Saving Seafood

Lobster landings post turnaround, Maine’s fisheries’ overall value second highest on record

March 5, 2019 — Maine’s lobster harvesters had a strong year in 2018, landing 119.64 million pounds.

That was an increase of nearly 8 million pounds over 2017’s figure of 111.9 million pounds, according to a Department of Marine Resources news release.

The landings peak was in 2016, when 132.6 million pounds were harvested, after four years in the range of 122 million to 127 million pounds, according to the agency’s data.

Last year was the seventh time in history that landings exceeding 110 million pounds.

At $484.544 million, the value of Maine’s lobster fishery climbed by more than $46 million over 2017 on the strength of a boat price that increased from $3.92 per-pound in 2017 to $4.05 in 2018.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, during a visit to Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport over the weekend, took the occasion to commend the work of the men and women in Maine’s fishing industry, “whose hard work drives the economy and helps support families and communities up and down the coast.”

But he also highlighted in a news release the threat to Maine’s lobster fishery posed by climate change and the increasingly warmer temperatures in the Gulf of Maine that are causing lobsters to migrate northward to cooler waters.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

New bill would change Massachusetts lobster processing laws

January 18, 2019 — The first bill introduced in the Massachusetts Senate in 2019 aims to modernize the state’s lobster processing rules and expand in-state processing.

Massachusetts currently allows only for the production and sale of live and cooked lobsters and canned lobster meat, while raw and frozen lobsters are shipped to either Maine or Canada for processing before returning to the state.

“Our state has the second-largest lobster catch in the country. Yet without this bill, raw and frozen lobster parts are processed in Canada or Maine only to be brought back to our local consumers,” said the bill’s sponsor, State Senate Majority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). “This bill modernizes those lobster laws to bolster the fishing industry and give consumers, including local restaurants and food stores, more choices, all while sustainably supporting coastal fishing communities.”

In 2017, Massachusetts lobstermen landed 16.57 million pounds of lobster for a total value of $81.54 million.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: Scallop prices variable, but comparable to last year

January 10, 2019 — The price of scallops caught in Maine waters is comparing well with previous years.

The Ellsworth American reported that harvesters were receiving prices as high as nearly $14 per pound. But in some cases, harvesters received $8.75 to $10.75 per pound, depending on meat size.

That compares with the 2017-18 scallop season, which started off with prices that were down $2 to $3 from 2016-17’s average of $12.77.

In 2017, Maine scallop harvesters landed the most scallops since 1997, bringing ashore 793,544 meat pounds, a nearly 45% jump from 2016. At $9.3 million, scallop landings had the highest overall value since 1993.

The 2018-19 season began Dec. 1. By Jan. 4, the Maine Department of Marine Resources had begun implementing its emergency rulemaking authority to implement conservation closures along parts of the coast to protect the scallop resource from the risk of depletion of broodstock and seed scallop. Called “targeted conservation closures,” they’re determined by the marine resources commissioner based on depletion, seed, the presence of spat-producing scallops and other factors.

Read the full story at Maine Biz

Why some Maine coastal communities are up in arms about aquaculture

December 10, 2018 — From oyster farms to cultivated seaweed and farm-raised salmon, aquaculture is often described as essential to the economic future of Maine’s fisheries in the face of a changing ecosystem. Warming waters from climate change are pushing lobster farther Down East and have shut down the shrimp fishery, and threats such as ocean acidification and invasive green crabs are harming Maine’s natural fisheries.

But opposition to several proposed projects suggests the hardest part of getting into aquaculture might be getting past the neighbors. All along the coast, neighbors argue that pending aquaculture ventures will create too much noise, use too much energy, attract too many birds and obstruct their opportunities for boating or lobstering. One questioned whether an oyster farm would make it hard for deer to swim from one point of land to another.

In Belfast, abutters to the land where Nordic Aquafarms hopes to put in a giant land-based farm to raise salmon have filed a lawsuit against the city, which they say hastily and secretly approved a zoning change the company needed to move forward.

