Saving Seafood

Federal judge blocks lobster fishing ban in stretch of Gulf of Maine

October 18, 2021 — A federal judge in Maine on Saturday blocked a seasonal ban on traditional lobster fishing in a stretch of offshore waters in the Gulf of Maine that regulators say is needed to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale from extinction.

In his 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said regulators had relied on “markedly thin” statistical modeling instead of hard evidence to show the nearly thousand-square-mile area they had planned to close was really a hot spot for the imperiled whale.

While the area targeted for closure may be a viable habitat for the right whale, there is no hard proof the whales actually gather there, or even pass through that part of the Gulf of Maine, with enough frequency to render it a “hotspot,” Walker wrote.

The National Marine Fisheries Service had only just this year deployed acoustic devices along the Maine coast that can detect the presence of right whales through their song, Walker noted. When available, such evidence of a hot spot is preferable to statistical likelihoods.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Squid a possible culprit in Gulf of Maine shrimp’s demise

October 14, 2021 — Maine’s shrimp fishery has been closed for nearly a decade since the stock’s collapse in 2013. Scientists are now saying a species of squid that came into the Gulf of Maine during a historic ocean heatwave the year before may have been a “major player” in the shrimp’s downturn.

In 2012, the Gulf of Maine experienced some of its warmest temperatures in decades. Within a couple of years, the cold-water-loving northern shrimp had rapidly declined and the fishery, a small but valued source of income for fishermen in the offseason, closed.

Anne Richards, a biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Margaret Hunter, a biologist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, studied the collapse and found that it coincided with an influx of longfin squid, a major shrimp predator.

The squid is a “voracious and opportunistic” predator that Richards and Hunter believe expanded in the gulf during the heatwave at the same time the shrimp population was struggling because of warmer water temperatures.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine lobster industry decries lack of clarity on enforcement of new whale-protection rules

October 12, 2021 — State and federal regulators say they are prepared to enforce the 967-square-mile area of the Gulf of Maine that will be closed to traditional lobstering for the next three months but have been tight-lipped about what the enforcement will look like or what the penalties might be for anyone who is found in violation of the closure area.

Environmentalists, who support the closure designed to help protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from becoming entangled in lobstering gear, say the lack of details isn’t surprising, but Maine lobster industry officials are frustrated by the silence.

According to Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the industry is still grappling with trying to understand why the area is even going to be closed in the first place. The closure goes into effect Oct. 18. 

“Now it’s happening and we’ve had zero correspondence on what the rules of operation will be, what the enforcement will be,” she said. “The entire closure has literally fallen from the sky, and we’ve been given very little information and (told) to get out of there. … Everything I’ve seen is Oct. 18, here’s the box (outlining the closure area), get your gear out.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine lobster fishery has key sustainability label reinstated

October 4, 2021 — The Gulf of Maine lobster fishery has had a key sustainability label reinstated a year after it was suspended following the publication of a controversial set of new rules designed to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The American division of the Marine Resources Assessment Group announced last week that the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery is once again certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. The certification is retroactive to Sept. 1.

That means wholesalers and retailers who sell U.S.-landed Gulf of Maine lobster can again use the council’s trademarked “eco-label” of a blue-and-white fish that signals to buyers that the product is sustainable, meaning it is not overfished, that the fishery is well managed and does not harm another overfished or endangered species.

The council’s certification is considered the gold standard of sustainable seafood, embraced by high-volume lobster buyers such as Whole Foods, Hilton, Royal Caribbean and Walmart.

Marianne LaCroix, executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, said she was pleased with the reinstatement of the fishery’s Marine Stewardship Council certification, “but it hasn’t changed what we’ve always known – Maine lobster harvesting practices are among the most sustainable in the world.” 

Still, it can be a useful tool for customers who rely on such third-party sustainability marks to aid their purchasing decisions, she said.

Read the full story from Hannah LaClaire at Portland Press Herald

 

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

Gulf of Maine lobster MSC suspension lifted

October 1, 2021 — MRAG Americas has announced the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate has been reinstated for the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery effective 1 September, 2021, following its suspension in 2020.

