Saving Seafood

Maine lobster business salvaged its summer despite pandemic

September 28, 2020 — Maine’s lobster fishermen braced for a difficult summer this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, but then the unexpected happened. They kept catching lobsters, and people kept buying them.

The pandemic has posed significant challenges for the state’s lobster fishery, which is the nation’s largest, but members of the industry reported a steady catch and reasonable prices at the docks. Prices for consumers and wholesalers were low in the early part of the summer but picked up in August to be about on par with a typical summer.

The Maine lobster industry is in the midst of a multiyear boom, and fishermen have caught more than 100 million pounds (45,360,000 kilograms) for a record nine years in a row.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Lobster Industry: Challenges Facing Maine’s Iconic Fishery & How They Might be Overcome

August 19, 2020 — Last year, Maine’s lobster fishery brought in almost $500 million to the state, and even more when you count the economic benefits to dealers, processors and restaurants. Now, with the pandemic hindering the market for lobsters locally and around the world, this signature industry has been impacted severely. We will talk about how the industry is facing challenges, and what efforts are underway to find new ways to market lobsters and connect with consumers.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Maine scallops continue downward trend after years of growth

March 23, 2020 — Maine’s prized scallop fleet caught fewer of the shellfish for the second year in a row despite nationwide trends toward increased catch.

Maine is home to a scallop industry that operates in near-shore waters and is beloved in the culinary world. The state’s scallops have cachet in part because of how quickly fishermen are able to get freshly caught product to consumers.

But the fishermen harvested about 415,000 pounds of scallop meat in 2019, down more than 200,000 pounds from 2018. And that year was a dip from 2017, when fishermen brought nearly 800,000 pounds to land.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Times

Though Maine’s lobster harvest was smallest in 9 years, value remained steady

March 9, 2020 — Despite a cold, late spring that took a toll on the state lobster catch in 2019, driving landings down 17 percent, record-high prices kept the catch’s overall value steady from the previous year.

Maine fishermen hauled 100.7 million pounds of lobster in 2019, according to figures released Friday by the state Department of Marine Resources at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum. That was the smallest catch since 2010, but it was the ninth year in a row that Maine broke the 100-million-pound mark.

Despite the slow start, Maine fishermen eked out a good year. A 20 percent increase in the per-pound boat price of lobster meant the overall value of Maine’s haul remained pretty stable, coming in at $485.4 million, despite the double-digit decrease in 2019 total landings.

Kristan Porter’s end-of-the-year bottom line looked about the same as it did in 2018. The lobsterman from Cutler, who is president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, hauled less lobster, but he sold that smaller catch for a higher price, embodying the association’s motto, “Fish smarter, not harder.”

“We don’t fish for pounds, we fish for dollars,” Porter said. “Yeah, we got started late, and that was scary, but most guys finished strong. Overall, landings were down, but we’re still leaps and bounds ahead of our historical average. So I don’t think there is cause for alarm, at least not yet.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Proposal to license more lobstermen put off to next year

April 5, 2019 — A proposal to let dozens of new lobstermen into Maine’s signature fishery is going to be put off until at least 2020.

More than 200 people are waiting for a state license to harvest lobster, and the annual haul has grown in volume and value this decade. Earlier this year, state Rep. Joyce McCreight, a Democrat of Harpswell, proposed bringing people into the fishery if they’ve been waiting for 10 or more years.

McCreight said she’s going to withdraw the bill from the current legislative session and consider bringing it back in the next session, which starts in January. The lobster industry is facing too much uncertainty to bring more than 50 new fishermen in at once, she said.

Lobstermen have had several productive years in a row, but this year the business is facing a bait shortage and potential new fishing rules to protect rare whales.

“We’re going to soon have info about whales and bait. Let’s see what we get,” McCreight said. “I’d like to have a bill — let’s not kill it.”

Many members of the lobstering industry were skeptical of McCreight’s proposal from the beginning and some said holding it over until the next session is a good idea. Bringing new fishermen into the business could have also hurt the state in ongoing discussions with regulators about new whale protection rules, said Kristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Proposed reduction in herring harvest could affect lobster catch

December 10, 2018 — Fishermen who harvest herring, one of the most important baitfish on the East Coast, are likely to see a dramatic reduction next year in the amount they are allowed to catch. The change could have major implications for the lobster business.

The commercial fishery for herring is a major industry in the Atlantic states, where the small fish is important as lobster bait and is also eaten by people. Herring has been under the microscope of regulators and conservation groups recently after a scientific assessment said earlier this year that the fish’s population has fallen in the past five years.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it wants to cut the annual catch limit from nearly 110 million pounds this year to less than half that in 2019. The agency said in a statement that the deep cut is needed to prevent overfishing.

This year’s herring quota was also cut back in August. The loss of so much herring will be a challenge for America’s lobstermen, who are based mostly in New England, said Kristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Westerly Sun

Maine critics throw cold water on Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan

The proposal to open 90 percent of the nation’s coastline – including the North Atlantic – to oil and gas exploration draws widespread opposition at an event held by federal officials in Augusta.

March 8, 2018 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Fishermen, environmentalists and lawmakers from Maine’s coast called on the Trump administration Wednesday to exclude the North Atlantic from a plan to potentially reopen much of the nation’s coastline to oil and gas exploration.

