Saving Seafood

New controls in Maine to prevent poaching of valuable eels

February 25, 2019 — Maine’s lucrative baby eel industry will likely face tighter controls this year designed to thwart poaching, as officials consider requiring state law enforcement officers to oversee the packing and shipping of the wriggling critters.

Baby eels, called elvers, are an important part of the worldwide supply chain for Japanese food. Maine fishermen harvest them from rivers and streams every spring, and they are typically worth more than $1,000 per pound. No other U.S. state has a significant elver fishery.

But poaching has dogged the industry. Last year’s season was shut down by state regulators two weeks early after investigators unearthed concerns about illegal sales.

This year, the Maine Department of Marine Resources is looking to add a requirement that elver exporters in the state must notify the Maine Marine Patrol 48 hours before preparing to pack and ship the eels. The officer will witness the weighing and packing of the elvers and then mark the package with a seal that must remain intact and untampered with until the eels reach their destination.

“That is a way to secure the shipment and ensure that the package is not tampered with and elvers illegally harvested will not end up in those shipments,” said Jeff Nichols, a spokesman for the marine resources department.

Read the story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

2 Maine eel dealers face charges after illegal sales cut lucrative fishing season short

January 28, 2019 — Illegal sales of baby eels that caused last year’s abrupt closure of Maine’s elver fishery have resulted in criminal charges for two baby eel dealers and new rules from the state proposing closer oversight of the lucrative fishery.

The alleged criminal behavior, in which some dealers are accused of using prohibited cash transactions to conceal baby eel purchases from the state’s mandated electronic sales monitoring system, is the latest illicit scheme to be uncovered in Maine’s baby eel fishery.

Ever since the value of the eels, also known as elvers, jumped from an average price of $100 per pound a decade ago to more than $2,300 per pound last year, fishery regulators have had to contend with increased poaching and smuggling.

The Maine dealers accused of making illegal cash purchases of elvers last spring are Roger Bintliff and Freddie Mei, according to Jeff Nichols, spokesman for the state Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Maine lobster harvest topped 100m lbs again

January 23, 2019 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources is still auditing its 2018 lobster catch and won’t issue a report until February, but department spokesperson Jeff Nichols has reportedly confirmed that the US state landed more than 100 million lbs for the eighth year in a row.

Speaking at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference, in San Diego, California, last week, Keith Moores, president of Gloucester, Massachusetts-based frozen seafood supplier J.W. Bryce, estimated that Maine’s 4,500 harvesters landed about 119m lbs of lobster in 2018, an 8m lb increase over 2017, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald reported.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

In wake of menhaden quota increase, some states rejoice as others push back

April 9, 2018 — Changes to the menhaden quota allocation on the East Coast of the U.S.A. have been met by support from some states, while others are pushing back.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) decided in November 2017 to increase the menhaden catch limit from 200,000 metric tons to 216,000 metric tons for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Menhaden typically are utilized for the high amount of omega-3 fats they contain, and their oils are used dietary supplements, animal feed, lipstick, and many other products. The fish also serves as bait for a number of commercial fisheries along the coast, particularly in the crab and lobster industries.

While the overall quota was increased, it was also redistributed. Some states, like Maine, saw their quotas jump enormously.

“Maine’s quota jumped to 2.4 million pounds (1 million kilograms) – 13 times the quota available in 2016 and 2017,” said Jeff Nichols, director of communications for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “The number of harvesters that reported landings associated with Maine’s total allowable catch (TAC) in 2017 is too few to report because of confidentiality provisions in law. However, 17 vessels participated in the episodic event fishery and 13 in the incidental catch fishery, both of which are triggered once the TAC is met.”

An episodic event was triggered last year in Maine, allowing fishermen to catch far more than the typical quota. The Interstate Fishery Management Plan for menhaden allows the Atlantic Menhaden Management board to set aside one percent of the total allowable catch for “episodic events.”

“Episodic events are defined as any instance when a qualified state has reached its individual state quota, prior to 1 September, and has information indicating the presence of unusually large amounts of menhaden in its state waters,” said Max Appelman, fishery management plan coordinator for the ASMFC.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Maine disputes study that predicts sharp decline in Gulf of Maine lobsters

The Department of Marine Resources won’t be using researchers’ model to make management decisions, saying that forecasting fishery populations 30 years out is extremely difficult.

January 29, 2018 — The state agency that oversees Maine’s marine fisheries is questioning the reliability of a new study that predicts a sharp decline in Gulf of Maine lobsters over the next 30 years.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the University of Maine and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration built a computer model that predicts the population will fall 40 to 62 percent by 2030.

But Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources, won’t be using the model to help him decide how to manage the state’s most valuable fishery, which pumped $533.1 million into the state economy in 2016.

“(He) does not have confidence in a model that simulates what might happen decades in the future,” spokesman Jeff Nichols said. “This is a wild resource, making predictions extremely challenging.”

Thirty years ago, when landings were less than 20 million pounds, no one could have predicted that the Maine lobster fleet would be landing more than 130 million pounds a year in 2016, Nichols said.

“The commissioner and his science staff don’t question the science, but rather see this as an unreliable tool on which to base management decisions,” he said.

The department isn’t alone in having doubts about the study. Maine lobster dealers voiced skepticism, too, recalling previous erroneous lobster forecasts by some of the same scientific organizations.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine: Deadline Looming For Maine’s Elver Fishing Lottery

January 10, 2018 — The deadline to enter Maine’s lottery for new elver fishing licenses is coming next Monday, Jan. 15.

