Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: NMFS plans to end ‘Massachusetts Wedge’ exemption for trap gear

September 21, 2023 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is taking public comments until Oct. 18 on its plan to make the so-called Massachusetts Restricted Area Wedge fully covered by seasonal prohibitions on fishing trap and fish pot gear with vertical buoy lines.

The change is in a proposed amendment to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan for expanding boundaries of the Massachusetts Restricted Area to include the wedge between state and federal waters. Previously exempted from the strictest gear limits, the was closed by emergency rulemaking in 2022 and 2023 when federal officials said there was immediate risk to North Atlantic right whales from “mortality and serious injury caused by buoy lines in an area with a high co-occurrence of whales and buoy lines. This risk is expected to recur annually.”

Closing the wedge closes a gap in protection for right, fin and humpback whales from entanglement danger during the existing Massachusetts Restricted Area seasonal closure from February 1 through April 30 every year, according to the agency. Its proposed rule and draft environmental assessment can be found on the NOAA Fisheries webpage.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Maine lobster industry could receive nearly $14 million in federal aid

July 5, 2022 — Maine’s lobster industry could receive most of the $14 million the federal government is allocating to help lobstermen comply with new rules that are intended to save the critically endangered right whale from extinction.

If approved by Congress, the $14 million will be doled out to states through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to cover costs incurred by the fishing industry to comply with the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. Costs may include gear modification, configuration and marking, both in federal and state waters.

Maine is expected to receive the lion’s share of the money, since the state is home to the vast majority of the American lobster fleet. Maine lobstermen already received more than $17 million in federal aid in March as part of a $1.5 trillion omnibus funding package.

It was not clear Friday how the proposed federal funding might be allocated among Maine’s 4,500 to 5,000 licensed lobstermen.

The funding has been included in the House of Representatives’ Commerce, Justice, and Science Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations bill. The House Appropriations Committee approved the bill Friday. From there, it will be voted on by the full House.

Read the full story at The Portland Press Herald

NMFS to expand Northeast ropeless gear trials

June 1, 2022 — Up to 100 commercial lobster vessels would be allowed to test alternative gear without static vertical lines, under an exempted fishing permit application filed by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Up to 30 of those boats would be allowed to fish using so-called ropeless gear in areas where conventional lobster gear with vertical line is restricted under the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, according to a notice issued May 31 by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The permit application, to be published in the June 1 Federal Register, is subject to a public comment period through June 15. NMFS is looking to on-demand or pop-up buoy retrieval systems in the lobster fishery as a long-term solution to reducing whale entanglements in lobster gear, particularly for the highly endangered northern right whale.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine lobstermen fear disaster as new gear regulations take effect

May 2, 2022 — Doug McLennan looks out his window in South Thomaston every morning at the traps and boats in his yard and worries about the future of lobster fishing in Maine.

McLennan’s wife, Laura, is his sternman. His two sons, who have homes on either side of his driveway, are lobster fishermen, too. His great-grandfather was the legendary “Tall Barney Beal” of Jonesport, a Grand Banks fisherman and the 6-foot-6 descendent of the original settler of Beals Island, known for his incredible strength.

McLennan isn’t worried about the state of the fishery. Despite a dip in landings last year, more than 100 million pounds of lobster were hauled and their value broke records. Also, Maine’s lobstermen have a reputation for sustainable practices that preserve the stock for future generations, he said.

What worries McLennan and thousands of other Maine lobstermen is the latest round of federal regulations designed to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, and additional measures being planned for the next decade. The newest regulations took effect Sunday, though their enforcement has been delayed until supply chain issues for some of the required gear are resolved.

This is just the latest in gear regulation change required by the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, which was put in place in 1997 and has been amended several times since. The current changes comprise the first phase of a 10-year conservation plan to reduce the risk of right whale entanglements in fishing gear by 98 percent.

Many lobstermen have raised concerns about safety and the potential for gear failure and loss of expensive traps under the new rules, and they worry about what is coming next.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine Lobstering Union Files Suit for Emergency Relief Against NMFS

October 4, 2021 — The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) became the latest from the lobster industry to file a federal lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) due to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Modifications announced on August 31.

The MLU filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, seeking emergency relief related to fishing ground closures that will come into effect due to the recent modifications. Fox Island Lobster Company of Vinalhaven and Frank Thompson, a sixth-generation fisherman, who together with his wife Jean, own and operate Fox Island; and the Damon Family Lobster Company of Stonington are also Plaintiffs on the case.

The Complaint names as Defendants the Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce, and the Assistant Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NMFS.

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

Lobster Lawsuit: Maine org sues feds over right whale rules

September 28, 2021 — On Monday, Sept. 21, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit challenging NMFS’ new rule for Northeast lobster and Jonah crab fisheries.

