Saving Seafood

New England task force convenes to plan the next phase of offshore wind development

May 25, 2022 — Last year, President Joe Biden announced plans to start leasing areas of the Gulf of Maine to offshore wind energy developers by 2024.

On Thursday, May 18, the federal Bureau Of Ocean Energy Management convened a task force of officials from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and tribal governments to consider the next phase in the push to stand up a new “green” industry off the shores of Northern New England.

Leases for wind projects have been stacking up the past few years off Atlantic states from Massachusetts south. Attention now turns to the Gulf of Maine, where deeper waters will likely require deployment of new “floating platform” technologies that Maine researchers and international developers are pioneering.

“So the Gulf of Maine, off the coast of Maine, floating is the only option. We don’t have any other options,” said Habib Dagher, the University of Maine engineering expert who has led development of a prototype floating-platform wind turbine in state waters off Mohegan Island.

Dagher is also part of the team that has proposed a larger array of as many as a dozen turbines in federal waters off the midcoast, aimed at researching the technology’s viability and its effects on ecosystems and fisheries.

Officials at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on May 18 outlined their plans for handling Gov. Janet Mills’ proposed 16-square-mile lease site for the research array.

Backers such as Dagher say it can set a course early for responsible development of commercial-scale projects off the East Coast.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio

 

New research suggests cod, New England’s founding fish, may be returning to local waters

May 5, 2022 — “For the first time in about 20 years we’ve seen and are tracking a successful year class of cod, and they seem to be growing at a very good rate,” said Kevin Stokesbury, a fisheries science professor at UMass Dartmouth leading a multi-year survey of codfish in the Gulf of Maine.

Stokesbury has a history of using scientific innovation to produce new findings that upend fishing regulations. In the 1990s, he devised a new way of counting scallops that helped open up a tightly regulated fishery.

A typical government-led survey determines scallop numbers by dredging the ocean floor, counting the scallops it pulls up, and estimating what percentage that is of the total scallops in the sample area. Stokesbury’s surveys rely on pictures of the ocean floor instead. A team of his undergraduates count all the scallops in their sample areas one-by-one, eliminating much of the guesswork.

Stokesbury’s method for counting scallops was peer reviewed and eventually incorporated into the government’s periodic stock assessments, which form the basis of fishing regulations in America. In the early 2000s, regulators had already suspected scallops were rebounding to some extent, but Stokesbury’s findings upended what they had been saying for years.

“They thought there were two to three times as many scallops in there,” Stokesbury said, “and there were actually about 14 times as many.”

But the UMass Dartmouth scientist has his own critics when it comes to codfish. One of them has an office down the hall from him.

Professor Steve Cadrin, a fisheries scientist leading a periodic review of how the government assesses cod stocks, said the cod fishery has opened up prematurely once before.

“We’ve seen other year classes that have not survived,” Cadrin said.

Some years, Cadrin said NOAA’s projections have been overly optimistic.

“They led to continued overfishing and the stock hasn’t rebuilt,” Cadrin said. “It’s a lot more than just a heartbreak. There’s been a lot of fishery restrictions because of that.”

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

Conservation groups call for federal review of offshore wind impact on Gulf of Maine ecosystems

May 4, 2022 — A wide coalition of New England conservation groups is calling on federal regulators for a rigorous review of the potential effects of offshore wind-farms on Gulf of Maine ecosystems and fisheries. And they want that effort made before specific wind sites are proposed – which the feds did not do when planning wind-lease areas in southern New England.

Some 18 groups from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine signed on to the effort, ranging from the New England Aquarium to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, as well as national organizations like the Audubon Society.

They are calling for a “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement” — a comprehensive up-front review of the all the Gulf’s ecosystems, before any consideration of where the best wind- lease sites might be.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio

 

The climate is changing much faster than fishing regulations are evolving

May 2, 2022 — Officials who oversee fishing in the Gulf of Maine and the entire East Coast are taking a hard look at how fishery regulations will need to evolve in order to keep up with the accelerated and unpredictable changes wrought by climate change.

Fishery managers from organizations across the eastern seaboard are brainstorming scenarios they could face in the coming decades as water temperatures rise, fish stocks fluctuate and species push into new areas.

Several fishery experts said they’ll likely have to reimagine how management has worked in the past.

“I think people are recognizing that small little tweaks and band aids might not be what we need here,” said Deirdre Boelke, a fishery analyst at the New England Fishery Management Council and one of the leaders working on the scenario planning effort.

Even before the effects of climate change were more widely known, fisheries management had a reputation for being complex and cumbersome. There are various layers of governance, with councils and managers making decisions at the state, regional, coastwide and national levels.

“To say that it’s a glacial process is putting it kindly,” said Gib Brogan, a fisheries analyst at Oceana, an international conservation group.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

More Endangered Right Whales Are Leaving New England for Canada

April 25, 2022 — Local researchers are studying why North Atlantic right whales are migrating out of our area into more northern waters in Canada.

Some believe rapidly warming waters in the Gulf of Maine could be playing a role, but they’re just not sure how.

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the most critically endangered animals on the planet.

Researchers from the New England Aquarium are studying these majestic creatures and they think some of the answers might lie in their poop.

