Saving Seafood

2021 was the hottest year on record in the Gulf of Maine, new data show

March 29, 2022 — Scientists say the highest water temperatures ever in the Gulf of Maine were recorded last year.

The Gulf is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet, and fishermen are noticing signs of the change.

Data released by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute show that last year surface water temperatures in the Gulf were on average a half-degree higher than the previous record, with record highs recorded on 169 days — almost half the year.

The Gulf experienced what scientists now call a “marine heatwave” for the entire year.
“As unusually warm as 2021 was in a historical context, it’s likely to be one of the coolest years we’ll experience going forward, especially if we’re not able to reduce greenhouse gas emission globally,” says the institute’s David Reidmiller.

Reidmiller says the latest data punctuate a decades-long trend that shows no sign of abating.

“The warming trend is unequivocal in the Gulf of Maine. It’s been going on now for decades, and from a climatological sense we are assuredly in a new regime,” Reidmiller says.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio

Gulf of Maine waters spiked to record warm temperatures in fall 2021

February 3, 2022 — Anyone who enjoyed the ocean last fall may have noticed the water felt unseasonably warm. That’s because it was.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute reported last month that between September and November 2021, the sea surface temperatures of water off the coast of Maine were the warmest ever recorded.

How much warmer are we talking about? Close to six degrees Fahrenheit warmer on any given day than the average, according to David Reidmiller, Climate Change Director at GMRI. The sea surface temperatures hovered around 60 degrees almost through the month of October.

Warming ocean waters are a global trend, but in 2010 scientists really started to notice an increase in the warming trend in the Gulf of Maine, which lies from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia and extends several miles into the open ocean.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

 

Waters off New England hit record fall temperature in ’21

January 19, 2022 — A body of water off New England and Canada had its warmest fall surface temperatures on record last year, a Maine science center reported.

The Gulf of Maine has long been a focus of climate scientists because it is warming faster than most of the world’s oceans. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute said last week that average sea surface temperatures in the gulf reached 59.9 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 degrees Celsius).

Read the full story from the Associated Press

Gulf of Maine waters warmed to highest fall temperatures on record

January 13, 2022 — The Gulf of Maine – which has been warming faster than 96 percent of the world’s ocean areas – experienced its warmest fall surface water temperatures on record last year in what scientists tracking it call a “distinct regime shift” for the ecosystem.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland announced its findings Wednesday in its seasonal warming report, which showed average sea surface temperatures in the gulf hit 59.9 degrees, or more than 4 degrees above the long-term average.

Last fall’s figures exceeded even those in the infamous “Northwest Atlantic Ocean heat wave” of 2012, which triggered a two-year explosion in green crabs that devoured clams and eelgrass meadows and led to the starvation of puffin chicks. That warming cycle also triggered the early shedding of Maine lobsters, which fueled armed confrontations between Canadian lobstermen and truckers trying to carry the soft-shell boon to New Brunswick processing plants at the height of Canada’s own lobstering season.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Portland Press Herald

 

Pingree Announces $500K in USDA Funding to Support Growing Aquaculture Industry in Maine

December 10, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree:

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded a $500,000 grant to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) to establish a comprehensive aquaculture workforce training system to support Maine’s rapidly growing aquaculture industry.

“Maine’s aquaculture industry is vital to our state’s economy but needs a skilled workforce to continue to grow and innovate. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute has developed a forward-thinking solution. This comprehensive, collaborative training program will train aquaculturists with in-demand knowledge and skills, helping students to secure good jobs and supporting the workforce needs of this important sector,” said Congresswoman Pingree. “As a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, I have long worked to secure funding for these NIFA grants, which have helped to launch many careers in the nation’s food and agriculture sector. This substantial NIFA award will help ensure Maine’s aquaculture industry reaches its full potential now and in the future.”

The funding will:

  • Help GMRI develop and pilot a Maine Department of Labor Aquaculture (ME DOL) Aquaculture Apprenticeship Program where participants will gain valuable experience, receive mentoring, get trained and tested on defined occupational competencies, and learn to use cutting-edge technology at Maine’s most sophisticated commercial shellfish and sea vegetable farms.
  • Develop and administer a series of stackable, credentialed, aquaculture short courses at Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) that form the basis of an Aquaculture Certificate.
  • Update the Maine Aquaculture Occupational Standards for Shellfish and Sea Vegetables, Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, and Marine Finfish to ensure that aquaculture workforce training remains relevant to Maine’s rapidly evolving and growing industry.
  • Coordinate program development and delivery between SMCC, Washington County Community College, The Mid-Coast School of Technology (K-9 Career Technical Education High School), and ME DOL Apprenticeship to establish matriculation pathways and dual-credit programs that enable fast-tracked degree completion.