The rule, filed on Aug. 31, is a modification of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan and is supposed to reduce the risk of entanglements to North Atlantic right whales in U.S. waters. The association says the modifications address only the perceived risk of Maine fisheries, which have no documented right whale interactions.

The lawsuit, filed against NMFS and the Secretary of Commerce in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that “the federal government’s draconian and fundamentally flawed 10‐year whale protection plan… will all but eliminate the Maine lobster fishery yet still fail to save endangered right whales.” The result would put both fishermen and whales in harm’s way, industry leaders have said.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

MAINE: New federal lobstering restrictions spark backlash from industry and elected officials

September 2, 2021 — After long hours hauling traps off the coast of South Thomaston on Wednesday, Barry Baudanza hadn’t had the chance to fully absorb all the changes headed his way after federal officials announced new rules governing the lobster industry the day before, but he knew one thing right off the bat: “This was the worst-case scenario.”

Among other changes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s newly released Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan will put more than 950 square miles of the Gulf of Maine off-limits to traditional lobstering from October through January – the area’s most lucrative season. The goal is to reduce risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales by at least 60 percent.

But lobstermen, the fishing industry and elected officials are pushing back. They say the new rules will be expensive, dangerous, burdensome and impractical, and won’t reduce the risk to whales.

And despite lobstermen’s concerns and protestations that they aren’t even seeing right whales in Maine waters, conservationists argue that the plan does not go far enough to protect the critically endangered animals.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Pot/Trap Fisheries Regulations to Help Save North Atlantic Right Whales Announced

August 31, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries and our partners are dedicated to conserving and rebuilding the North Atlantic right whale population, which is endangered, declining, and experiencing an ongoing Unusual Mortality Event.

Entanglement in commercial fishing gear is a primary cause of mortalities and serious injuries of North Atlantic right whales. Working with the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team—a group of advisors consisting of fishermen, scientists, conservationists, and state and federal officials—we have completed Phase 1 of the modifications to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan to continue to reduce whale entanglements.

Today, we are announcing the final rule to modify the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. The gear modifications required by the rule will go into effect May 1, 2022, which is the start of the American lobster/Jonah crab fishing year. The changes to the seasonally restricted areas will go into effect 30 days after the publication of this rule.

We would like to thank the many stakeholders who submitted more than 200,000 public comments on the proposed rule. The comments guided us in modifying the final rule to allow more flexibility for fishermen, while still achieving the necessary risk reduction to make a real difference for right whales. These measures will reduce the deaths and serious injuries to North Atlantic right whales due to entanglements in U.S. commercial fishing gear, and will contribute to the recovery of this endangered population.

Final Rule Measures

The rule modifies regulations for the Northeast lobster and Jonah crab trap/pot fisheries as follows:

  • Modify gear marking to introduce state-specific colors for gear marks and increase the number of gear markings and areas requiring marked lines.
  • Modify gear configurations to reduce the number of vertical lines by requiring more traps between buoy lines.
  • Require weak insertions or weak rope in buoy lines.
  • Modify existing seasonal closure/restricted areas to allow ropeless fishing.
  • Add two new seasonal restricted areas.
  • Following changes made by Massachusetts, extend the Massachusetts Restricted Area (MRA) to add state waters north to the New Hampshire border.

For More Information

For more information on the rule’s specific measures and to see outreach guides and videos please visit the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan website, or read our web story.

Questions?

Industry: Contact Marisa Trego, Take Reduction Team Coordinator, 978-282-8484

Media: Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, 978-281-9103

NMFS begins online public sessions for right whale gear rules

January 13, 2021 – New gear regulations proposed for the Northeast lobster fishery will be presented in online public sessions beginning Tuesday evening, as the National Marine Fisheries Service pitches its newest effort to meet endangered species requirements for the northern right whale.

The new package of changes to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, is NMFS’ bid to satisfy a federal court ruling that the agency must do more by May 31, 2021 to protect the East Coast right whale population, now estimated to number fewer than 400 animals and less than 100 breeding females.

The new steps aim to reduce the number of vertical lines in the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries by requiring fishermen to fit more of their traps between buoy lines.

Fishermen will need to add new weak insertions or weak rope into buoy lines, so that whales have a better chance to break free in the event of an entanglement.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Correction: Public Scoping Meetings for Modifications to Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan

August 13, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

We will be conducting eight scoping meetings this month in anticipation of preparing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for modifications to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan.

We are requesting comments on management options particularly including information about operational challenges, time, and costs required to modify gear by changing configurations such as traps per trawl to reduce endline numbers, installing new line or sleeves and by expanding gear marking requirements.

Read the full release here