In Brunswick, opponents of a proposed 40-acre oyster farm have hired not just attorneys, but a public relations expert, Crystal Canney, in the hopes of persuading the Department of Marine Resources not to approve the lease.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine awards 11 new fishing licenses for valuable baby eels

January 25, 2018 — For the first time in five years, the state has issued new licenses for Maine’s lucrative baby eel fishery.

Eleven people were chosen through a lottery that more than 3,000 Mainers hoped to win, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The deadline for submitting applications to participate was Jan. 15.

In 2013, the last time the state held the drawing, more than 5,000 people applied for the chance to win one of four new elver fishing licenses.

Each new licensee will be allowed to catch up to four pounds of baby eels, also known as elvers, which usually sell for more than $1,000 per pound. Since 2014, the average annual price paid to elver fishermen has varied from about $875 per pound to more than $2,100.

The licenses have become a hot commodity as the price for elvers has skyrocketed, driven by voracious demand in Asia for eels. In 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available, approximately 1,000 licensed Maine fishermen netted nearly $13.5 million worth of elvers.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Maine: Lobstermen reject big changes in harvester reporting rules

January 17, 2018 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Ask any lobsterman about the details of where and how he catches his bugs — what kind of bait he uses, how deep he sets his gear, how many traps on a trawl, how long those traps soak between hauls — and you’re likely to get a fisheye, if not a poke in the nose, in response.

Still, that’s the kind of information the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission wants to collect from lobstermen and Jonah crab fishermen working in the Gulf of Maine and, no surprise, the idea is unpopular.

Last Thursday, about 40 fishermen came to Ellsworth High School for a public hearing on an ASMFC proposal to increase the number of harvesters required to fill out trip-level logbooks filled with data the commission says it needs to manage the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries, primarily in the Gulf of Maine.

The Department of Marine Resources already requires 10 percent of Maine’s licensed lobster fishermen, chosen annually by lottery system, to file detailed trip-level reports of their fishing activities on a monthly basis. Lobster dealers also are required to file landings reports with DMR.

According to Megan Ware, the ASMFC fishery management plan coordinator running last week’s hearing, the commission has two main concerns about the way harvesters report data now.

First, she said, the reports don’t identify in sufficient detail exactly where fishermen are trapping the lobsters they catch, and the commission particularly wants to collect more information about lobsters landed in “nearshore” and “offshore” waters — between three and 40 miles from the coast.

Second, the 10 percent of Maine harvesters required to file reports aren’t necessarily representative of the harvesters who actually land lobsters. No one has to report two years in a row, no matter how big the harvester’s landings, and because the selection process is entirely random, it may include harvesters who fish part time or who are retired and don’t fish at all.

There is another issue with the 10 percent reporting level, Ware said. Maine harvesters account for 83 percent of lobsters landed along the East Coast, so their data is particularly important to fisheries managers.

The opposite side of that coin, though, is that even at a reduced collection level Maine’s data overwhelms the data reported by the other lobster-fishing states.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

Maine to issue new licenses for lucrative elvers for first time since 2013

November 15, 2017 — For the first time since 2013, state officials will allow new fishermen into the lucrative baby eel fishery.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources says it plans to hold a lottery to issue at least seven new licenses to harvest baby eels, or elvers, in 2018. The last time DMR issued new licenses in the fishery was in February 2013.

The state started accepting lottery applications at noon on Wednesday.

For the past four years, the fishery has generated between $8 million and $13.4 million in gross statewide annual revenue for Maine’s approximately 1,000 licensed fishermen, which includes members of Maine’s native Indian tribes. During that time, the average annual statewide price offered to fishermen has ranged from $874 to $2,171 per pound.

Each new license holder will be allowed to harvest at least four pounds of elvers during the 2018 season, which is scheduled to begin in late March. Based on 2017 prices, when Maine fishermen were paid on average just above $1,300 per pound, four pounds of elvers could amount to nearly $6,000 in income, DMR officials said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Maine weighs lottery to issue first new scallop licenses since 2009

October 18, 2017 — BANGOR, Maine — Nearly a decade after halting new licenses for scallop fishing to protect the stock from depletion, Maine is considering how to encourage new people into the fishery.