The programming developed will have the potential to be expanded to other community colleges in Maine and throughout the Northeast.

In April 2021, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center in Walpole was awarded $500,000 from NIFA to develop an aquaculture workforce training pilot in partnership with Washington County Community College.

Pingree serves on both the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and the House Agriculture Committee.

 

Maine relies on its marine life, but climate change will alter what that means

October 28, 2021 — Steve Train used to finish work by 1pm. In those days, Mr Train—who has worked as a lobsterman in Maine for more than 30 years—didn’t have to travel far to find the critters. Now he sometimes wraps up closer to 4pm. Some lobsters are still close to shore, but rising temperatures have pushed many of them into deeper, cooler waters that take longer to reach. Where Mr Train will find the creatures has turned into something of a guessing game. “More of us are hunting all the time,” he says, as he sips a mezcal margarita from Luke’s Lobster, a waterfront restaurant in Portland’s historic Old Port. This is where he docks his boat, sells his catch and, three or four days a week, stops in for lunch (often a lobster BLT, lobster roll or fried haddock bites). Lobstering is more than a job, he says. “It’s a culture.”

Warming waters have done more than change lobstermen’s schedules—they have disrupted entire ecosystems, the Gulf of Maine among them. The Gulf of Maine’s waters have warmed faster than 99% of the world’s ocean over the past 30 years. Experts attribute some of that to changing currents. The effects of the Gulf Stream from the south have grown stronger and have begun to constrict the flow of the Labrador current, which delivers cold water from the North Atlantic to the Gulf of Maine. “The magnitude of change is really going to be dependent on how much water temperatures change,” says Kathy Mills, a research scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. So far, the heat has altered the patterns of the state’s two most profitable species, lobsters and soft-shell clams, with some experts and industry folk worried about the potential for further population declines. Maine’s overall commercial landings brought in more than $500m last year, but maintaining those profits will require flexibility—at the least, it means acknowledging the gulf may look vastly different in years to come.

Read the full story at The Economist

 

Aramark partners with GMRI to up New England seafood sourcing

October 5, 2021 — Major U.S. hospitality supplier Aramark is committing to increase local seafood sourcing in New England via a partnership with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).

Coinciding with the start of National Seafood Month, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-based Aramark said in a press release that all of its higher education, healthcare, and business dining accounts in New England will pursue several local sustainable sourcing goals over the next three years.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Gulf of Maine Research Institute will use $750K grant to expand region’s ‘blue economy’

October 4, 2021 — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute, a Portland-based marine nonprofit, was awarded $749,815 for its Blue Economy Initiative, which is developing a collaborative commercialization platform for the marine-related startup sector.

The money follows a federal grant of $749,856 awarded to the initiative in April to help seafood businesses recover from the pandemic.

The new funding, from the federal Economic Development Administration, aims to enhance the global competitiveness of the Gulf of Maine seafood industry, create high-quality jobs, and generate blue economy entrepreneurship, according to a news release.

“Between changing ocean conditions due to climate change and supply chain challenges brought on by the pandemic, Maine’s seafood and fishing industries need our support now more than ever,” U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District, said in the release.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

Artificial intelligence to help New England fishermen be more eco-friendly

August 3, 2021 — New England Marine Monitoring is working on making things easier for fishermen here in Maine and across the region. To do that, the nonprofit is implementing new technology like better video review platforms, better cameras on boats, and increased artificial intelligence, which CEO Mark Hager said is the most exciting.

New England Marine Monitoring, in partnership with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and Vesper, is developing artificial intelligence for fishermen.

Shamit Grover, a partner at Vesper, said while Vesper is not a fishing company, it can still help collect data that will help the fishing industry.

“We think we can create solutions that will be really helpful to fishermen,” he said.

The goal is to make commercial fishing both economically and ecologically better. Hager added that artificial intelligence will be able to get through much of the “white noise” on a vessel as it’s moving around looking for fish, and the video will create a colorful box around the fish.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Gulf of Maine Research Institute Announces Sale of New England Marine Monitoring

July 23, 2021 — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) has sold New England Marine Monitoring, Inc. (NEMM) to Vesper Company.

NEMM is a leader in video electronic monitoring technology and services for fisheries. Its technology solutions lower the cost of monitoring relative to traditional human at-sea monitors and also improves data quality. Founded by Mark Hager, NEMM was one of GMRI’s first ventures to support and grow the region’s waterfront economy and ocean technology markets. Now, thanks to the sale to Vesper Company, a private firm that partners with entrepreneurs, NEMM will be able to grow its service to New England’s fishing fleet and develop its technology platform.

Read the full story at Seafood News