Saving Seafood

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

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