Saving Seafood

Supplemental Materials Now Available for ASMFC’s 2016 Winter Meeting

January 27, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental meeting materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2016 Winter Meeting have been posted at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2016-winter-meeting for the following Boards/Sections (click on “Supplemental” following each relevant committee header to access the information). 

American Lobster Management Board – Preliminary Results of Claw Removal and its Impacts on Survivorship and Physiological Stress in Jonah crab (Cancer borealis) in New England Waters; NEFMC Correspondence on Jonah Crab Permit Holders; Jonah Crab Plan Review Team FMP Implementation Memo; MaineJonah Crab FMP Implementation Program

Atlantic Herring Section – Revised Draft Amendment 3 (please note this version has been revised from January 21st draft); Public Hearing Summary; Written Comment (Summary and Submitted Comments); Advisory Panel Meeting Summary

Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board – Draft Addendum XXVII Public Hearing Summaries; Written Comment (Summary and Submitted Comments); Law Enforcement Committee Comments; General Public Comment

ACCSP Executive Committee (please note meeting materials are available through the main header not supplemental) – Draft Minutes from December 17, 2015; Draft Standard Operating Procedures; 2016 Meetings Calendar 

ACCSP Coordinating Council (please note meeting materials are available through the main header not supplemental) – Draft Minutes from November 2, 2015

Executive Committee (please note these materials are the same as those provided for the ISFMP Policy Board) – Memo on Changes to Commission Guidance Documents; Draft ISFMP Charter; Draft Compact, Rules and Regulations; Draft Technical Support Group Guidance and Benchmark Assessment Process

Atlantic Menhaden Management Board – Law Enforcement Committee Report on Maryland and Potomac River Fisheries Commission Equivalency Proposals; Public Comment

Atlantic Sturgeon Management Board – 2016 FMP Review

Horseshoe Crab Management Board – Adaptive Resource Management Subcommittee Meeting Summary

Tautog Management Board – Decision Document for Draft Amendment 1; Law Enforcement Committee Report on Commercial Harvest Tagging Program Objectives 

Winter Flounder Management Board – NEFMC Presentation on Overview of Federal Management Measures for Gulf of Maine and Southern New England/ Mid-Atlantic Stocks; Scientific and Statistical Committee Report

American Eel Management Board – Advisory Panel Report and Technical Committee Review  on North Carolina’s Aquaculture Plan; Final version of North Carolina’s Aquaculture Plan; Public Comment

ISFMP Policy Board (please note these materials are the same as those provided for Executive Committee) – Memo on Changes to Commission Guidance Documents; Draft ISFMP Charter; Draft Compact, Rules and Regulations; Draft Technical Support Group Guidance and Benchmark Assessment Process

As a reminder, Board/Section meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning at 9:00 a.m. on February 2nd and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 3:45 p.m.) on February 4th. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board/section deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. No comments or questions will be accepted via the webinar. Should technical difficulties arise while streaming the broadcast, the boards/sections will continue their deliberations without interruption. We will attempt to resume the broadcast as soon as possible. To register for the webinar, please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/86228471613051649.

Some dislike proposal to ease long waits for Maine lobstering licenses

January 24, 2016 — It can take years for someone to move off a waiting list to become a commercial lobsterman in Maine, and for years fishermen have been trying to figure out a way to make the licensing process work while protecting the health of the lobster population.

Now a bill that aims to accomplish both goals appears to be headed for a fight when it goes before the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee on Feb. 10.

The bill, if enacted, probably wouldn’t have an impact on lobster prices or consumers, especially in the short term. But it could affect who gets some of the roughly 5,800 commercial lobster licenses available statewide. It also could make a difference in areas where lobstering is the major industry or where the population of lobstermen is older.

“People who live in struggling coastal communities care about this,” said Rep. Walter Kumiega, D-Deer Isle, sponsor of the bill and House chairman of the Marine Resources Committee.

The core issue is how to protect the state’s lucrative lobster fishery, which is in the midst of a boom even as the fishery has drastically declined in southern New England. In Maine the lobster haul reached 123.6 million pounds – worth a record $456.9 million – in 2014, the latest year for which statistics are available.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine firm finds new use for lobster shells: bandages

January 20, 2016 (AP) — A start-up company in Maine is developing a children’s bandage coated with a substance extracted from crushed lobster shells that would promote blood-clotting and is resistant to bacterial infection.

The company, Lobster Tough, shipped Maine lobster shells to a processor in Iceland for testing, and so far, the results are promising, said Thor Sigfusson, an Icelandic investor in the company.

Lobster shells usually end up in landfills after the meat is removed, he said. Using lobster shells to create a medical product would create more value for lobsters and boost the industry in Maine, he said.

“My dream will be to use the massive amounts of lobster shells that are being thrown into dumpsters,” he said.

Chitosan, the blood-clotting compound, is currently produced industrially by crushing shrimp shells and washing the solids with acids to remove inorganic materials and proteins. The U.S. Army has used field bandages treated with chitosan processed from shrimp shells.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Concord Monitor

Removal of derelict fishing gear has major economic impact

January 22, 2016— A new study by researchers at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that removal of derelict fishing gear could generate millions of dollars in extra harvest value for commercial fisheries worldwide.

The study focused on a 6-year, collaborative program to remove derelict crab pots from Chesapeake Bay, showing that the effort generated more than $20 million in harvest value for area watermen.

Extending their methodology to estimate the economic benefits of removing derelict crab pots and lobster traps on a global basis, the researchers showed that removal of even 10% of derelict pots and traps from major crustacean fisheries—the percentage of the Bay’s derelict pots they estimate were removed by the VIMS program—could increase landings by 293,929 metric tons, at a value of $831 million annually.

