Saving Seafood

American Lobster Assessment Yields Mixed Stock Status Results

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — August 5, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC):

The 2015 American Lobster Benchmark Stock Assessment and Peer Review Report indicates the American lobster resource presents a mixed picture of stock status, with record high stock abundance and recruitment in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) and Georges Bank (GBK), and record low abundance and recruitment in Southern New England (SNE). The GOM/GBK stock is not overfished and not experiencing overfishing. GOM and GBK were previously assessed as separate stock units and are now combined into one stock unit due to evidence of seasonal migratory patterns and connectivity between the two areas.  Conversely, the SNE stock is severely depleted with poor prospects of recovery, necessitating protection.

Stock Status

Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank

GOM/GBK stock abundance has increased since 1979 and at an accelerated pace since 2007. Recruitment and spawning stock abundance have remained high between 2008 and 2013. Current stock abundance is at all-time highs. Exploitation (fishing mortality) declined after 1979 until the mid-1990s and then remained stable with higher exploitation on males than females. Current exploitation rates remain on par with the 2008-2013 average.

Southern New England

SNE stock abundance increased from the early 1980s, peaked during the late 1990s, then declined steeply through the early 2000s to a record low in 2013. Both the assessment and peer review support the finding that the SNE stock is severely depleted. Declines in population abundance are most pronounced in the inshore portion of the stock where environmental conditions have remained unfavorable to lobsters since the late 1990s. The stock has collapsed and is undergoing recruitment failure. Despite attrition among the fleet and fewer traps fished for lobster, declines have continued. These declines are largely in response to adverse environmental conditions including increasing water temperatures over the last 15 years combined with sustained fishing mortality.

Declines in catch and fishery-independent survey indices in the offshore portion are evident as well; however they are not as severe.  It is believed the offshore area of SNE depends on nearshore larval settlement and offshore migration as the source of recruits (e.g., young of the year lobsters). Therefore, unless fishing effort is curtailed, the offshore component will be in jeopardy in the future when the poor year classes fail to materialize offshore. The Peer Review Panel noted while the SNE stock is not experiencing overfishing based on the current reference points, these reference points were established “without considering the possibility that the stock could be at the lowest abundance level ever and the production of recruits in the inshore area (on which the offshore area depends) could be brought to an extremely low level. It is noted that pre-recruits are not measured in the offshore surveys, so the effects of recruitment failure in the inshore would not be seen in the offshore until years later when the lobsters become available to the fishery and surveys. Hence, by any reasonable standard, it is necessary to protect the offshore component of the stock until increased recruitment can be observed.”

Peer Review Panel Recommendations

For SNE, the Panel recommends close monitoring of stock status along with implementing measures to protect the remaining lobster resource in order to promote stock rebuilding. Stock indicators should be updated annually and reported to the Management Board for appropriate action. Given the good condition of the GOM/GBK stock, the Panel recommended stock indicators be monitored prior to the next benchmark assessment to detect signs of changing recruitment or other conditions.

Landings

Total U.S. landings in the fishery have steadily increased in the past 35 years. Up until the late 1970s, landings were relatively constant at about 30.87 million pounds. However by 2000, landings almost tripled to roughly 86 million pounds and by 2006 grew to 92.61 million pounds. Landings in 2013 were roughly 149.94 million pounds. These landings are primarily comprised of catch from inshore waters (0 to 12 nautical miles). GOM supports the largest fishery, constituting approximately 76% of the U.S. landings between 1981 and 2007 and accounting for approximately 87% of landings since 2002. Landings in the GOM were stable between 1981 and 1989, averaging 32.13 million pounds, and then increased dramatically from 42.34 million pounds (1990) to 141.12 million pounds (2013). Landings averaged 112.46 million pounds from 2008-2013. GBK constitutes a smaller portion of the U.S. fishery, with landings averaging 4.93 million pounds between 2008 and 2013. Like the GOM, landings were stable in the 1980s and then quickly doubled in the early 2000s to a high of 5.29 million pounds in 2005. Before 2011, SNE was the second largest fishery, accounting for 19% of the U.S. landings between 1981 and 2007; however, a sharp decline in the population has significantly reduced catch. Landings peaked in the 1990s, reaching a high of 21.91 million pounds in 1997. Since this time, landings have precipitously dropped to a low of 3.31 million pounds in 2013.

