster board argue increasing the minimum catch size will let younger lobsters live longer and reproduce more. Board members voted overwhelmingly Monday to delay the rules during the commission’s annual meeting.

Under the new rule, the minimum carapace measurement for a legal lobster will increase in July 2025, from 3 and 1/4 inches to 3 and 5/16 inches, and increase again a year and a half later.

Read the full article at Maine Public

The Lobster Industry’s Demise May Be Overstated

October 21, 2024 — Damian Brady spends a lot of his time in lobster boats, scooping up, counting, and measuring baby lobsters in the Gulf of Maine. Along with counts from scuba dives and fishing hauls, Brady’s data goes into the comprehensive Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System that helps managers regulate the fishery. Brady also looks at “lobster settlement” — under what water conditions do these baby lobsters decide to settle in? He has studied decades of lobster booms and busts, refining the models in search of a “crystal ball,” as he calls it, on lobster futures.

Climate change has course-adjusted the Gulf Stream northward, warming the waters of southern New England, and driving a northward movement of lobster populations. It feels like history repeating: Science suggests warming waters caused the Rhode Island lobster industry to collapse earlier, going from 22 million pounds in 1997 to just over 3 million pounds in 2013.

But in Maine, lobsters are still a vital industry. On a good year, 100 million pounds of lobster may cross the state’s docks, bringing in more than $400 million. Maine’s boon from the northward lobster migration was a record-breaking lobster haul in 2016. But then lobster counts began to decline consistently, year after year into 2023. The fishery’s worst fear echoed across the docks: A Rhode Island-style collapse was heading toward Maine.

But Brady, after years of careful study, is not seeing that future. What many announced as the beginning of the end, he calls a “regime shift.”

The shift drove a downsize in the Maine lobster fleet, particularly from southern Maine towns such as Portland.

“The center of lobstering has moved [north], from the center of Maine to Downeast Maine,” Brady said.

Above Portland on a map, “Downeast” is where Maine juts into the Atlantic Ocean by way of many small islands. There, the island fishing town of Stonington brings in the largest lobster catches. Its boats are able to reach the deep, federal-permit waters far offshore where lobsters are now settling.

“There was a particular boom in deep water settlement,” Brady said, reporting the most recent surveys, “places we haven’t really looked before, or looked at much.” To scientists, new habitats call for more data.

Read the full article at Ambrook Research

Lobsters relocating to different habitats in the Gulf of Maine, study finds

October 21, 2024 — A new study finds that lobsters are relocating to new habitats in the Gulf of Maine.

The findings could have implications for how the lobster stock is measured and how the fishery is eventually managed.

Lobsters have typically favored rocky boulders and used those habitats as shelter. But a research team with the University of Maine found that the use of those habitats dropped by 60% over the last 25 years or so.

Read the full article at Maine Public

The futures of right whales and lobstermen are entangled. Could high-tech gear help save them both?

October 21, 2024 — It was a blessedly calm day as Scott Landry’s team set out in their inflatable boat to scan the glistening waters of Great South Channel between Rhode Island and Massachusetts for an endangered whale affectionately known as Wart. They were on a mission to save her life.

The group, from the nonprofit Center for Coastal Studies located in nearby Provincetown, had spent the better part of three years monitoring Wart after an aerial team spotted the North Atlantic right whale with a large piece of rope lodged in her mouth.

Instead of coming loose on its own, the fishing rope slowly tangled itself deeper into Wart’s baleens, hindering her ability to eat and reproduce. Finally, Landry’s team decided to take a more hands-on approach—a dangerous but necessary last resort.

“The first thing that people need to realize is that the animals do not know that we’re trying to help them out,” said Landry, the director of the center’s Marine Animal Entanglement Response Program. “These are just wild animals that we are approaching at a moment in their life that is quite horrible.”

Read the full article at the Maine Morning Star

NOAA confirms link between Maine lobster fishing and right whale death

October 4, 2024 — NOAA investigators have for the first time confirmed a link between the death of a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and the Maine lobster industry.

The whale, right whale #5120, was found dead off the coast of Massachusetts in January 2024, and a necropsy in February found it was entangled in gear with markings that NOAA said were consistent with rope used in Maine state water trap/pot buoy lines used for lobster fishing.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Exploring ropeless gear for sustainable lobster fishing

October 1, 2024 — On Thursday, August 29, 2024, NOAA Fisheries hosted a webinar looking at the future of ropeless, or pop-up, gear for the New England lobster fishery. NOAA’s Jennifer S. Goebel pointed out that the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team had recommended that large swaths of the Gulf of Maine and waters south of Cape Cod be subject to emergency closures and open to fishing with ropeless gear only.

Goebel noted, however, that the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries are currently in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act; “the recommendations from the team were put on hold.” Goebel cited other legislation that calls for innovation in the adoption of gear technology as justification for efforts aimed at developing ropeless gear. “That seems to support the development of ropeless gear,” Goebel said, before outlining a 4-year plan to develop the technology and have final rules in place.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

In celebration of National Lobster Day

September 26, 2024 — Every year on September 25, the United States celebrates National Lobster Day. In 2015, Maine Senators Angus King and Susan Collins established it to recognize the importance of this crustacean to the country’s history and culture.

So to further celebrate the lobstermen and women on National Fisherman, we decided to share a few of our favorite articles all about lobster. Show some support to your local fishermen this week and buy some seafood!

In January 2024, the University of New England launched an ambitious research endeavor, decoding the genetic underpinnings of colored lobsters. The hope to unveil the reason behind the crazy-colored crustaceans may be closer than we think.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Off the Menu: Lobster is not the luxury meal it once was

September 17, 2024 — There was a time not all that many years ago when the restaurant industry marketed lobster as a luxury item. With the exception of shoreside clam shacks and resort eateries, enjoying lobster was mostly a white-tablecloth experience.

These days, however, lobster is seemingly everywhere – in lobster rolls, as part of grilled cheese sandwiches, and as a mac & cheese mix-in. Restaurants at all price points are featuring lobster: This summer, chains like Friendly’s and 99 Restaurants had lobster rolls on their menus. Even independents are on the lobster bandwagon, as exemplified by Villa Napoletana in East Longmeadow, where a month-long lobster menu promotion is underway.

The industry’s appetite for lobster seems almost limitless. Cousins Maine Lobster, the food truck franchisor whose menu is lobster-dominated, this month announced plans to open another 250 outlets over the next five years. Some industry experts predict future demand for lobster to continue to grow at an 8%-plus rate

Read the full article at Mass Live

Knives out on Maine-Canada border as lobster fishery gray zone dispute gets pointed over poaching accusations

September 16, 2024 — A long-running dispute over lobster fishing rights on the disputed border between the Canadian province of New Brunswick and the U.S. state of Maine is heating up.

After being “harassed, threatened, and attacked” with shotguns, knives, and bear spray, Canadian fisheries enforcement officers appear to be pulling back on enforcement efforts, with as many as many as 35 percent of agents assigned to marine patrols in the area refusing to report for duty, according to Union of Health and Environment Workers President Shimen Fayad. Fayad’s union represents fishery enforcement officers across Canada, including around 100 conservation and protection supervisors and fishery officers in Nova Scotia and southwestern New Brunswick.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource