Saving Seafood

Maine’s Atlantic salmon likely to be on ‘endangered’ list for another 75 years

February 13, 2019 — A decade after the Penobscot River was included in the expansion of Endangered Species Act protection for Atlantic salmon originating in Maine, federal officials have released the final recovery plan for those fish. The news isn’t good. Federal officials estimate that it will take 75 years — about 15 generations of fish — for Gulf of Maine Atlantic salmon to be delisted entirely.

That news dims hopes that any angler who enjoyed fishing for salmon in Maine rivers in the past will live long enough to do so again.

Additionally, the plan estimates that the annual cost of implementing recovery actions will be $24 million per year on top of recovery-based efforts covered by regular federal budgets.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Tuesday released their plan for the recovery of Atlantic salmon within the Gulf of Maine distinct population segment. The document will serve as the foundation for conservation and recovery efforts moving forward.

According to the plan, recovery efforts must focus on rivers and estuaries until threats salmon face at sea are better understood. In addition, the continued effort of fish hatcheries in the conservation is an essential piece of the recovery puzzle. Eastern Maine has two such hatcheries — Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery in Orland and Green Lake National Fish Hatchery in Ellsworth.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

NEFMC to Hold 10 Scoping Meetings on NGOM, LAGC Amendment

February 12, 2019 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has scheduled 10 scoping meetings from Maine to Virginia to gather public input on the development of Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. This amendment is being developed to address three primary issues:

  • Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Management Area measures;
  • Limited Access General Category (LAGC) individual fishing quota (IFQ) possession limits; and
  • The ability for Limited Access vessels with LAGC IFQ to transfer their quota to vessels that only hold LAGC IFQ permits.

Read the full release here

US House panel resumes focus on climate change, warming oceans

February 11, 2019 — Climate change is hitting the lobster industry in two ways, Beth Casoni, the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association’s executive director, told the US House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee’s Water, Oceans and Wildlife – or WOW — panel on Thursday.

The Gulf of Maine is warming at a faster pace than 99% of other bodies of water and, by 2050, could lose 62% of its lobsters as a result, she said. Meanwhile, ocean acidification is making it harder for juvenile lobsters to grow shells, leaving them open to predators and disease.

“These threats from climate change are intensified by the other challenges lobstermen are facing,” said Casoni, one of seven witnesses at the two-hour hearing. “We do not have the luxury of looking at any one of these impacts on its own – all of them collectively are causing declines in the resource, hurting our bottom line, and our communities.

The event on Thursay was the second hearing called by the Natural Resources Committee on climate change since Democrats took control of the lower chamber in the 2018 election. The day before representative Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who now chairs the main committee, held a more general discussion.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NOAA Seeking Volunteers in Tagging Tuna

February 8, 2019 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is looking for help in tagging tuna.

The Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tuna Tagging Program was established by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in 2015 to study key aspects of bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean.

As part of the AOTTP, Dr. Walt Golet from the University of Maine and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute will be working with colleagues at the New England Aquarium, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, University of Miami, and NOAA Fisheries to deploy 5,000 conventional tags on tuna in the western North Atlantic Ocean.

The effort will stretch from Canada to Venezuela and also includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

Those interested in participating in the AOTTP project and would like to volunteer to tag bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna, can contact Dr. Walt Golet at walter.golet@maine.edu.

NOAA says every fish tagged will give participants a chance to win one of 20 individual cash prizes, totaling more than $39,000, to be awarded at the end of the project.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

New Protections Proposed to Help Falling Herring Population

February 7, 2019 — Interstate fishing managers are proposing options to try to better protect the Gulf of Maine‘s population of herring, which is a valuable fish that has declined in recent years.

Atlantic herring are important for the East Coast lobster fishery because they are a critical source of bait. They’re also used as food for humans, and they’re a vital link in the ocean’s food chain.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says new protections are needed because the herring population has fallen. It is considering rule changes that include extending the length of fishing closures to try to protect areas where the fish spawn.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

ASMFC Atlantic Herring Board Approves Draft Addendum II for Public Comment Draft Addendum Considers Measures to Protect Spawning Herring in Area 1A

Febrary 6, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board approved Draft Addendum II to Amendment 3 of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring for public comment. The Draft Addendum proposes options to strengthen spawning protections in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine). This action responds to the results of the 2018 Benchmark Stock Assessment which showed reduced levels of recruitment and spawning stock biomass over the past five years, with 2016 recruitment levels the lowest on record.

Currently, the Board uses a series of closures to protect spawning aggregations in the Gulf of Maine. These closures, which were implemented through Amendment 3, use biological samples to annually project the start of spawning. The closures are initially implemented for four weeks but can be extended by two additional weeks if samples indicate the continued presence of spawning herring. Recent analysis by the Atlantic Herring Technical Committee found that while the current spawning closure system was significantly improved under Amendment 3, the protocol could continue to be strengthened by considering when, and for how long, a closure is initiated. Specifically, the analysis showed, under the current protocol, spawning closures are initiated when there are approximately 25% spawners in the fishery; greater protection could be provided by initiating a closure when a lower percentage of the population is spawning and extending the closure for a longer time. As a result, Draft Addendum II considers extending the length of the spawning closures as well as altering the point at which closures are triggered in order to provide greater protection to the stock.

Interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addendum either by attending state public hearings or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum will available on the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Public Input by February 20, 2019. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on April 3, 2019 and should be forwarded to Megan Ware, FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; 703.842.0741 (fax) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Atlantic Herring Draft Addendum II). It is anticipated some states will conduct public hearings on the Draft Addendum; the details of which will be released via a press release once they are finalized. For more information, please contact Megan Ware at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

 

The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, and it’s dramatically disrupting fishing patterns

February 1, 2019 — The continental United States is 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was a century ago. Seas at the coasts are nine inches higher. The damage is mounting from these fundamental changes, and Americans are living it. These are their stories.

Since 1963, Greg Mataronas’s family has been making a living catching lobster off of Little Compton, R.I. But as water temperatures have risen rapidly along the coast, there are fewer lobster to be found, prompting a shift to other species, like whelk.

The state’s lobster haul peaked at over 8 million pounds in 1999. It hasn’t exceeded 3 million since 2005. And in 2017, it barely reached 2 million. As a result, a way of life is rapidly changing and, for some, ending.

To hold on, Rhode Island fishermen have agreed to a 50 percent cut in how many lobster traps they can set. Like the lobsters, they are adapting to a changing sea, buying out the licenses of competitors or diversifying what they catch.

Mataronas now fishes for whelk and sea bass and other fish, as well as lobster. To provide for his family, he couldn’t just fish like his father had.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Cod Fishing Still Closed off New England in Wake of Shutdown

February 1, 2019 — Recreational cod fishing will remain off limits in one of New England’s most significant bodies of water for at least the first several months of this year.

Possession of cod in the Gulf of Maine was prohibited during 2018. The New England Fishery Management Council met this week to consider recreational fishing rules for species such as cod and haddock.

The fishery council says the long federal shutdown has left recreational fishermen wondering what will happen on May 1, which is the start of the 2019 fishing year. The council says rules for Gulf of Maine cod and other species will remain in effect unless they are replaced with new measures. That means Gulf of Maine cod are still off limits.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

MAINE: Dreaming of a lobster license, but trapped on a waitlist

January 21, 2019 — Holly Masterson got her start in the lobster industry when she was 15, when her stepfather, David Horner, hired her to stock and clean up his boat at night.

Horner taught her how to lobster, fish for shrimp and scallops, and drag for haddock, monkfish and cod. When he lost his sternman, Masterson filled in. The Southwest Harbor resident hadn’t planned to become a fisherman, just help out her family, but she got hooked. At 24, Masterson entered the lobster apprenticeship program. In July 2008, after completing the program, Masterson was added to a list of area fishermen waiting for a state lobster license.

“I was so excited about the future,” Masterson recalled. “I knew I’d have to wait, but I thought it would be a couple years. Little did I know.”

Ten years later, after almost a quarter century in the business, the 38-year-old Masterson is still waiting. She still works for Horner, even though he and her mom are no longer together. She got her real estate license, and rents out a handful of vacation properties she has bought up over the years. But that’s just a side gig. She still dreams of getting that license, and the freedom that comes with being her own boss.

“Some years, nobody comes off the list,” Masterson said. “At this rate, my 9-year-old daughter, Eden, will be able to fish and sell her lobsters before I will.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

‘Lobster War’ Tackles Global Issues From a Tiny Island in Maine

January 8, 2019 — Machias Seal Island is an unlikely location for an international border dispute, a heated and increasingly dangerous conflict and an illuminating flashpoint for the worldwide crisis that is global warming, and yet here we are. The island off of Cutler is about 20 acres’ worth of bare rock, protected puffins and seals, and the only manned lighthouse left on the coast. (More on that later.) It’s just another speckled rock in the Gulf of Maine, weathering the warring tides between the United States and Canada in unassuming silence.

Machias Seal Island – and the miles of fishing grounds around it – is also the subject of the new film “Lobster War.” Hardly hyperbole, the title refers to the fact that the changing environment in the gulf has turned the largely ignored waters surrounding the island into one of the most contentiously contested fishing grounds in the world, and how its newfound value is emblematic of the coming conflicts caused by manmade global warming in miniature. Co-directed by Boston Globe reporter David Abel and filmmaker Andy Laub, the film, which screens at The Strand Theatre in Rockland on Sunday and the Lincoln County Community Theater in Damariscotta on Jan. 17, is the duo’s third collaboration. Like their previous films, “Sacred Cod” and “The Gladesmen,” “Lobster War” was inspired by Abel’s position as environmental reporter at the Globe, a job that necessarily brings him to Maine quite frequently.

Read the full story at Maine Today