Read the full story at Phys.org

MASSACHUSETTS: Changes in law could buoy lobster sellers

January 21, 2016 — BOSTON, Mass. — Millions of pounds of lobster caught by Massachusetts fishermen are shipped to Canada for processing — mostly because a decades-old law prohibits the meat from being prepared locally.

Legislation set for a vote in the state Senate today, Jan. 21, would lift those restrictions, opening what some in the industry say is a multi-billion dollar market for processed lobster, in one of the few areas of the commercial fishing industry that is thriving.

The proposal sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester allows for the processing and sale of frozen, in-shell lobster parts in the state.

A 1997 state law allows wholesalers to process lobsters into frozen, shell-on tails for distribution outside the state, but they cannot be sold in Massachusetts. The law was intended to curb mutilations of undersized lobsters.

Tarr said Maine, a major player in the lobster industry, eased similar restrictions several years ago and has seen a “significant increase in processing capacity and demand for lobster processing licenses.”

“New businesses have taken root in previously abandoned factories, and this has translated into significant job growth and economic stimulation,” said Tarr, who expects the measure to pass when the Senate meets in formal session today.

The proposal would still need to be approved by the House and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker to become law.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Ocean acidification still an issue in Maine

January 12— AUGUSTA, Maine — The Marine Resources Committee is scheduled to get the Legislature’s second session off to a busy start on Wednesday (Jan. 13) with a public hearing on proposed legislation affecting the elver fishery. That hearing is scheduled for the morning and is to be followed by work sessions on four bills in the afternoon.

At 10 a.m., the committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on a bill sponsored by Rep. Walter A. Kumiega (D-Deer Isle) and Sen. Brian Langley (R-Hancock County), among others. LD 1502 would give the Department of Marine Resources authority to set the weekly, two-day closure of the elver fishery by rule before the season starts. The idea is to allow DMR to take the daily tides and phase of the moon into account when establishing the weekly closures.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Lobster license bill hearing is scheduled

AUGUSTA, Maine — January 9, 2016 — A bill that would tweak the state’s commercial lobster license system is scheduled for a public hearing with the legislature’s Marine Resources Committee Feb. 3.

LD 1503, “An Act to Create a Class II Limited Lobster and Crab Fishing License and Improve the Limited-entry System,” was sponsored by Rep. Walter Kumiega (D-Deer Isle) and drafted in consultation with Department of Marine Resources staff. The bill makes some changes to entry into the lobster fishery and other changes to address latent effort (traps and licenses not being actively fished).

Between 2012 and 2014, only two fishermen were issued new licenses off the apprentice program waiting list in Zone B, which includes waters off Mount Desert Island. In that same period, 31 young people received Zone B commercial licenses when they upgraded their student licenses to commercial ones, bypassing the waiting list.

Zone B has a waiting list with 54 names, with the top seven having joined the list in 2005.

“Nobody expected the apprentice waiting lists to get this long,” Southwest Harbor fisherman Andy Mays said. “Once you make it so you can’t get a license, nobody’s gonna get rid of them. That’s why there’s so much latency.”

Read the full story opinion piece from the Mount Desert Islander

Gulf of Maine lobster stock at an all-time high

January 4, 2016 — A recent lobster stock assessment shows the population of the state’s famous bottom-dwelling crustacean at record highs in the Gulf of Maine.

Through data collected by fishery-dependent and fishery-independent sources, the stock assessment gives fishermen and scientists a picture of the condition of the economically important stock.

According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the 2015 benchmark stock assessment for lobsters shows the stock of crustaceans in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank is not depleted and overfishing is not occurring.

However, the situation for the stock in southern New England is far less clear, with abundance estimates appearing to decline dramatically since the late 1990s to record-low levels.

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Director of Communications Tina Berger said stock assessments for lobsters and other species are not done every year since it often takes a couple years to compile the data. The last assessment done for lobsters was released in 2009.

Read the full story at the Lincoln County News

How Maine lobsters’ future could depend on seaweed that surrounds them

January 4, 2016 — As the global focus on climate change shifts from negotiations in Paris to taking action to limit the globe’s average temperature increase, the focus is decidedly terrestrial. The text of the climate accord finalized last month isn’t exceedingly detailed when it comes to climate change mitigation strategies, but it devotes special attention to the importance of the world’s forests.

Meanwhile, there’s only one mention in the document’s 32 pages of a natural feature that covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, contains 97 percent of its water and produces at least half of its oxygen.

Oceans — which dissolve about a quarter of the world’s climate change-causing carbon dioxide — are key to any effort to combat climate change. And, of special importance to a coastal state such as Maine, oceans and the creatures that live in them are particularly susceptible to the consequences of climate change, from sea level rise to the increasing acidity of the world’s oceans.

There have been several reminders of that reality over the past year.

Read the full editorial at the Bangor Daily News

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Fishing for new markets

December 23, 2015 — New England wouldn’t be the same without the sight of fishing boats easing in and out of its working waterfronts. There is no better homage to this rich seafaring heritage than the visitors and residents alike who clamor for the region’s cod sandwiches, crisp haddock, buckets of steaming fried clams and, of course, the iconic overstuffed lobster roll.

But now, the industry that for centuries shaped New England’s economic, culinary and cultural life, faces serious challenges. This is exemplified by the reality facing New Hampshire’s groundfishermen, who catch the species that dwell near the bottom of the ocean, like cod, haddock and hake.

Dwindling stocks, stricter regulations and an influx of inexpensive seafood from other countries have made making a living off these species difficult, and forcing these pillars of the fishing industry to find alternative routes to market to survive.

Read the full story from the New Hampshire Business Review