Dr. Elizabeth Burgess is a research scientist with the aquarium that studies hormone changes in right whales. Unfortunately, the easiest way to collect hormones is through their feces.

“So nutritional stress is of really great concern for this species, as is the reproductive viability as well. So all of these things we can, we’re using hormones to better understand what’s happening,” said Burgess.

Read the full story at NBC Boston

Gulf of Maine wind task force to meet May 19

April 13, 2022 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a Gulf of Maine Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting on May 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern.

The meeting will take place virtually via Zoom. To register for the meeting, please click here.

This task force is an intergovernmental group composed of federal officials and elected tribal, state and local officials from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The upcoming task force meeting will focus on the following topics:

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Trawler critics aim to appeal court’s herring decision

April 6, 2022 — Gulf of Maine fishermen are looking to appeal a federal judge’s reversal of an exclusion zone that keeps herring mid-water trawlers 12 miles offshore.

The March 4 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston could reopen some Northeast waters to mid-water herring trawlers, reversing the 2019 rule change that shut them out of a broad swath of the nearshore Atlantic from Long Island to the Canadian border.

In November 2019 the National Marine Fisheries Service approved a measure by the New England Fishery Management Council to create an exclusion zone for mid-water trawling 12 miles offshore – with a bump out to 20 miles east of Cape Cod.

The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition, representing trawl operators, brought their appeal soon after to the federal court, arguing the New England council’s science advisors could not identify adverse impacts, and that trawling critics brought more influence to bear on the council and NMFS.

In his opinion Judge Sorokin wrote that the “localized depletion” concept put forth by those in opposition to the mid-water trawlers has not been adequately defined by NMFS, leading him to decide the exclusion zone decision violated National Standard 4 of the Magnuson-Steven Fishery Management and Conservation Act.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ASMFC Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting Scheduled for April 26

April 6, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on April 26, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. to discuss days out measures for the 2022 Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishing season. Days out measures can include specification of the number of consecutive landings days, weekly landings limits, and restrictions on at-sea transfers. The webinar and call information is included below:

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link:https://meet.goto.com/763162445. If you are new to GoToMeeting, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) and be ready before the meeting starts. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet protocol (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at +1 (571) 317-3129 and enter access code 763-162-445 when prompted. The webinar will start at 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.

Federally-permitted Herring Category A vessels must declare into the Area 1A fishery at least 45 days prior to the start of the fishing season. Small-mesh bottom trawl vessels with a federal Herring Category C or D permit must declare into the Area 1A fishery by June 1, 2022. Vessels should check with each state of landing regarding their notification procedures.

The 2022 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 1,075 metric tons (mt). The initial specification for the 2022 Area 1A sub-ACL of 1,184 mt decreased by 109 mt due to the catch overage in Area 1A in 2020. After adjusting for the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL), the Area 1A sub-ACL is 961 mt. There is no research-set-aside for 2022.

In October 2021, the Board established the following seasonal allocations for the 2022 Area 1A sub-ACL: 72.8% available from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% available from October 1 – December 31. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per day harvested from Area 1A until June 1, 2022.

For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0716 orefranke@asmfc.org.

A copy of the meeting announcement can be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/AtlHerringDaysOutMeetingNotice_April2022.pdf.

 

Are the whales leaving? Gulf of Maine research raises questions about new lobstering rules

April 1, 2022 — As the Gulf of Maine’s waters warm, recent studies show the main food source of the endangered North Atlantic right whale is moving north, out of Maine waters. And the whales appear to be following them.

Such findings haven’t escaped the notice of the Maine lobster industry, which has been referencing them in its legal arguments as to why impending new federal restrictions on lobstering gear won’t help save the whales. Its members have pointed to recent studies that suggest the relocation of copepods – small aquatic crustaceans that make up the whales’ preferred diet – is not just a temporary phenomenon but a long-term trend.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service arguing that its 10-year conservation plan to protect right whales, primarily by requiring commercial fishing gear modifications such as using breakaway rope and deploying more traps per line, is not based on the best available science. The new gear restrictions are set to take effect May 1 despite ongoing legal challenges by the lobster industry and repeated protests by government officials.

“(The association is) asking the court to require the agency to develop a new plan based on sound science that would protect both the whale and the lobster industry,” said Patrice McCarron, the group’s executive director.

Read the full story at the Sun Journal

2021 was the hottest year on record in the Gulf of Maine, new data show

March 29, 2022 — Scientists say the highest water temperatures ever in the Gulf of Maine were recorded last year.

The Gulf is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet, and fishermen are noticing signs of the change.

Data released by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute show that last year surface water temperatures in the Gulf were on average a half-degree higher than the previous record, with record highs recorded on 169 days — almost half the year.

The Gulf experienced what scientists now call a “marine heatwave” for the entire year.
“As unusually warm as 2021 was in a historical context, it’s likely to be one of the coolest years we’ll experience going forward, especially if we’re not able to reduce greenhouse gas emission globally,” says the institute’s David Reidmiller.

Reidmiller says the latest data punctuate a decades-long trend that shows no sign of abating.

“The warming trend is unequivocal in the Gulf of Maine. It’s been going on now for decades, and from a climatological sense we are assuredly in a new regime,” Reidmiller says.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio