Saving Seafood

Northeast shrimp: Surveys canceled over covid,
with no sign yet of recovery

October 13, 2020 — In Maine and New England, northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) used to be a regional and seasonal staple. But, for seven consecutive years, the fishery has been shuttered. The last year there was a commercial season was in 2013, and at that time, dealers paid fishermen an average of $1.81 a pound.

Dustin Leaning, a fishery management plan coordinator for the Atlantic States, says “the Gulf of Maine stock remains depleted, and as of yet, has not shown a positive response to the commercial fishing moratorium. Reducing fishing mortality has historically been fishery managers’ most effective tool in rebuilding a stock that has reached low levels of biomass.”

The moratorium on fishing in Maine is in place until 2021.

“They’re resilient,” says Maggie Hunter, Maine’s head shrimp biologist. “They’ve recovered from collapses before (early 1950s, late 1970s), but we’ve never documented one in the Gulf of Maine lasting this long before.”

A 2019 Gulf of Maine survey by the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee revealed indices of abundance, biomass and spawning stock biomass at new time-series lows, and recruitment the third-lowest in the time series (1984-2019). Warming waters, like those in the Gulf of Maine, are also detrimental to shrimp populations. 

A Maine-New Hampshire inshore survey, along with spring and summer shrimp surveys, were all canceled this year because of covid-19 concerns.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

GMRI awarded $1.27M to help Maine fisheries overcome climate challenges

October 9, 2020 — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute has been awarded $1.27 million in federal funding to help Maine fisheries and coastal communities in the fight against climate change.

Funding for the Portland-based nonprofit comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office. The new project is one of 79 to receive a total of $48.7 million in competitive awards, announced on Oct. 6.

“Every day, communities and businesses grapple with challenges due to climate variability and change,” said Wayne Higgins, director of the Climate Program Office, in a news release.

“From using machine learning to develop critical atmospheric datasets to creating an experimental system for rapidly assessing causes of extreme events, these new awards will expedite climate science discoveries and build the library of resilience solutions needed to protect all sectors of our economy and environment.”

Read the full story at MaineBiz

NEFMC Adopts Scallop Amendment 21 with Measures for NGOM, LAGC IFQ Fishery

October 8, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has signed off on Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan, which includes new measures to: (1) better manage total scallop removals from the Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Management Area by all components of the fishery; and (2) expand NGOM Allocations Under Amendment 21: Once the NGOM allocation is determined, deductions are made off-the-top to support monitoring and research. Of what’s left, the first 800,000 pounds goes to the NGOM set-aside. Anything above 800,000 is shared as shown in the flowchart above. flexibility in the Limited Access General Category (LAGC) Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) fishery. The amendment still needs to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries) before being implemented.

Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM)

Under Amendment 21, the Council will begin accounting for scallop biomass in the NGOM area in the same flowchart it uses to calculate the overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) for the rest of the resource. The NGOM annual catch limit also will be set consistent with how the rest of the fishery is managed, bringing the area more in line with the Georges Bank and Mid-Atlantic scallop fishery

Read the full release here

MAINE: In a Boothbay Harbor, scientists are tying lobstermen’s ropes in knots to protect whales

October 7, 2020 — A group of state researchers in Boothbay Harbor are testing how much force it takes to snap hundreds of pieces of rope apart as they try to identify knot combinations and configurations of fishing line that will help protect whales from life-threatening entanglements.

Since early 2019, the small group of scientists at the Maine Department of Marine Resources have been testing a variety of different types of rope knotted together by putting them under strain with an old hydraulic tensile testing machine. They do their work in a garage bay on the department’s property on McKown Point Road. They have gone through a couple hundred different combinations of used and new rope tied together in various knots, testing each combination 10 times to determine their breaking points. They expect to try more than 900 different configurations in all.

The idea is to come up with a way Maine lobstermen can affordably satisfy federal laws that prohibit fishing activity from harming protected marine species such as North Atlantic right whales, of which only 400 or so remain. Maine lobstermen have been awaiting a new set of federal rules aimed at preventing whale entanglements that would force them to change the gear they use for the third time in slightly more than a decade.

The Department of Marine Resources researchers are hoping to find rope configurations that fishermen can put together from their existing gear, saving them the expense and trouble of replacing all their gear in order to continue harvesting lobster from the Gulf of Maine, which last year generated $485 million in statewide fishing revenue.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NEFMC SSC – Listen Live – Tuesday, October 13, 2020 – Groundfish Issues, Stock Assessments

October 6, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet via webinar on Tuesday, October 13, 2020 to discuss issues related to groundfish.  The public is invited to listen live.  Here are the details.

START TIME:  9:00 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8422.  The access code is 632-479-325.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will meet to:

  • Review information from the Fall 2020 Management Track Stock Assessments for groundfish and consider information provided by the Council’s Groundfish Plan Development Team (PDT);
  • Recommend the overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) levels for Georges Bank winter flounder, Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic winter flounder, Gulf of Maine winter flounder, Acadian redfish, ocean pout, Atlantic halibut, wolffish, northern windowpane flounder, and southern windowpane flounder for fishing years 2021-2023
  • Discuss white hake rebuilding plan options developed by the PDT; and
  • Discuss other business as necessary.
IMPORTANT DOCUMENT:  The Peer Review Report for the Fall 2020 Management Track Stock Assessments is posted HERE.

COMMENTS:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Friday, October 9, 2020.  Address comments to Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn or Executive Director Tom Nies and email them to comments@nefmc.org.  Additional information is available in the meeting notice.

MATERIALS:  All documents for this meeting will be posted on the SSC October 13, 2020 webpage.

QUESTIONS:  Contact Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492 ext. 101, joleary@nefmc.org or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

MAINE: Conservation success or pests? Seals spark passionate debate

October 5, 2020 — Nick Muto has fished up and down the New England coast and there is nothing that gets his blood boiling more than the sight of a seal.

Muto, whose two boats fish for groundfish such as skate and monkfish as well as lobster, is among a growing group of anglers, beach goers and local officials who are quick to blame everything from disease to depleted fisheries to increased shark sightings on the exploding seal population.

“Areas that we used to traditionally fish that were as close to guarantees as you could get have been strip mined of fish, and the fish have been driven out of there by seals,” Muto said. “They have eaten fish out of our nets. They have been caught in our nets. They are everywhere.”

The debate over seals was reignited after the death in July of a swimmer killed by a great white off Harpswell, Maine. Seals are often shark prey, and experts believe Julie Dimperio Holowach may have been mistaken for a seal.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Luke’s Lobster, Island Institute pool $2.5M to expand Maine fisheries market

October 1, 2020 — Maine’s seafood industry is getting a $2.5 million investment aimed at making the seafood supply chain more resilient and giving fishermen and aquaculturists a broader online market during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Island Institute, Luke’s Lobster and Silicon Valley Community Foundation said on Wednesday that they will put up the money and partner to expand and diversify the Luke’s Lobster e-commerce business, which sells products from fishermen. The collaboration also involves meeting environmental goals and providing education about the seafood industry.

Luke’s, based in Saco, is a processing facility and restaurant chain that buys seafood directly from fishermen. It set up the website in April when virus-related restrictions caused it to temporarily close all but one of its 26 shacks in the United States and 11 overseas. While it recently reopened 14 U.S. shacks for takeout and delivery, this project will focus on building its e-commerce business.

The investment will go toward making more types of farmed and caught seafood available through the website, which already sells lobsters, crabs, scallops and oysters. It recently added seasonal seafood products with short harvest windows including Gulf of Maine dayboat scallops and fresh halibut.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Study: Maine’s lobster co-management system offers lessons for other fisheries

September 25, 2020 — In the 1990s, Maine’s lobster industry and state regulators developed a co-management system that established seven lobster fishing councils, comprised of local fishermen, to oversee fishing practices in seven zones along the coast.

The system was designed to integrate the knowledge of local fishermen to help manage certain aspects of the fishery, as an alternative to top-down management by government regulators.

That model has lessons for fisheries beyond Maine, according to a new study by University of Maine conservation scientists.

“The Maine lobster fishery is a great example of how individual harbors can have localized control over managing fishing areas and over deciding on fishing practices in their local area,” UMaine researcher Kara Pellowe told Mainebiz. “In the 1990s, that was formalized as Maine’s lobster zones. How Maine manages lobsters has, over time, reflected increasing alignment between formal and informal rules.”

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Blue Harvest Fisheries scores $4.4 million groundfish contract from US government

September 23, 2020 — Blue Harvest Fisheries has been granted a $4.4 million (€5.9 million) award from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to supply a total of 115,200 cases of frozen haddock, ocean perch and Atlantic pollock to child nutrition and other related food assistance programs around the United States.

Deliveries will start on Oct. 1 and run through Dec. 31.

All of the fish utilized for the program will be harvested by American-flagged vessels from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified fisheries in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, according to the company.

The products will be processed at Blue Harvest’s facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts, before being distributed to recipients nationwide.

Read the full story at IntraFish

Scallop scuffle: Council set to vote on future for small-boat fleet

September 18, 2020 — On Thursday, Oct. 1, the New England Fishery Management Council will take up an issue critical to the survival of dayboat scallop fishermen in the Gulf of Maine.

Among other issues, Amendment 21 to the Scallop FMP addresses how scallops in the Northern Gulf of Maine will be allocated between permit categories, specifically General Category NGOM and trip-boat Limited Access boats.

At issue is the size of the NGOM set-aside — scallops “taken off the top” and made available exclusively to General Category vessels, and the subsequent distribution of scallop catch amongst all permit categories.

As you’d expect, those who own General Category NGOM permits and those who own the trip-boat Limited Access permits are at odds over how large the set-aside should be. Passionate arguments from both sides have complicated what is actually a very clear choice. That choice is to honor the forward-thinking decision the council made back in 2008 when they chose to preserve and protect a diverse scallop fishery in the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at National Fisherman