Saving Seafood

New England Fishery Management Council to meet for three days next week

January 28, 2022 — The New England Fishery Management Council will hold its February meeting over the course of three days next week with opportunities for the public to listen live and provide input.

The council will also devote the meeting’s third day meeting to groundfish issues, allowing for extensive discussion of the final report from the Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Workshops, and important issues related to the 2023 Atlantic Cod Research Track Assessment, according to a press release. The council will also make recommendations on recreational measures for Gulf of Maine cod and Gulf of Maine haddock for the 2022 fishing year.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

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

MAINE: Future looks dire for lobster fishery, coastal economy

January 18, 2022 — The federal government has signaled its intention to nearly eliminate rope fishing for lobsters over 10 years, but the entire fishery may be closed even sooner than that, according to Pat Keliher, Maine Department of Marine Resources commissioner.

The reason: to save the endangered right whale.

Fishermen say there aren’t any right whales in the Gulf of Maine. The government not only says that there are, but recently announced they’re dying off even faster than previously thought.

“We think the threat of the closure of the fishery is increasingly significant,” Keliher said at a virtual Lobster Advisory Council Meeting on December 15.

He said the lobster industry faces multiple perils.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay 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

 

Climate change could end Maine’s lobster boom, some fear

January 11, 2022 — Among the deep underwater valleys off Maine’s craggy, crooked coast crawls one of the must lucrative species in American waters — Homarus americanus, the American lobster.

For almost 20 years, record haul numbers padded the pockets of Maine lobstermen, but with landings declining for five straight years, many wonder how the industry will survive the impacts of climate change.

Last year, Maine’s commercial lobstermen landed $500 million worth, and many of the most successful lobstermen pocket upward of $500,000 each.

Data show the Gulf of Maine is rapidly warming, pushing lobsters farther north and into deeper waters, forcing lobstermen and researchers to grapple over exactly how long the boom times will last and whether they can be prolonged.

Read the full story at UPI

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’s shrimp fishery will stay closed, but regulators warm to idea of limited harvest

December 20, 2021 — Maine’s northern shrimp fishery has been closed for seven years and regulators decided Friday to continue the harvest moratorium for another three years with no signs of rebound.

But in a change, officials with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission entertained the idea of opening a small personal-use fishery at the suggestion of the Maine Department of Marine Resources and planned to look into it in the future.

A moratorium was enacted after the northern shrimp stock collapsed in 2013 and has been in place ever since. It is unclear what caused the shrimp’s downturn but recent research suggests that a species of squid that rode into the Gulf of Maine on a historic 2012 heatwave may have played a significant role.

Maine is the southernmost range of the shrimp and the gulf’s warming waters are also suspected to be part of the reason the cold-loving shrimp have struggled to bounce back, even with no commercial fishing for nearly a decade.

Read the full story at The Bangor Daily News

Clam industry growing as climate change warms New England’s waters

December 20, 2021 — Maine’s clam industry is growing as climate change warms the Gulf of Maine.

The Bangor Daily News reports northern quahogs are among the state’s fisheries that have seen increased harvest volumes and values over the past decade.

The average price of what are also known as hard clams has gone from 40 cents per pound in the 1990s to around $1.50 per pound in recent years, the newspaper reports.

Annual harvest totals have also increased since the early 2000s, reaching a record of more than two million pounds in 2019, according to the paper. The annual harvest value is around $2.6 million, up from just over $10,000 as recently as 2004.

Read the full story at WHDH

 

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section Extends Moratorium on Commercial and Recreational Fishing Through 2024

December 20, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section (Section) has extended the moratorium on commercial and recreational fishing for northern shrimp through 2024. This action responds to the results of the 2021 Stock Assessment Update, which indicates the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp population remains depleted. The 2021 summer survey indices of abundance, biomass, and recruitment were at time-series lows since this data began to be collected in 1984. Predation and other environmental factors, such as warming water temperatures continue to impact the ability of the resource to rebuild.

At the meeting, several industry members voiced support for re-opening a limited commercial fishery or possibly a personal use fishery in order to aid in the collection of data to evaluate the stock status, as well as provide socioeconomic benefits to local communities. The Section did not support opening a commercial fishery due to the negative impact this would likely have on the stock. However, the Section did consider opening a small recreational fishery consisting of a two-week season, three-trap limit per person, and a 25 pound possession limit. Ultimately, the Section did not pursue this management option due to concerns about stock status, equitable access to the resource, the difficulty of preventing the illegal sale of shrimp, controlling effort, and monitoring harvest levels.

Given the continued poor condition of the resource, the extremely low likelihood of being able to fish sustainably, and the value of maximizing spawning potential to rebuild the stock if environmental conditions improve, the Section determined that a continuation of the moratorium was the best course of action. This decision aligns with the primary management objective within the Northern Shrimp Fishery Management Plan that requires the Section to protect and maintain the stock at sustainable levels that support a viable fishery. An additional FMP objective requires the Section to minimize the adverse impacts the shrimp fishery may have on other natural resources, including other commercially important fish that prey on northern shrimp.

The Section received a work group progress update on evaluating management strategies for northern shrimp given changes in species abundance. The Section agreed that this work should be continued with particular focus on further developing a management option for recreational fishing that allows for the personal consumption of harvested shrimp. The work group was also directed to explore how the northern shrimp fishery would be managed if the Commission relinquished control of the fishery management plan. Since future funding for the summer shrimp survey remains uncertain, the Section also tasked the work group with discussing options for maintaining stock assessment updates without the data that this survey provides. The work group will continue to discuss these topics in consultation with representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board, the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee, and the Northern Shrimp Advisory Panel.

Finally, the Section elected Senator David Miramant of Maine as Section Vice-Chair. Section members thanked Raymond Kane of Massachusetts for his two years of service as Chair; Ritchie White of New Hampshire is the new incoming Chair.

The 2021 Stock Assessment Update is available athttp://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/61bd06a5NShrimpAssessmentUpdateReport_2021.pdf. For more information, please contact Dustin Colson Leaning, Fishery Management Coordinator, atdleaning@asmfc.org.

 

New England shrimp fishery to stay shuttered as waters warm

December 17, 2021 — New England’s commercial shrimp fishery will remain shut down because of concerns about the health of the crustacean’s population amid warming ocean temperatures.

The cold-water shrimp were once a winter delicacy in Maine and beyond, but the fishing industry has been shut down since 2013. A board of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted on Friday to keep the fishery shuttered for at least three more years.

The shrimp prefer cold water and their population health is imperiled by the warming of the ocean off New England. The Gulf of Maine, in particular, is warming faster than most of the world’s ocean.