August 15, 2019 — Mercury levels in seafood can shift as fish seek new sources of prey and as water temperatures warm due to climate change, according to a recent study.
The new study, published in Nature, illustrates that even as global human-driven mercury emissions are declining, warming oceans and shifting predator-prey relationships caused by human fishing practices could still be major drivers of mercury in seafood.
August 15, 2019 — The word “extinction” has been thrown around a lot lately by environmental groups that believe that Northern right whales are on the verge of just that. Though right whales number more than 8,000 in the Southern Hemisphere, only 400 to 500 are believed to be in the Northern Hemisphere.
Fishermen, whose only master is Mother Nature, and who have been admired over the years for their tenacity and independence, now have been cast as the villain in the whale story. Large, well-funded, out-of-state environmental groups would have you believe that these whales are going extinct and that Maine fishing gear entanglement is a major reason why.
These groups have proposed things like ropeless fishing and refuse to believe that ideas like this are not practical in Maine. Can you imagine how a fisherman could set his 20- to 30-trap trawl into water 300 to 400 feet deep, not knowing where any of his competitors’ trawls might have been set days before? As if hauling long trawls in deep water isn’t dangerous enough, hauling up one’s trawl with another one or two draped over it can be life-threatening.
August 14, 2019 — Angry Maine lobstermen are telling federal fisheries managers they want definitive proof that their gear is entangling endangered North Atlantic right whales. Until then, they say, the feds should back off from proposed rules that could force them to modify their gear and remove half their rope from the water.
More than 60 lobstermen turned out in Machias on Monday night for the first of four federal “scoping” meetings in Maine to discuss the proposed gear changes. Federal officials had hoped to hear specifics about how the new rules might change the way they harvest lobster, and what it might cost them.
But what they met was a chorus of criticism.
August 14, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) Atlantic herring fishery is projected to have harvested 92% of the Period 2 allocation by August 17, 2019. Beginning 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, August 18, 2019, the Area 1A fishery will move to zero landing days through August 31, 2019, as specified in Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring.
Vessels participating in other fisheries may not possess more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip per day harvested from Area 1A. In addition, all vessels traveling through Area 1A must have all seine and mid-water trawl gear stowed.
August 14, 2019 — Federal regulators working to protect right whales need better data or they will hit the wrong target – Maine’s lobster industry, U.S. Sen. Angus King said.
A surprise guest Tuesday night at a meeting at Ellsworth High School, King joined Maine lobstermen in criticizing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials for considering regulation changes that they say could make lobstering much more expensive and unsafe in order to save the endangered whales.
“There’s no question that I, and I suspect all of you, are concerned about the future of the species,” King said. “The question is, how do we save it? And how do you [hit] the right target? My problem is that when most of these rule changes affect the Gulf of Maine, where it doesn’t appear the whales are, it’s like bombing Brazil after Pearl Harbor.”
August 13, 2019 — Lobsterman Charlie Smith has already paid a steep price to protect the right whale, an endangered species that he has never even seen in a long career spent at sea, much less found entangled in his fishing rope.
When the Jonesport lobsterman raises his left hand, it is clear that he has lost the ends of several fingers, ripped off several years ago by a tangle of weighted rope that fishermen were ordered to use in 2009 to protect right whales.
“That’s what happened here to these fingers,” said Smith, holding up his hand, at a National Marine Fisheries Service hearing Monday night. “The rope got all chafed up. There’s all kind of stories from sinking ground line. What comes next?”
About 70 fishermen came to the first fisheries service public meeting in Maine on the latest round of lobster rule changes being considered to protect the endangered whales. They expressed safety fears and their mounting frustration.
The state’s $485 million-a-year lobster industry is facing a federal mandate to lower the number of buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine by 50 percent to protect right whales. Fishermen worry the rules will make their jobs less profitable and more dangerous.
August 12, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Jim Ford has been fishing in the Gulf of Maine since he was in sixth grade. Ford’s first job was working as a deckhand on party boats. Later, he began operating a small gillnet vessel and a small trawler, in addition to longlining. He currently owns and operates the Lisa Ann III, a 50-foot dragger. He targets groundfish from his home port of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
In 2018, we issued an exempted fishing permit to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to create a pilot project to test electronic monitoring in the Northeast. Ford signed up as one of the first project participants, and currently uses electronic monitoring on 100 percent of his trips.
When I met Ford on his boat on a foggy May morning, he showed me the equipment he uses. In the wheelhouse, there’s a monitor with a four-way split screen that shows him the feed from the four cameras on his boat. In order to record all of the catch coming onboard, two cameras are positioned above the trawl net off the back of his boat. Two are above the deck to give a bird’s eye perspective.
August 12, 2019 — Federal officials will meet with fishermen and other members of the public in a series of meetings about possible changes to rules designed to protect vulnerable whales.
A federal team has called for gear modifications and a reduction of the vertical trap lines in the Gulf of Maine to reduce the risk of entanglement, injury and of death of North Atlantic right whales, which number about 400, by 60 percent.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it’s looking for comments on the new management options, which have been highly criticized by some lobster stakeholders and public officials, particularly in Maine.
August 6, 2019 — For the first time, the Atlantic mackerel — native to the Gulf of Maine — has been added to a federal list of overfished species.
The listing appeared in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2018 Status of U.S. Fisheries Annual Report to Congress.
The report details the status of 479 managed stocks or stock complexes in the U.S. to identify which stocks are subject to overfishing, are overfished, or are rebuilt to sustainable levels, according to a news release.
Although the number of U.S. fish stocks subject to overfishing remains at a near all-time low, the Atlantic mackerel was added to the list for the first time.
August 5, 2019 — Pacific Northwest king (chinook) and silver (coho) salmon runs plagued by drought and warmer ocean waters are new additions to the overfished species list in the federal 2018 Status of U.S. Fisheries released Friday.
In the Atlantic, bigeye tuna joined the overfished list — reflecting the continuing inability of international regulators to rein in other nations’ fleets in the eastern Atlantic. For the first time, Atlantic mackerel between North Carolina and Maine are declared overfished, based on a first comprehensive assessment.
The good news, according to NOAA, is that rebuilding sustainable fisheries is still on its slow upward track since 2000, with 45 stocks now declared rebuilt. The latest is the Gulf of Maine smooth skate, after a 9-year rebuilding effort that included a prohibition on landings.
That success follows the 2016 rebuilding of barndoor skate in New England waters. “The renewed fishing opportunity and market for barndoor skate wings, following its rebuilt status, may lay the market foundation for a smooth skate fishery in the future,” the annual NMFS report noted.