Saving Seafood

A Ropeless Future for Lobster Fishing

August 4, 2021 — Motoring out of Bar Harbor recently, a small boat slowly navigated a field of colorful buoys before hitting the open water. It hooked around Bar Island, passed the Porcupines and slowed up on the leeward side of Ironbound, a mostly undeveloped private island. Had a person been standing on the rocky cliffs then, they would have seen the crew on the boat dump a lobster trap into the water and watch it sink, then motor off to a short distance away, from which the dozen people aboard watched the spot where the trap went down. Some time later, a bundle of floats would appear at the surface and the boat would circle back and snag it with a boat hook. By now the observer would have pulled out some binoculars to get a better view, and would see that the float was attached to the lid of the lobster trap, and that from the lid, a rope disappeared into the water, by which the rest of the trap was soon retrieved.

The object thrown overboard was not in fact a trap but a ropeless fishing system deployed in a demonstration for passengers on the boat, including a film crew, a reporter and three people who study or advocate for right whales.

Zack Klyver chartered the boat and arranged the demonstration. Through his consultancy, Blue Planet Strategy, he has been working as an intermediary between manufacturers, whale advocates and lobstermen, who find themselves on various sides of a regulatory survival equation as the federal government moves to protect endangered right whales.

In ropeless fishing, Klyver sees a potential win for everyone involved, but getting there may take time and a fair amount of persuasion.

Ropeless fishing is still in its infancy. Only a handful of companies make the gear, and as Maine law requires lobster traps to be marked with a buoy, it’s not even legal to use here yet.

Read the full story at The Free Press

While demand for seafood is high, inflated costs are proving too pricey for some restaurants

August 4, 2021 — Rising inflation costs have walloped restaurateurs, forcing many to raise prices or scale back on offerings. For some restaurants, that’s meant pulling plates of scallops, crab, lobster, and fish as business owners say pandemic-driven price hikes and shortages have left them little room to make a profit. Bloomberg reports that congested ports and labor shortages have caused big delays and higher seafood prices.

On average, U.S. fishermen are older than 40, and Covid-related disruptions caused many to leave the industry for fields like construction. Seafood prices have risen 11 percent since July 2020, while demand has skyrocketed. One Georgia restaurant owner said he paid an Atlanta seafood distributor $18 for a pound of blue crab before the pandemic; now it would cost him $44. Not an ideal catch.

Read the full story at The Counter

Nonprofit launches “Is your lobster whale-safe?” campaign

August 3, 2021 — Nonprofit organization Mainers Guarding Right Whales has launched a campaign featuring advertisements and a billboard that asks “Is your lobster whale-safe?”

The billboard is located along roadways in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and is targeted at travelers heading into the nearby state of Maine (billboards along roadways are banned in Maine). The billboard, according to the organization, is intended to inform travelers that “lobster dinners at seaside harbors come at a steep price to North Atlantic right whales.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Lobster Trap Transfer Period Open August 1 – September 30

August 3, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Lobster Trap Transfer Period Open August 1 – September 30

The Lobster Trap Transfer Program allows permit holders the annual flexibility to buy and sell trap allocations for Lobster Conservation Management Areas 2, 3, and the Outer Cape. The application period for fishing year 2022 is now open.

Applications must be submitted between August 1 and September 30. Approved transfers will take effect May 1, 2022.  A detailed guide about the program, transfer applications, and individual trap allocations is available on our website.

Questions?

Regulatory Questions:  Contact the Sustainable Fisheries Division, 978-281-9315

Application and Process Questions:  Contact the Analysis and Program Support Division, 978-282-8483

Media: Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, 978-281-9103

TIM PLOUFF: Lobstering under attack

August 2, 2021 — A few weeks ago, Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) met with several dozen concerned citizens in Ellsworth for updates on Maine’s offshore wind proposals. The man facing that audience was grim-faced, fatigued and struggling for the proper words to express his apparent anxiety.

A husband, a father of three and a longtime lobsterman out of Winter Harbor, Faulkingham, who also serves on the Joint Standing Committee for Marine Resources, has been a strong voice of reason in our Legislature for many efforts at bettering our state, but primarily for working to protect Maine’s lobstering industry.