Maine Department of Marine Resources spokesman Jeff Nichols says this year, there are 13 new licenses available for Maine residents who haven’t had their eligibility suspended, and who are at least 15 years old.

“This is a nice opportunity for people to get into this – what is, by far, the most lucrative fishery we have on a per-pound basis,” Nichols says.

In the last season, elvers were worth more than $1,300 per pound. Overall, the fishery brought in $13 million.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

Maine: Shrimp stir up spat at commission meeting

December 5, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — For such tiny critters, northern shrimp can kick up quite a storm among fisheries regulators.

Meeting in Portland last week, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section voted to continue the moratorium on shrimp fishing in the Gulf of Maine for another year. First imposed in 2013, the moratorium will remain in force for at least one more year.

That means no shrimp fishing season in 2018, at least for Maine fishermen.

Commission members from Massachusetts and New Hampshire also voted to allow the harvest of 13.3 metric tons (about 30,000 pounds) of shrimp next year for research purposes. Details of the research program will be determined later this month.

In an email, Department of Marine Resources spokesman Jeff Nichols said Commissioner Patrick Keliher “was very disappointed” with the proposal and voted against the research set-aside.

The 13.3-metric ton research quota was considerably smaller than in the past. Between January and March of this year, eight trawlers from Maine and one each from Massachusetts and New Hampshire were allowed to fish for up to a total of 53 metric tons (about 117,000 pounds) for research purposes. The boats caught a total of 32.6 metric tons (71,871 pounds), or 62 percent of the research set-aside.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

Algae bloom forces suspension of shellfishing in parts of Down East Maine

It’s the second straight year that a bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia, a phytoplankton that can carry toxic domoic acid, has forced a closure along large parts of the coast.

September 15, 2017 — A marine algae bloom that can carry a potentially deadly neurotoxin has forced the suspension of shellfish harvesting in parts of Down East Maine.

The state Department of Marine Resources reported Thursday that it was monitoring an active bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia, an ocean phytoplankton that carries domoic acid, a toxin that can cause sickness, memory loss and brain damage in humans. It’s the second year in a row that a toxic Pseudo-nitzschia bloom has halted harvesting of mussels, clams and oysters along large parts of the coast.

Before 2016, there was no record of a toxic bloom of this type in the Gulf of Maine.

The department’s public health section found levels of domoic acid that exceeded health standards in shellfish tested between Mount Desert Island and Gouldsboro. That area has been closed to harvesting and the department enacted a precautionary closure from Deer Isle to Machiasport, almost a third of Maine’s coastline.

Department spokesman Jeff Nichols said officials were monitoring the situation closely. There is no indication that contaminated shellfish have made their way to consumers, he said.

“It is impossible to determine at this point if the concentrations of domoic acid will increase in other areas,” Nichols said. “But we know that the phytoplankton that produces it grows rapidly, so we are carefully monitoring the entire coast and will be able to rapidly detect harmful levels of domoic acid and take action to protect the health of Maine’s shellfish consumers.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

To buoy its budget, Maine marine resources department seeks higher fees for fishing licenses

January 16, 2017 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources wants to raise the price of commercial fishing licenses for the first time in seven years, using the $600,000 the hikes would generate to pay for spending increases while honoring Gov. Paul LePage’s request to keep the department’s budget flat.

If approved by the Legislature, the proposed fee increases would range from as little as $1 for a Maine resident to harvest green crabs to as much as $114 for a lobsterman with two sternmen. Under the new fee schedule, which would take effect January 2018, the cost of securing a Class III lobster license would top $1,000 for the first time, hitting $1,002.

The fee hike would enable the Department of Marine Resources to hire an additional lobster biologist, outfit its science staff with field technology and pay for Marine Patrol officer raises and ballistics vests, among other things, without increasing the department’s $21.3 million bottom line, department spokesman Jeff Nichols said.

For example, the fee increases would pay for remote data entry technology. Currently, department science staffers spend 28 percent of their time entering data gathered in the field, Nichols said. With the new technology, staff scientists would spend more of their time conducting the research and data analysis needed to sustain the state’s valuable marine resources in a changing ocean environment, he said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: State seeks more authority in investigations of suspected lobstering violations

January 3, 2017 — Legislation is being drafted to make it easier for Maine Marine Patrol officers to secretly install tracking or surveillance devices on boats.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is drafting legislation that would expand the authority of Marine Patrol officers to covertly install electronic surveillance devices on the boats of fishermen suspected of violating state fishing regulations.

The proposal is similar to one that faltered in the Legislature two years ago and is a response to ongoing concerns that some lobstermen are fishing more traps than allowed or engaging in other tactics to skirt Maine’s strict fisheries laws. The proposal also coincides with high-profile turf wars or personal disputes between lobstermen last year that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost or damaged equipment.

The language of the bill has not been released, and DMR officials declined to provide specifics until the legislation has been finalized, consistent with a LePage administration policy. But in a general outline, DMR spokesman Jeff Nichols said the proposal would ease restrictions on Marine Patrol officers when they want to install electronic tracking or surveillance equipment on boats as part of investigations.

It was unclear last week whether the Marine Patrol would be required to obtain a warrant from a court before deploying surveillance devices, a question that could dictate whether the proposal raises constitutionality concerns among fishermen. But it appears the department is seeking to make it easier to track vessels of fishermen suspected of violations of fishing laws, whether civil or criminal.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald