November 19, 2019 — New Hampshire will host the kick-off meeting of a federal offshore wind task force for the Gulf of Maine. The meeting is set for Dec. 12 at the University of New Hampshire.
It will be open to the public, with time for public input.
The task force will include state, local and tribal government officials from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine, and from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
November 18, 2019 — The University of Maine is launching an initiative designed to help Mainers better understand how the state is affected by Arctic climate.
Called “UMaine Arctic,” the project explores how the changing climate will impact the state’s fisheries, native populations and coastal communities.
“The Arctic has a huge impact on life in Maine,” says Christopher Gerbi with UMaine’s College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture. He says the Gulf of Maine is fed by waters from the arctic regions of Canada and Greenland.
“As the water changes temperature, that changes the temperature in the Gulf of Maine, which has a huge impact on all our fisheries, the lobster industry,” he says.
And on all of the industries that rely on those industries, such as marine suppliers, restaurants and coffee shops in coastal communities, says Gerbi.
November 15, 2019 — An international group of scientists, conservationists, fisheries managers and others are gathered in Portland this week for the annual meeting of what’s called the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.
Federal regulators told the group that they are looking at a wide slate of measures to protect the endangered whales from entanglement in fishing gear. Some measures include reductions in the amount of lobster-trap rope allowed in the water and in the strength of that rope. The feds say they are also considering having a part of Cape Cod Bay that is now closed February to April closed to endlines but open to ropeless gear in the future.
November 11, 2019 — After a week of hearings on a proposal to implement new rules to protect endangered right whales, a leading group has decided not support the plan.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources held three hearings on the plan, including one in South Portland Wednesday, to take public comments, most coming from lobstermen against the proposal.
On Thursday, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association voted “not to support” the plan “because it seeks reductions that exceed the documented risk posed by the Maine lobster fishery,” the association said in a statement posted on its website.
The plan calls for a reduction of the vertical lobster trap lines in the Gulf of Maine. Maine fishery officials say they would remove 25 percent of the lines, not including an exemption for lobstermen who fish inshore waters.
November 8, 2019 — In a warmer future, Maine fishermen will probably be catching squid or mackerel, not cod or herring.
They will probably have to travel farther and fine-tune their gear to catch the cold-water species that remain in the Gulf of Maine, like lobster and sea scallops, and be ready to fish the new species that will be calling a warmer Gulf of Maine home by then, like black sea bass.
“We face some challenges moving forward that will require adaptation to maintain our vibrant fisheries,” Katherine Mills, a research scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, said in an address Thursday, the fourth day of the five-day Gulf of Maine 2050 Symposium in Portland.
Mills gave the audience a peek at work that GMRI scientists and economists are doing to explore how New England fishing communities will be affected by rising sea temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, which is warming three to four times faster than the rest of the world’s oceans. The Gulf is expected to warm by 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2055.
November 7, 2019 — Lobstermen had the chance to weigh-in Wednesday night on potential new restrictions, designed to protect right whales.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources held the meeting in South Portland, to get feedback on the current plan, based on data from a federal team.
That plan calls for a reduction of the vertical lobster trap lines in the Gulf of Maine.
Maine fishery officials say they would remove 25 percent of the lines, not including an exemption for lobstermen who fish inshore waters.
The department says they working to find a balance, meanwhile lobstermen say they have done nothing wrong.
November 7, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
The 2019 twin-trawling experiment aboard the F/V Karen Elizabeth in late September tested scientific survey net performance at different “spreads”—or how widely the net is open.The differences in capturing fish at different water depths that can be attributed to that spread.They found subtle differences between the two options.
In a twin-trawl study, one vessel tows two trawl nets as closely together as possible through the same body of fish at the same time. This makes the two samples comparable. In this study, one net had a constant opening while the other tested various openings.
Both nets were otherwise the same, and are the survey nets and rockhopper sweeps used on the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow twice-yearly bottom-trawl survey since 2009. “Sweeps” are the gears attached along the bottom of trawl net openings that help target different types of species on different types of bottoms. Rockhoppers are big rubber disks that help a trawl net more easily tow over rocky bottom.
The four fish targeted in the study were flatfish:
Gulf of Maine witch flounder and American plaice found in deeper waters.
Southern New England winter flounder and windowpane flounder found in shallower waters.
Fishermen and researchers want to know more about Bigelow net underspread (being open less widely than desired) in shallower water. They are also interested in net overspread (or being open more widely than desired) in deeper water, and how different spread affected flatfish catch.
November 7, 2019 — A drop in the catch of lobsters off Maine has customers paying more and fishermen concerned about the future.
Maine’s harvest of lobsters was about 40% off last year’s pace through September, and while October and November tend to be months of heavy lobster catch, wholesale prices have soared amid the slower supply. Live 1.25-pound lobsters were wholesaling for nearly $10 per pound in the New England market Nov. 1, an increase of nearly 20 percent from a year ago.
The drag in catch has also contributed to an uptick in price at some retail fish markets. Some stores in Maine, which is the center of the U.S. lobster industry, are selling lobsters for $12 per pound. That is about 10% more than a year ago.
The price of lobster is impacted by numerous factors, including foreign demand, beyond just the size of the catch. But such a precipitous drop in supply is bound to create “tremendous upward price pressure,” said John Sackton, an industry analyst and publisher of SeafoodNews.com.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times
November 5, 2019 — Several hundred scientists, conservationists and government leaders from New England and the Canadian Maritimes are gathering in Portland to discuss the rapid ecological changes in the Gulf of Maine and how the region should respond.
The Gulf of Maine 2050 International Symposium will focus on the science of sea level rise, ocean acidification and warming ocean waters, as well as how those climate-related changes will affect the regional economy, environment and population over the next three decades.
“Preparing for 2050 is a major challenge, but it is one that we won’t face alone,” said Theresa Torrent of the Maine Department of Marine Resources Maine Coastal Program and the state’s coordinator on the international Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. “The purpose of Gulf of Maine 2050 is to activate the talents of people around the Gulf of Maine and build a safe and productive future.”
The conference – hosted by the Gulf of Maine Council, the Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews, New Brunswick – comes at a time when New England’s waters and forests are already experiencing dramatic changes.
November 5, 2019 — To wake up in the Northeastern United States—as California blazes and Japan digs itself out of typhoon damage—is to experience an uneasy gratitude for all that is not burning, battered or underwater. Seven years out from Superstorm Sandy, we know not to get cocky, but there’s a relief in being able to worry about work and more pedestrian finances instead of evacuation plans, or ordering the right kind of smoke mask. It’s a small luxury in climate-didn’t-come-for-me-today compartmentalization.
But deep down, we know better. And if the national discussion hasn’t moved to climate change in the Northeast yet, it soon will. The effects are already profound—they just happen to be underwater.
Fourth-generation fisherman Al Cottone holds no illusions of being spared climate impacts in 2019. He captains one of the 15 fishing boats still active in the waters around Gloucester, Massachusetts. Not a decade ago, there were 50. To fish in the Gulf of Maine—the ocean inlet spanning from Cape Cod up to the southern tip of Nova Scotia—is to navigate one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet. “It’s not something you see with your naked eye,” Cottone told me. “But fish are definitely reacting differently, and I’m attributing it to climate change. We’re seeing them in deeper water—they’re trying to get the right temperature at depth.”