The MSC certification was suspended in August 2020 in the wake of a decision in a federal court that found that the lobster fishery was in violation of the Endangered Species Act. That ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in April 2020 found the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to include an “incidental take statement” for the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Northern Shrimp Population Collapse Linked to Warming Ocean Temperatures, Squid Predation

September 29, 2021 — An extreme heatwave in the Gulf of Maine in 2012 resulted in the warmest ocean temperatures in the region in decades. By 2013, the Atlantic northern shrimp population in the gulf had experienced a stock “collapse.” That is what fishery scientists call a rapid decrease in numbers that is not a natural fluctuation in stock size. Scientists studying the collapse have found that during this time, warmer temperatures were linked to increases in longfin squid, a major shrimp predator. They arrived in the Gulf of Maine sooner than usual and in more areas where shrimp occur.

”Our results suggest that longfin squid may have been a major player in the collapse of Gulf of Maine northern shrimp during an extreme heat wave event,” said Anne Richards, a biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Richards co-authored the study with Margaret Hunter from the Maine Department of Marine Resources Division of Biological Monitoring and Assessment. They recently published their conclusions in the online journal PLOS ONE.

Read the full story from NOAA

NEW HAMPSHIRE: ‘Environmental Justice’ To Be Part Of Offshore Wind

September 28, 2021 — As the Commission To Study Offshore Wind and Port Development approaches a deadline for submitting recommendations to the governor and the legislature, questions about the role of fishermen and others who may be impacted by the project continue to arise.

During the commission’s Sept. 27 meeting at the Pease International Tradeport, Erik Anderson, representing the N.H. Commercial Fishermen’s Association, pressed Mark Sanborn, assistant commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services, about worries that wind towers might disrupt the livelihoods of New Hampshire fishermen.

“If we ever move forward with offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine, there will be a representative of the commercial fishermen from the New Hampshire side, I promise you,” Sanborn assured him.

The impact of an offshore wind farm on marine life has been a continuing topic of concern to fishermen who already are coping with climate change, evolving federal regulations, and a pandemic that has disrupted their industry.

Prior to the meeting, Jim Titone, serving on the commission as a representative of the Yankee Fishing Cooperative, described the up-and-down nature of commercial fishing. He noted that, during last year’s COVID-19 lockdown, lobster prices plummeted to $3 per pound. Currently, possibly due to pent-up demand, lobster prices have jumped to $7 per pound. He doesn’t know how long that pricing will continue, and is concerned that projects like that proposed for the Gulf of Maine will permanently hurt his industry.

Read the full story from the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism

 

MAINE: Mills Administration To Fight Right Whale Lawsuit That Could Lead To ‘Draconian’ Effects On Lobster Industry

September 15, 2021 — The Mills administration says it’s pursuing several actions to contest recently-released lobstering restrictions designed to protect endangered right whales. It’s also intervening in an ongoing lawsuit that officials say could be more devastating to the industry.

Marine Resources chief Patrick Keliher says that Gov. Janet Mills is hiring private attorneys to help fight a lawsuit in the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups that are challenging the data used by the federal government to issue lobstering regulations to protect right whales.

Keliher says prevailing in that lawsuit won’t undo the new federal lobstering regulations that effectively close off traditional lobstering for 950 square miles of the Gulf of Maine from October through January.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

Maine groups receive $900K to help restore Atlantic salmon populations

September 8, 2021 — Continuing efforts to help restore Atlantic salmon populations in Maine are receiving a boost thanks to $900,000 in funding awarded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced Tuesday that four organizations in Maine have been selected to receive money from the distribution to assist their efforts.

“Atlantic salmon are a critical part of our state’s marine ecosystem, but they are endangered and at risk of extinction,” Collins and King said in a joint statement. “These fish help to ensure the health of our rivers and oceans that Mainers and wildlife depend on. We welcome this funding, which will help to conserve and restore wild Atlantic salmon and their ecosystems across the state.”

The Atlantic salmon, specifically the Gulf of Maine distinct population that has been protected since 2000 under the Endangered Species Act, is one of the most at-risk endangered species, NOAA reported. Only approximately 1,200 fish return each year, although as of Aug. 30 only 522 salmon have been counted so far this year at the Milford and Orono dams.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News