Saving Seafood

One of Connecticut’s last lobstermen sticks with it, despite his near empty hauls

December 14, 2021 — For the better part of a half century, the waters of Long Island Sound allowed Michael Grimshaw a good living. Now, he’s holding fast to a dwindling hope that the ocean’s bottom still has something — anything — to give.

Grimshaw is believed to be the last full-time commercial lobsterman in Connecticut — still plying a fishery that was once thick with boats and rich with opportunity.

His youngest son preparing bait and his elderly, former mother-in-law readying claw bands, Grimshaw, 65, prodded his aging boat into the choppy harbor late one summer morning, well after most fishermen have put to sea.

Suited up in his wet gear, he was soon hauling up traps from the dark waters, one after another. Out of 10 traps, he snared some spider crabs and a few pogies. None contained a lobster.

“It’s embarrassing — terrible, really,” said Grimshaw, who continues to raise hundreds of traps a week, even though he claims to have retired. “I used to be the big dog; now, I’m the puppy.”

During his glory days in the late 1990s, when he competed with hundreds of other commercial lobstermen in the area for a multimillion-dollar annual catch, his traps used to bring up as much as a few thousand pounds a day of the coveted crustaceans. A good day now amounts to maybe 50 pounds.

The main culprit? Climate change.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

 

NOAA proposes National Estuarine Research Reserve in Connecticut

September 2, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA: 

NOAA and the State of Connecticut are asking for public comment on a proposal to designate a national estuarine research reserve in Long Island Sound. Estuarine reserves protect a section of an estuary and provide a living laboratory to explore and understand important areas where rivers meet the sea, thus promoting understanding and informed management of coastal habitats. If designated, this estuarine reserve in the southeastern part of the Constitution State would become the 30th such reserve in the national estuarine reserve system and the first in Connecticut.

“This proposal for an estuarine reserve in Connecticut demonstrates this Administration’s commitment to conservation and addressing the impacts of climate change,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “Protecting our special places and making them accessible for future generations improves our planet, our people, and our economy.”

Within the boundaries of an estuarine reserve, communities and scientists work together to address natural resource management issues, such as nonpoint source pollution, habitat restoration, and invasive species, on a local scale. Estuarine reserves contribute to the national effort to make the coasts more resilient to natural and human-made changes. Our nation gained its most recent estuarine reserve in January 2017, when the state of Hawaii designated the only reserve in the Pacific Islands.

“Partnerships are what make the estuarine reserve system successful,” said Nicole LeBoeuf, director of NOAA’s National Ocean Service. “Each reserve brings together local stakeholders, scientists, land management professionals, and educators to understand coastal management issues and generate local, integrated solutions, while leveraging nation-wide programs.”

NOAA and the State of Connecticut will jointly hold two public hearings via webinar on October 7 to solicit public input on the draft environmental impact statement and draft management plan for the Connecticut estuarine reserve. Additionally, the comment period remains open through October 18, 2021. Connecticut, in collaboration with NOAA, then plans to prepare the final environmental impact statement and final management plan. Thereafter, NOAA plans to prepare designation findings and a record of decision. If the designation process follows its anticipated timeline, the estuarine reserve could be designated as early as January 2022.

 

‘We went to zero’: Connecticut shellfishermen seeking pandemic rebound

September 1, 2021 — Bobbing up and down in 194 feet of water in Long Island Sound on Tuesday, lobsterman Mike Kalaman made a point to boast about his favorite fishing grounds to the delegation of state lawmakers aboard his boat, The Dark Horse.

Pointing to the waters just beyond one of his blue-and-yellow buoys, Kalaman showed Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff where the border between Connecticut and New York crossed the Sound, adding that the water on the other side of the imaginary line was generally more shallow and less attractive for lobsters.

“Connecticut is blessed to have all this deep water,” Kalaman said, gesturing across the area he has spent four decades fishing.

Duff joined three other state senators Tuesday morning for a tour aboard Kalaman’s 36-foot lobster boat and the oyster fleet operated by Copps Island Oysters in Norwalk to learn about Connecticut’s shellfish industry amid ongoing environmental threats and more recent disruption caused by the pandemic.

Norm Bloom, the owner of Copps Island Oysters, said the health of the industry has been boosted by long-term efforts to curb pollution and improve water quality in Long Island Sound.

Read the full story at CT Insider

Connecticut official says “menhaden are most abundant fish in the sea”

August 4, 2021 — It’s the time of year when fish abound in the region’s rivers, lakes and Long Island Sound, and also a time when some fish are dying.

While it’s an annual event, die-offs of menhaden, or bunkers, is most likely larger this year because of all the rain the state had in July, according to David Molnar, senior marine fisheries biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Another factor is that because of fish management, “menhaden are at an all-time high abundance. They are the most abundant fish in the sea,” he said.

Bunker serve as food for larger fish, ospreys and whales, as well as fertilizers, animal feed and bait for crab and lobster, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

They are saltwater fish but all the rain has reduced the salinity in the rivers, Molnar said. “Typically, the saltwater wedge in the Connecticut River can go all the way to Haddam,” he said. Now, it’s fresh water all the way to the breakwater.

At Shoreline towns such as Lyme, “as far as you can see are schools of menhaden,” Molnar said. “It’s an amazing sight. There are thousands and thousands of them.”