As Faulkingham described it, three seemingly combined forces are aligned and have put the bull’s-eye on the men and women in Maine whose lives depend on lobstering — whales, warming and wind power.

The right whale protection consortium has heightened its efforts to alter nearly every aspect of Maine’s primary (and most significant) fishing industry by pushing the federal fisheries agencies to limit, reduce and even eliminate the fishing methods currently employed in the local waters and the Gulf of Maine despite several studies indicating negligible right whale incidents within these waters over the last few years. At best, the supposed science is leaning toward saving whales, with little regard for the men and women who are active conservationists every day while doing their jobs.

The warming water folks, often the same groups and agencies that are involved with the right whale restrictions, also want to promote bureaucratic rules that will severely impact all forms of fishing in Maine’s coastal waters.

Read the full opinion piece at the Mount Deseret Islander

US restaurants, casinos forced to pull crab, other species over high prices

August 2, 2021 — Seafood is being pulled from restaurant menus across the United States as it becomes too difficult – or expensive – to source.

Nearly every premium item – from lobsters and scallops to king crab and snow crab – is hard to come by these days. And prices on most items have risen at least 50 percent in the past quarter, according to Kristian Wade, executive chef at the MGM Resorts-owned Beau Rivage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: In Acadia’s Shadow: Latest Flashpoint in Conflict Over Industrial Fish Farms

August 2, 2021 — A Norwegian investor wants to bring a new kind of fish farm to a stunning, island-studded bay at the base of Acadia’s famous Cadillac Mountain. The project is uniting broad opposition in and around tourist-dependent Mt. Desert Island.

The “American Aquafarms” project is the latest in a series of industrial-scale fish farms proposed for Maine, highlighting how the nation’s demand for seafood is putting pressure on local marine economies.

Frenchman Bay reaches from the eastern side of Mt. Desert Island to the Schoodic peninsula. Through the 20th century, sardine canneries dotted the bay. But the last of them, in Gouldsboro, shut down more than a decade ago.

“Sardines, and the herring fishery was the biggest fishery for 50 or 60 years and then that declined. But now the only thing left is small fisheries – scallops and all of that. Lobster’s the only viable industry,” says Dana Rice, Gouldbsoro’s selectman.

Here at Gouldbsoro’s town office, Rice is also the harbormaster and a lobster dealer. He says even the lobster processing company that took over the old harbor sardine plant has had a hard time making it, and waterfront jobs have dwindled. So when a Norwegian investor started sounding out local officials about converting it into a fish hatchery and processing facility for an at-sea salmon farm, Rice was interested.

“I would like to see some good paying jobs for the younger generation… this intrigued me. Hey, they’re talking somewhere between $150 million and $350 million investment, you can’t turn your back on that. You can not,” Rice says.

American Aquafarms optioned the property two years ago, and since has been laying groundwork for what its backers say will be a state-of-the-art “closed-pen” system: an array of enclosed, floating capsules, full of fish, that ostensibly would avoid most of the negative impacts of traditional open-pen salmon farms, such as escapes, disease and pollution.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Reduced Fishing Season Length for the Harvest of Spiny Lobster in Federal Waters off Puerto Rico for the 2021 Fishing Year

July 29, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

What/When:

Harvest of spiny lobster (commercial and recreational) in federal waters off Puerto Rico will close at 12:01 a.m., local time, on August 22, 2021, and will re-open at 12:01 a.m., local time, on October 1, 2021.

Why This Closure Is Happening:

  • The annual catch limit for spiny lobster in Puerto Rico is 327,920 pounds.  Based on the average of the three most recent years of available landings, from the 2017-2019 fishing years, NOAA Fisheries determined that the annual catch limit for spiny lobster was exceeded.
  • As a result, an accountability measure is applied, reducing the length of the 2021 fishing season for spiny lobster in federal waters of Puerto Rico.  Harvest of this species will close at the date and time specified above.
  • This closure is necessary to protect the spiny lobster resource in federal waters off Puerto Rico.

During The Closure:

During the closure, spiny lobster in or from federal waters off Puerto Rico may not be harvested, possessed, purchased, or sold, and the recreational bag and possession limit for spiny lobster in or from federal waters off Puerto Rico is zero.