Prices for scallops remain historically high, and Maine’s scallop fishermen are getting older, prompting the state to contemplate adopting a lottery system for new licenses. The average age for licensed scallop fishermen in Maine is 51.

Maine’s Department of Marine Resources stopped issuing new scallop fishing licenses eight years ago, when the state fishery was floundering from declining stocks. A new fishery management scheme the state developed and implemented since then has helped stocks recover.

The department now wants to develop a system to start issuing new licenses again but, at the same time, protect the long-term stability of the fishery. DMR officials have said they would like to reduce the number of licenses in the fishery while simultaneously letting new people in, but they are not looking to reduce the number of licenses by a specific amount.

There are approximately 630 licensed scallop fishermen in Maine. Nearly 90 percent drag for the shellfish with nets by boat while the rest dive to collect them by hand.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Lobstermen win right to fish in coral protection zones

July 5, 2017 — Last month, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to prohibit most fishing in two prime areas off the Downeast coast, but the ban aimed at protecting deep sea corals won’t affect Maine lobstermen.

Meeting in Portland, the council approved two coral protection zones in the Gulf of Maine as part of a wider Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment.

The Outer Schoodic Ridge zone comprises a roughly rectangular area 12.8 miles long in a northeast to southwest direction and about 2.4 miles wide comprising 30.5 square miles located some 25 southeast of Mount Desert Island with water depths ranging from roughly 350 to more than 800 feet.

The five-sided Mount Desert Rock zone includes an area of 8.2 square miles with a perimeter of 13.7 miles extending southwest of the tiny islet, which lies about 20 miles south of MDI. Water depths in the coral protection zone range from 330 to 650 feet.

As part of a wider action aimed at protecting fragile deep sea corals along the Northeast Atlantic coast, the council banned the use of all bottom-tending mobile gear in the two protection zones. The prohibition includes gear such as trawls used to harvest groundfish and dredges used to harvest shellfish such as ocean quahogs and scallops.

“I’m very pleased the council struck a balance that provides protection for corals and will enable additional research on fishing gear impacts to corals, while ensuring millions of dollars of continued economic opportunity for Maine’s Downeast communities,” DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in an email last week. “I’m also grateful that industry stepped up to provide the detailed information on potential impacts that helped the council make a fully informed decision.”

Read the full story in the The Ellsworth American

This year, a welcome switch on bait supply for Maine lobstermen

June 29, 2017 — Maine lobstermen are hitting the water late this year because of cold weather, but without the cloud of a looming bait crisis hanging over them.

Bait freezers along the coast are full of herring and pogies, and even alewives, which means that bait is not only available, it is also much less expensive than last year when herring cost as much as 60 cents a pound, said Pat Keliher, commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources. This year the lobstermen’s go-to bait costs about half as much.

That’s still not a great price, Keliher said. Herring fetched about 18 cents a pound at the start of the 2015 lobstering season.

“I won’t say we’re in great shape, but we are in a heck of a lot better shape than we were last year,” Keliher said.

He attributed the strong start to basic supply-and-demand economics. When the supply of bait fish is high and demand is low, lobstermen do well.

Fishermen caught herring in the deep waters off Georges Bank earlier this year than they did in 2016, Keliher said. Although they’ve landed a little more than last year – about 19.9 percent of their quota, compared with 19.1 percent at the same time last year, according to this week’s federal landing reports – this year’s catch came early enough in the season to keep prices low.

The inshore herring fishery in the Gulf of Maine opened this month. The state is applying the same restrictions it implemented last year to stretch out this local supply of fresh herring deep into the summer, when the lobster season starts to peak. These measures include weekly landing limits, a limit on how many days a week herring can be landed, and a prohibition on the use of carrier-only fishing vessels.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald