Saving Seafood

Observer program for lobster boats on the wane

July 15, 2015 — The number of scheduled observer trips aboard Cape Ann lobster boats and others throughout Massachusetts have fallen off dramatically since the contentious Gloucester meeting last month where NOAA outlined plans to increase observer coverage for the Northeast lobster fishery.

Beth Casoni, executive director of the Scituate-based Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said her discussions with the association’s membership revealed a significant drop in the number of lobstermen being contacted to schedule observer coverage on a future trip.

“I’ve been asking every fisherman from everywhere whether they’re getting called like before and they’re all telling me the same thing, that it’s pretty quiet,” Casoni said. “We’re pretty pleased with that.”

The same is true around Cape Ann, according to Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer, longtime Gloucester fisherman and lobsterman who now serves as the president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association.

“There hasn’t been anyone contacted around here since the meeting,” Sawyer said.

The June 4 meeting at NOAA’s regional headquarters in the Blackburn Industrial Park provided the first glimpse of the rabid opposition among lobstermen to expanding the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program throughout the New England lobstering industry and as far down the East Coast as Maryland.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

Maine fishing crew hauls in a whale of a lobster

June 13, 2015 — Ricky Louis Felice Jr. had never seen such a monster of the deep before, so he posted a photograph of himself holding the 3-foot-long, 20-pound lobster on his Facebook page Monday.

Since then, Felice, a 24-year-old criminal justice major from Cushing, said he has been bombarded with requests for interviews from news media outlets across Maine and New England.

Felice was working as a deckhand on the Big Dipper, a lobster boat based in Friendship, in late May when the crew hauled up a trap with the behemoth cowering inside.

Though the hardshell lobster was caught more than a month ago, Felice said he decided to post its photograph Monday on Facebook after his friends urged him to.

“He was huddled over in the corner (of the trap), all balled up. Lobsters are very territorial and I don’t think he liked the fact that there were five lobsters inside the trap with him,” Felice said Monday evening. “His whole body was inside the trap. He was the biggest lobster I’ve ever seen in my life.”

The three-man crew of the Big Dipper, which is captained by Isaac Lash of Friendship, each posed for a photograph with the big crustacean before tossing it back into the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

FLORIDA: More than $20,000 of lobster and shrimp stolen from seafood supplier

July 10, 2015 — MIAMI, Fla. — Friday, customarily a big seafood consumption day, turned into a big seafood theft day at Miami’s Sea Land Distribution.

Thieves plowed a hole in a storage warehouse and stole $20,000 to $30,000 worth of mostly lobster and shrimp overnight. Perpetrators knew not only where but when to execute the heist for maximum take.

It was the first from the restaurant supplier in more than 30 years of business.

Lobstermen play waiting game while early prices spike

July 5, 2015 — Maine’s lobster industry is gearing up for another big year as the state’s 4,500 commercial fishermen wait for lobsters to migrate to the coast and shed the hard shells they’ve been carrying all winter.

And wait they must.

Fishermen and consumers probably won’t see those “shedders” until the middle of July – one to two weeks behind schedule – because of colder-than-normal water temperatures, according to scientists. The shortage has led to above-average lobster prices over the Fourth of July weekend, just when the state’s summer tourism season is coming into full swing. The Fourth of July weekend is considered the normal start date for the lobster fishery in Maine.

Fishermen who have traps in the water now aren’t catching much except for a few hard-shell lobsters, and those lobsters don’t seem eager to molt any time soon, said Peter McAleney, who runs New Meadows Lobster, a wholesaler in Portland.

“This winter has really messed us up,” he said. “The dealers and the fishermen are wondering what the heck is going to happen.”

Still, industry veterans say there’s no reason to panic. The lobsters will come again, just like they do every year, said Tom Flanigan, co-owner of Seaview Lobster Co. in Kittery.

“The old saying is: ‘The weather gets better before the lobster catch does,’” he said. “It takes awhile for the water temperatures to warm up and for the lobsters to do their thing.”

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

 

Darien, Conn. Lobsterman Calls For End To Pesticide Use To Restore The Industry

July 1, 2015 — The Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act would seek funding of $65 million for water quality and shore restoration programs. Murphy supports the bill, along with his fellow Connecticut Democrat U.S. Richard Blumenthal, and New York’s two Democratic U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer.

Frate said it was pesticide used to combat the West Nile Virus in 1998 and 1999 that decimated the Sound’s lobster population and sent it into a tailspin from which it has yet to recover.

Connecticut banned the use of some pesticides, but New York hasn’t, he said.

But Carlo said he’s noticed a rebound in the number of lobsters.

“The lobsters right now are looking nice and healthy,” he said. “There’s been a huge improvement since 2012.”

Read the full story at the Darien Daily Voice

 

Spike in Northeast Lobster Price Stings LA Distributor

June 23, 2015 — The days of cheap lobster are over. From Maine to Monterey Park, consumers are shelling out more for the delicacy.

Wholesale prices are up about 20% compared with last year’s, said Chol Pak, president of Los Angeles-based Pacific Fresh Fish Co., which has sold seafood to restaurants in the L.A. area for 33 years.

His company sells Maine American Lobster for $8.95 per pound. Sales are down, he said, because that’s more than most of his buyers want to pay.

William Cheng, manager at NBC Seafood Restaurant in Monterey Park, said that at $16.99 a pound, the restaurant is charging customers $1 more a pound than last year.

“We don’t want to raise the price a lot because then the customers would have to pay more and there is just too much competition,” he said.

One reason for the price increase: An unusually cold winter in the Northeast delayed the summer harvest in Maine. Fishermen must wait until lobsters shed their shells and reach legal harvesting size.

Read the full story at Los Angeles Times

 

Reintroduction of McDonald’s lobster roll doesn’t rattle NH seafood restaurants

June 22, 2015 — MANCHESTER, N.H. — Local seafood joints say they won’t feel pinched when McDonald’s brings back its lobster roll Saturday.

“I’m not too worried” about losing customers, said Kaleb Brown, manager of Brown’s Lobster Pound in Seabrook. “Their taste buds will be able to tell the difference.”

McDonald’s announced Monday the return of its lobster roll after a 10-year hiatus.

The burger chain said its seafood offering will contain “100 percent real North Atlantic lobster and mayonnaise dressing layered on a bed of crisp leaf and shredded lettuce served on a homestyle toasted roll.”

Nicole Garvey, the McDonald’s Boston region spokesman, said “the previous recipe and amount of lobster included differ from what we are offering this summer.”

The lobster meat will get shipped frozen to restaurants “for optimal freshness,” she said. The lobster roll will contain 290 calories and sell for $7.99.

Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union-Leader