Representatives with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management were in Augusta for an open house-style event to field questions about President Trump’s controversial offshore energy proposal. The draft plan released in January calls for reopening 90 percent of the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards to oil and gas drilling, a seismic shift from the 6 percent now available to energy companies. The public comment period on the draft plan closes Friday.

Just two of the 47 proposed lease sales would be in the North Atlantic region stretching from Maine to New Jersey. But the mere prospect of oil drilling in the Gulf of Maine or Georges Bank – and the accompanying environmental risks – was enough to draw more than 60 people to a pre-emptive event held before the bureau’s open house.

Kristan Porter, a fisherman from Cutler who is president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, recalled how one of his predecessors told Congress in 1970 that Maine fishermen were “100 percent against” allowing oil drilling in the Gulf of Maine. Nearly 50 years later, Porter said, nothing has changed.

“Allowing the exploration of oil and gas … could devastate our fisheries, our fishermen and our communities,” Porter said at a news conference. “Maine’s fishing industries are dependent on Maine’s clean water. Even minor spills could irreparably damage the Gulf of Maine.”

Porter was joined at the event by representatives of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and other environmental groups, the aquaculture industry, tourism advocates, and Democratic, Republican and independent politicians. All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation also oppose the plan.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine lobster fishing group to replace longterm leader

February 28, 2018 — The largest commercial fishing industry group on the East Coast will elect a new leader this Friday for the first time in 27 years.

Kristan Porter, a Cutler fisherman, is expected to take the reins of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association at the end of its annual meeting in Rockport. Porter, however, said it is “not a done deal” that he’ll become the group’s next president.

Porter, 47, would take over for South Thomaston lobsterman David Cousens, who is stepping down as MLA president after having held the post since 1991. Porter said he knows of no other board member who has expressed interest in the job but that other names might be submitted for nomination at the meeting.

“I don’t know if it’s set in stone,” Porter said Monday.

The MLA was founded in 1954 and, with 1,200 members, bills itself as “the oldest and largest fishing industry association on the East Coast.” It holds its annual meeting each year at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, a three-day commercial fishing conference held every March at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.

If Porter is elected as MLA president, he said, “I’m not going to be on the 27-year plan like Dave was.”

Porter, who currently holds the post of first vice president, said he expects he would serve as president for only a few years and then step aside so a younger fisherman could take on the leadership role.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Shuckin’ and thrivin’: Scallop futures in the Gulf of Maine

March 2, 2017 — The niche northern Gulf of Maine scallop fleet brought its territory back from the brink and now hopes to keep it that way.

New England’s small-boat scallopers are not just diving and dragging for their catch. They’re driving to change the way it’s managed.

“My biggest worry is that we just have a fishery to work on,” says Kristan Porter, 46, a scallop fisherman and advisory panel member from Cutler, Maine.

In Maine, the state scallop season opens in the early winter, on or around Dec. 1, and typically stays open through March. Just outside the three-mile line is the federal northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishery, which is managed by the New England Fishery Management Council and extends about halfway down the coast of Massachusetts. The territory is vast, but the productive areas are small compared to the prolific array of scallop grounds to the south.

“If we manage our fishery correctly here [in Maine state lines], then those scallops will work their way outside the 3-mile line,” says Porter, who drags for scallops on the 40-foot Brandon Jay.

The sector was established when the New England Fishery Management Council adopted Amendment 11 to the Atlantic sea scallop fishery management plan, effective June 1, 2008, initially creating two federal permits — IFQs and limited access days at sea.

“We had a bunch of people from Maine who didn’t qualify at all. So they created this northern Gulf of Maine permit,” says Mary Beth Tooley, at an at-large member of the council and the chairwoman of the scallop advisory panel.

In New England, the IFQ and days at sea (limited access) fleets historically fished Georges Bank and down to the Mid-Atlantic on scallop grounds that had been rebounding since 2004, with more areas being opened thanks to video mapping that showed they were burgeoning with biomass and healthy enough for a directed fishery. Since then, the New Bedford fleet’s lucrative landings have kept their home port at the top of the list of the nation’s ports by value.

At the time of the Amendment 11 adoption, the northern Gulf of Maine territory was not worth much. But those few fishermen with history in the area believed they might be able to bring it back with good stewardship. They asked for and were granted a low hard TAC of 70,000 pounds (compared with a fleetwide limit of about 40 million pounds) with a limit of 200 pounds a day and a 10-1/2-foot dredge.

“The people who have traditionally fished there, they want it to stay carefully managed,” says Janice Plante, public affairs officer for the New England council.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Fishermen Worry New Rules Won’t Come in Time to Save N. Atlantic Scallops

April 25, 2016 — A quandary over scallop rules has two groups of fishermen in Maine at odds over the increasingly lucrative shellfish.

Kristan Porter, 46, is an independent fisherman who catches lobsters for most of the year with his boat “Brandon Jay.” But for additional income, for five months each year, he and the two other men on his boat have begun collecting scallops.

But a larger than usual harvest of scallops this year in the northern Gulf of Maine and the competitive price that they demand has brought a larger number of boats than usual. Porter’s boat and others are limited to collect 200 pounds of scallops each trip until the boats reach 70,000 pounds. But other boats that have permits distributed in the 1990s are allowed to haul up to 40 million pounds within the 34 days they are permitted in the area.

The problem is exacerbated as the demand for scallops has evolved from just another mollusk to a delicacy in fine dining.

Read the full story at MyCentralOregon.com