But in Guilford, for example, the problem in the West River, which Molnar called “a beautiful system, good water quality,” is that too many fish crowd in, creating school-induced hypoxia. “As the water temperature increases, they consume all the oxygen” and become stressed. Then, “diseases and parasites that they harbor” are able to flourish, killing even more fish.

Molnar said the bunker have been swimming in the West River since May, but the heavy rains in July brought too much fresh water, pushing the salt water out. “This is the third-wettest July in 100 years. That’s a lot of water,” Molnar said.

Read the full story at the New Haven Register

CONNECTICUT: Stonington fishermen fight for their livelihoods: A look at the fleet’s past, present and tenuous future

July 22, 2021 — At 3:20 a.m. Wednesday, the fishing boat Tradition, its deck awash in flood lights, eased out of the south pier of the Town Dock and headed out into Stonington Harbor. A few minutes later, the Jenna Lynn II followed, gliding through the placid water on the way to its fishing grounds.

The two boats would return Wednesday afternoon to unload their catches on the dock.

This scene has taken place here for more than 250 years as fishermen and lobstermen from the Town Dock and other borough piers have left home in search of fish, lobster and scallops in waters as close as Block Island and Long Island sounds and as far away as Georges Bank and Hudson Canyon.

While they have weathered storms, the loss of 41 fleet members at sea, declining catches and restrictions on how much fish they can land, the aging group of mostly men who make up the Town Dock Fleet now face a set of new challenges that threatens their future and that of the state’s last surviving commercial fleet.

These include the difficulty of luring young people into a grueling but potentially lucrative occupation and the leasing of vast areas of their fishing grounds to offshore wind energy companies that plan to erect hundreds of massive turbines.

“A lot of these men have sacrificed a lot to keep Stonington a viable fishing community,” said Joe Gilbert, who owns four large scallop and fishing boats at the dock.

To a man, they say the general public does not have a good understanding of or appreciation for what they do.

Read the full story at The Day

New rules to limit New England herring fishing to start

February 10, 2021 — New restrictions that will limit commercial herring fishing off New England take effect on Wednesday.

Atlantic herring are the source of a major East Coast fishery. They’re used as food and bait. Concerns about the size of the population motivated federal regulators to craft new rules about herring fishing.

The rules prohibit certain kinds of fishing in inshore federal waters from the border of the U.S. and Canada to the border of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The rules state they are designed to bring sustainability to the species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Milford Mirror

Pandemic aid available for those in Connecticut’s fishing industry

October 19, 2020 — People who work in the commercial fishing industry in Connecticut can now apply for Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act assistance.

According to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the federal CARES Act provided $300 million in aid for “marine fishery participants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Connecticut received $1,835,424 from the CARES Act Assistance to Fishery Participants but had to submit a spending plan for approval to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

DEEP, in consultation with the state Department of Agriculture, developed a plan, the final iteration of which was submitted for review on Aug. 7 and it was approved by NOAA on Oct. 9

Read the full story at The Day

Lengthy Process, Little to Show for Connecticut Fisheries

October 16, 2020 — Nearly seven months after the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law, eligible fisheries and related businesses can apply for $1.8 million in economic aid through the CARES Assistance to Fishery Participants (CAAFP) program.

On March 27, the CARES Act authorized U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to allocate $300 million in financial assistance to states, tribes and territories with coastal and marine fisheries that were negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) then made awards to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Connecticut is part of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which also includes Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

From the $300 million, 31 entities received funding. Connecticut’s allocation was $1.8 million, the 9th lowest on the list. Rhode Island received $3.3 million, New York received $6.7 million, New Jersey received $11.3 million, and Massachusetts received $28 million. Alaska and Washington received the highest amounts at $50 million each.

Read the full story at The Connecticut Examiner

Mississippi, Connecticut join list of states with approved CARES Act spend plans

October 15, 2020 — Mississippi and Connecticut have been added to the growing list of states that have received CARES Act spend plan approval from NOAA Fisheries.

The two states will receive an allocated portion of the USD 300 million (EUR 256 million) that was released in May in order to offset negative revenue impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of that sum, Connecticut will receive just over USD 1.8 million (EUR 1.5 million) and Mississippi will receive a little more than USD 1.5 million (EUR 1.3 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Celebrating Aquaculture Week 2020

September 24, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

This week NOAA Fisheries and our partners will celebrate National Aquaculture Week. NOAA Fisheries and its predecessor agencies have been involved in aquaculture for more than 125 years, pioneering fish culture methods and stock enhancement techniques to replenish wild stocks. Many culture, hatching, and rearing techniques currently used by the industry worldwide were developed in NOAA labs, such as the Milford, Connecticut lab for mollusks; the Manchester, Washington, lab for salmon; and the Galveston, Texas lab for shrimp.

Marine aquaculture is an important part of the agency’s strategy for economic and environmental resiliency in coastal communities and supporting healthy oceans. In 2017, US aquaculture producers raised 32 million pounds of salmon, 36 million pounds of oysters, and 9 million pounds of clams along the nation’s coast. In total, farm-raised seafood accounted for 21 percent of the U.S. seafood production by value in 2017. Around the nation in many fishing and coastal communities, aquaculture is creating important economic opportunities and year-round employment.

Read the full release here