The Board accepted both the stock assessment and peer review report for management use. In response to the findings regarding the status of the SNE stock, the Board established a working group of Board and Technical Committee members to review the assessment and peer review findings and develop recommendations for Board consideration. The final report will be available by mid-August via the Commission’s website at www.asmfc.org on the American Lobster page under Stock Assessment Reports.  For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator for Management, at 703.842.0740 or mware@asmfc.org.

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Proposed Rule to Modify Lobster Area 4 Seasonal Closure

August 5, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is proposing a modification to the Lobster Conservation Management Area 4 seasonal closure at the recommendation of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which leads the management for American lobster.

Under the proposed rule, the Area 4 closure would be changed from February 1-March 31 to April 30-May 31.

This measure is designed to better reduce fishing effort on the Southern New England lobster stock, which is in poor condition. This area closure shift has already been implemented by states adjacent to Area 4.

Read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register.

The comment period is open through September 4. Submit your comments online through Regulations.gov or by mailing your comments to:

John K. Bullard, Regional Administrator
NMFS,Greater Atlantic Regional Office
55 Great Republic Drive
Gloucester, MA 01930

Please mark the outside of the envelope: Comments on American Lobster Proposed Rule.

Questions? Contact Jennifer Goebel, Regional Office, at 978-281-9175 or Jennifer.Goebel@noaa.gov.

A big shift is coming to the Maine lobster population — and it could devastate the local economy

July 7, 2015 — There aren’t many foods more closely associated with Maine than the lobster.

So it’s pretty scary that this valued American crustacean could one day soon become a Canadian treasure — a change that could have a devastating impact on Maine’s local economy.

The problem is, lobsters like cold water. And oceans are warming, especially in New England.

The waters in the Gulf of Maine, specifically, are warming 99% faster than the rest of the world’s oceans.

And as a result, lobsters are moving north toward colder climates.

Over the last decade, southern lobster fisheries along Long Island and Connecticut have already seen their catches drop due to lobsters moving north into Maine, which hauled record catches during the same time period, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Maine lobsters have already moved north about 43 miles per decade between 1968 and 2008, according to a 2013 study.

Read the full story at Business Insider

Murder for Lobster

July 30, 2015 — On the morning of June 1, 2013, Venard Samson motored across the mouth of Petit-de-Grat Harbour in a small fishing boat. The narrow harbor, off the southeastern coast of Nova Scotia, is wedged between Petit-de-Grat Island, where he lives, and the wooded tail end of a larger island known as Isle Madame. By 6:30 a.m., he’d pulled one line of lobster traps and glided past a green navigational buoy. The North Atlantic, known for its rough winds and heavy swell, stretched out before him, so flat he could have passed a straight razor over its surface. “The water was right dead and calm,” he later recalled. “It was a nice damn day, clear, you could see anything.”

Then, he spotted the dark shape. It was floating along an uninhabited stretch of shoreline the fishermen all knew as Mackerel Cove. At first, Venard thought little of it; he had seen dead deer there before. But as Venard pulled closer, he discovered a banged-up fiberglass skiff, a small oceangoing vessel. It was waterlogged, its sideboards cracked and its bow barely a foot above the water line. No one was on board.

Venard circled the damaged boat three times, and discovered a floating gas tank and some green rope tangled around an anchor. The skiff’s outboard motor was missing, and its bowline, the rope that ties to the front of a boat, was apparently cut. Venard, a short man with a laborer’s physique who often speaks in an excitable squawk, picked up his radio and called the Canadian Coast Guard in Halifax, some 120 miles to the southeast. No, his GPS plotter wasn’t working. He’d have to drop a lobster trap to mark the spot. Around 6:55 a.m., the marine VHF radio cackled with a universal distress call: Pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan. All mariners were requested to be on the lookout and report any sightings of a man overboard.

Venard towed the skiff back toward the wharf and handed it off to another lobsterman. In some 50 years of fishing, neither man had encountered a situation like this. But both immediately wondered what had happened to Philip “Bowser,” who often roared around in the beat-up skiff, which he christened the Midnight Slider. The missing man’s full name was Philip Joseph Boudreau, but no one called him that because another local fisherman had the same name. A bull-necked man, 43 and going soft around the waist, Philip didn’t have a license to go lobster fishing. Islanders caught glimpses of him and Brodie, his blonde Labrador, cruising around under the light of the moon.

Later that morning, a ball cap washed ashore and a pair of boots were found floating in the harbor. It seemed Philip Boudreau was gone.

 

Read the full story at BuzzFeed

 

Collaborative of Maine Lobster Businesses Sets Sights on High End Restaurants

July 28, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine lobster is one of the reasons tourists come to the state. The goal of a new marketing and promotion effort is to have those tourists also eat Maine lobster in their home cities.

The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative is leading the effort and was formed by the state and the industry. It is paid for by increased license fees on fishermen and dealers.

The promotional target, at least to start, is out of state restaurants. Collaborative executive director Matt Jacobson said research identified 2,200 “upscale casual restaurants” between Maine and Delaware, which are considered the focus for the marketing effort.

Read the full story here

 

 

ASMFC 2015 Summer Meeting Supplemental Materials Now Available

July 29, 2015– The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental meeting materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2015 Summer Meeting have been posted at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2015-summer-meeting for the following Boards (click on “Supplemental Material” following each relevant board header to access information).

Executive Committee – Review of Commission Guidance Documents

American Lobster Management Board – Draft Proceedings from May 2015; Public Comment Summary and Submitted Public Comment on the Draft Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan (FMP); Reports of the Law Enforcement Committee and Jonah Crab Advisory Panel on the Draft FMP; Letter from Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries; and Technical Committee Report on NMFS Observer Coverage of the American Lobster Fishery

American Eel Management Board – Revised Meeting Overview and Delaware Annual Compliance Report

Tautog Management Board – Draft Public Information Document for Amendment 1 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Tautog

Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board – Public Comment and Draft 2015 Fishery Management Plan Review

Atlantic Menhaden Management Board  – Atlantic Menhaden Allocation Working Group Conference Call Summary; ASMFC Press Release on Atlantic Menhaden Ecosystem Management Objectives Workshop; and Public Comment

ISFMP Policy Board – 2015 Annual Stock Performance

South Atlantic State/Federal Fisheries Management Board  – Draft Proceedings from May 2015

For ease of access, all supplemental meeting materials (with the exception of ACCSP materials) have combined into one PDF –http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/Summer2015/CombinedSupplemental.pdf. As a reminder, Board/Section meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning at 10:15 a.m. on August 4th and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 12:15 p.m.) on August 6th. 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/453851280130891265.

 

Maine Sens. King, Collins want a National Lobster Day

July 28, 2015 — WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. senators from New England say the lobster’s role in the region’s heritage and economy are important enough to justify a national day of celebration.

The senators are introducing a resolution to designate Sept. 25, 2015, as National Lobster Day. Maine’s Angus King and Susan Collins say the crustacean deserves the honor because thousands of families rely on the multimillion dollar American lobster industry to make a living.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

There’s a border dispute heating up between the US and Canada over lobster

July 28, 2015 — There is still a tiny bit of disputed territory between the US and Canada, and relations on the border are getting frosty.

The northeastern-most part of the US — on the coast where Maine meets New Brunswick — there are two tiny, uninhabited islands in a political gray area. It isn’t because anyone wants the islands — instead, they want the lobster surrounding the islands, and it’s disputed which country has the fishing rights.

During normal times, the dispute seems to be little more than an annoyance. But apparently this year, there are real problems because the price of lobster is so high ($5.50 a pound in that area, compared to $4 the previous year), according to Zane Schwartz in Maclean’s.

Read the full story at Business Insider

 

Maine taps new lead biologist for lobster monitoring program

July 23, 2015 — Maine is promoting the coordinator of its lobster monitoring programs to the role of lead lobster biologist for the state.

Kathleen Reardon has coordinated the state Department of Marine Resources’ lobster monitoring programs for the past 10 years. She is succeeding Carl Wilson as lead lobster biologist. Wilson became director of the Marine Resource Department’s science bureau in February.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

 

Lobstering: Monitors more likely on boats with state, federal permits

July 16, 2015 — Federal plans to expand observer coverage on lobster boats from Maine to Maryland may have a hit a lull, but they are not going away, especially for lobstermen who hold both state lobster and federal access permits, according to the NOAA Fisheries official that oversees the program.

Amy Martins, manager of the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program, said Wednesday the number of calls to lobstermen to schedule observer trips have declined substantially in the past month primarily because of concerns lobstermen expressed at a contentious June 4 meeting at NOAA Fisheries’ regional headquarters in Gloucester.

“We heard concerns from the lobstermen that our observer program was calling too frequently and that we were perhaps overly aggressive,” Martins said. “We’ve also done quite a bit of work since that meeting that has allowed us to zone in a little more clearly on the specific parts of the fishery we want to monitor, the fleet-within-the-fleet, so to speak.”

Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times