ASMFC 2021 Summer Meeting Webinar Supplemental Materials Now Available

July 28, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Supplemental materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2021 Summer Meeting Webinar are now available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2021-summer-meeting-webinar for the following Boards/Committees (click on “Supplemental” following each relevant committee header to access the information). For ease of access, all supplemental meeting materials have been combined into one PDF – http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/2021SummerMeeting/2021SummerMtgSupplementalCombined.pdf.

Below is the list of documents included in the supplemental materials.

American Lobster Management Board – Revised Meeting Overview and Workgroup Report on Vessel Tracking Devices in Federal Lobster and Jonah Crab Fisheries

Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board – Revised Draft Agenda & Meeting Overview; Draft FMP Review; Technical Committee Memo on Review of Juvenile Abundance Index for the Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River;  Staff Memo on Potential Options and Timelines to Address Commercial Quota Allocation; Advisory Panel Nominations; and Public Comment

Tautog Management Board – Industry feedback on Tautog Commercial Harvest Tagging Program

Sciaenids Management Board – Atlantic Croaker and Red Drum FMP Reviews; and Florida FWC Commercial Atlantic Croaker Implementation Plan

Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Board Concurrent with Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council – FMP Reviews for Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass; and Policy Board Directive to Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Board

Atlantic Menhaden Management Board – Public Comment

Business Session – Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment Summary, and Draft Amendment for Public Comment

Webinar Information

Board meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning Monday, August 2 at  1:30 p.m. and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 3 p.m.) on Thursday, August 5. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. To register for the webinar go tohttps://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1268548762865393678 (Webinar ID: 606-517-315).

Each day, the webinar will begin 30 minutes prior to the start of the first meeting so that people can troubleshoot any connectivity or audio issues they may encounter.  If you are having issues with the webinar (connecting to or audio related issues), please contact Chris Jacobs at 703.842.0790.

If you are joining the webinar but will not be using VoIP, you can may also call in at 415.655.0052. A PIN will be provided to you after joining the webinar; see webinar instructions for details on how to receive the PIN. For those who will not be joining the webinar but would like to listen in to the audio portion only, you can do so by dialing 415.655.0052 (access code: 904-450-431).

Public Comment Guidelines

To provide a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board  approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings. Please note these guidelines have been modified to adapt to meetings via webinar:

For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide an opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will ask members of the public to raise their hands to let the chair know they would like to speak. Depending upon the number of commenters, the board chair will decide how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.

For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.

For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.

In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).

  1. Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of the webinar (July 12) will be included in the briefing materials.
  2. Comments received by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, July 27 will be included in the supplemental materials.
  3. Comments received by 10:00 AM on Friday, July 30 will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting.

Comments should be submitted via email at comments@asmfc.org. All comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution.

A Day in the Life of a Maine Lobsterman

July 26, 2021 — The next time you snooze your alarm clock at a very modest 8 am, think of Mike Sargent. Before you pour your first cup of coffee in the morning or maybe even get out of bed, this fourth-generation lobsterman has already traveled at least a dozen miles off the shore of Steuben, Maine and hauled in a few hundred pounds of lobster.

As one of the lobstermen powering the state’s $1 billion lobstering industry, Sargent works sunup to sundown to bring this seafood delicacy to people across the country. The fisherman has 800 traps—the maximum a commercial fisherman can own in the state of Maine—covering the ocean floor where he collects lobster about five or six days a week in the summer months.

Like most Maine fishermen, Sargent says he was “kind of born into it.” He got a student lobstering license at the age of 10 and started fishing with his dad, and ever since, Sargent has spent summers on the water while others were feasting on lobster dressed up on rolls and boiled at backyard parties. He does manage to sneak in a few lobster feasts here and there. “We’’ll have big family clambakes and I probably eat it three or four times throughout the summer,” Sargent says, but adds that some of his fellow fisherman refuse to eat lobster because they’re surrounded by it day in and day out.

The days are long and the work is taxing, but after a year rocked by COVID-19 and uncertainty about the demand for lobster and the ability to go fishing, lobstermen like Sargent are grateful for a busy summer. “[Last year] was gnarly,” Sargent says. “A lot of people don’t realize, for all of us in these Northern communities, fishing is the lifeblood of this town. If I’m successful, the entire town is successful.”

Read the full story at Thrillist