Saving Seafood

MAINE: Maine’s Department of Marine Resources reopens menhaden harvest on August 31

August 28, 2026 — Maine’s Department of Marine Resources announced that commercial menhaden (pogy) harvesting will reopen at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, August 31, using quota transfers from other Atlantic states.

On August 20, the DMR had announced that it was discontinuing commercial pogy harvesting under the Episodic Event Set Aside effective at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 21.

Working through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission with other Atlantic states, the DMR is arranging quota transfers, which will allow the fishery to reopen on August 31.

Read the full article at The Weekly Packet

Commission could revisit how menhaden quota is divided among states

August 17, 2026 — Atlantic menhaden management could face another major discussion this fall, this time over how the coastwide catch is divided among East Coast states.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is expected to consider in November whether to begin a process to reallocate state menhaden quotas, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), which is pushing for changes to a system based largely on historical landings.

TRCP argues the current allocations no longer reflect where menhaden are being found or how fishermen use the resource today.

Virginia receives more than 75 percent of the state allocation, supporting the East Coast’s only remaining large-scale menhaden reduction fishery, operated by Omega Protein and supplied by Ocean Harvesters. Farther north, menhaden are an important bait source for lobster, crab and other commercial fisheries, with states relying in part on set-asides and quota transfers to meet demand.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ASMFC petitioned to consider menhaden reallocation, will make decision on fishery cap in Chesapeake

August 13, 2026 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is being petitioned to initiate a reallocation process for the menhaden fishery as it also considers its options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap by up to 50 percent.

The menhaden fishery is spread across the U.S. east coast, and allocated across several U.S. states, with each state getting a different share of the fishery. Historically the U.S. state of Virginia has received the largest portion of the quota, and has also been the largest fisher of the species, with companies like Omega Protein and Ocean Harvesters processing and harvesting most of the catch, respectively.

Now, conservation groups are petitioning the ASMFC to reallocate the quota of the fishery, claiming the shifting patterns of the species mean the quotas should shift too.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Elver harvest tops $13 million as season winds down

May 31, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — With the end of Maine’s annual elver fishing season quickly approaching, the fishery has generated the third-highest total in yearly landings revenue in the past 23 years, according to state officials.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, May 26, elver fishermen throughout Maine had caught and sold nearly 9,270 pounds of the baby American eels for an estimated statewide gross revenue total just shy of $13.32 million, officials with Maine Department of Marine Resources indicated on the agency’s website. The annual statewide harvest limit for elvers in Maine is 9,688 pounds.

That preliminary value trails only the statewide totals from 2012 and 2013, when there was no limit on the amount of elvers that Maine fishermen could catch between late March and the end of May, when the season used to close each year. In those years, Maine’s elver fishery respectively generated $40.3 million and $32.9 million in statewide gross revenues for the 900 or so licensed elver fishermen in the state. The catch volume totals for those years were 21,600 pounds in 2012 and 18,000 pounds in 2013.

The 2016 season is expected to end either on June 7 or when the statewide quota of 9,688 pounds is reached, whichever happens first.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Prosecutors get extension of deadline to indict New Bedford fishing magnate

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (March 28, 2016) — Prosecutors have received an extension of the deadline to indict local fishing magnate Carlos Rafael, a U.S. District Court spokesperson confirmed Friday.

The length of the deadline’s extension was not disclosed.

Rafael, 63, was arrested Feb. 26 on charges of conspiracy and submitting falsified records to the government, after federal authorities raided the Carlos Seafood building on New Bedford’s waterfront.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Federal court rules against challenge to red snapper quotas

January 5, 2016 — A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the Gulf Council’s red snapper fishing quotas for the next three years.

The plaintiffs, challenged the legality of Amendment 40 to the Gulf Council’s Reef Fish Fishery Management Plan and the associated rule which sets fishing quotas and seasons for 2015-17.

The plaintiffs argued that under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Gulf Council is prohibited from regulating charter fishing separately from recreational fishing. Also, that the Gulf Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service did not “assess, specify and analyze” the economic and social effects of Amendment 40, that the amendment makes an unfair and inequitable allocation of fishing resources and the Council improperly delegated authority to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Amendment 40 defines the partitioning of the recreational sector. All four arguments were struck down.

Read the full story at the Daily Comet

Canadian government stands ground on surf clam review

December 24, 2015 — The Canadian government will not back down on a decision to order further review of a plan to expand harvesting in the country’s offshore surf clam fishery, the Chronicle-Herald reported.

The recently elected government of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is reconsidering the previous government’s plans to increase the Arctic surf clam quota for 2016, and allow new firms to enter the fishery.

In July, months before the October defeat of previous prime minister Stephen Harper, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) said science supported the expansion of the country’s offshore Atlantic surf clam fishery, with a potential increase to the total allowable catch (TAC) from 2015’s 38,756 metric tons to 52,655t, plus bycatch, in 2016.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Discovery spinning off fishing show

December 21, 2015 — NEW YORK – Makers of the popular Discovery network series “Deadliest Catch” are heading south to a fishing village in Oregon for a spinoff.

The new series, called “Deadliest Catch: Dungeon Cove,” is set to premiere next fall.

It will focus on families involved in the Dungeness crab fishing industry in Newport, Oregon, the network said Friday.

The announcement doesn’t mean that the original series, which is set to begin its 12th season in the spring, is winding down, said Joseph Boyle, Discovery’s executive producer for the show.

Discovery executives were intrigued by the spinoff proposal from Original Productions, which makes “Deadliest Catch,” he said. The original series, about fishing boats in Alaska’s Bering Sea, is one of the network’s signature programs.

Read the full story at The Journal Gazette

 

New England council votes to increase scallop catch allowance for 2016

December 11, 2015 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has elected to increase fishing days at sea for the 2016/17 scallop season.

Total landings are projected to increase on the 2015/16 season, to around 47 million pounds, NEFMC told Undercurrent News.

The council chose its final preferred recommendations for ‘framework 27’, the sea scallop management plan, at its December meeting.

Days at sea have been recommended at slightly higher levels for next year — 34.55 compared to 31, per full-time vessel, this year, while the level of catch from access areas is the same as in 2015: 51,000 pounds per full-time vessel, or about 17 million pounds in total.

All limited access trips were assigned to the Mid-Atlantic access areas. The general category individual fishing quota increased from about 3m pounds this year to about 4.5m pounds.

If approved, they will be allowed to take about 1.5m pounds of that total from access areas, mostly the Mid-Atlantic access area, and around 300,000 pounds were made available from the northern part of Nantucket Lightship.

These remain recommendations; they still need to be approved. The National Marine Fisheries Service will publish a proposed rule in several months with what it plans to implement, before taking public comment and then publishing a final rule.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News