Saving Seafood

Pew requests area closures in the name of right whales, suggests trap and line limits as next step

June 18, 2020 — On Thursday, June 18, Pew submitted a petition to the Commerce Secretary requesting an immediate shutdown of some federal waters off the coast of New England to commercial lobster and Jonah crab fishing. A letter signed by Peter Baker of Pew Charitable Trusts and attorney Purcie Bennett-Nickerson accompanied the petition.

“Specifically, we request that you designate one year-round closure south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and three seasonal offshore closures in the Gulf of Maine in which the use of vertical lines in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries is prohibited,” the letter states. “The proposed areas have been scientifically identified as posing the greatest risk of entanglement to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.”

U.S. lobster fleets and fishery leaders have long been leaders in reducing interactions with marine mammals, often voluntarily implementing expensive gear changes, and time and area closures. The fleets targeted by the petition have also been working through NMFS’ Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team to develop a NOAA-mandated 60 percent reduction in vertical lines in the water.

“Why are they bringing these proposals forward at this point?” asked Dave Borden, executive director of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association and an Area 2 lobsterman. “Pew as an organization never offered a comprehensive fix that I know of.”

Atlantic commercial lobstering organizations are also working on a deadline to provide material for a federal case and did not receive notice on the petition from Pew.

“They did not distribute a copy to us,” Borden said. “I’ve been working on the depositions for the right whale case that are due tomorrow.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Reminder: Restricted Gear Area Turnover

June 11, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

There are four restricted areas (RGA) that are alternately closed to either trap or mobile gear on a seasonal basis. These areas were agreed upon by the mobile gear and trap fishermen to reduce gear conflicts. These areas run west to east along the 50 fathom contours, south of New England.

Please refer to the table below that outlines which areas will be closed to mobile gear and fixed lobster gear.  Fixed lobster gear must be removed from RGAs 1 and 2 and mobile gear vessels may not fish in RGAs 3 and 4 beginning June 16, 2020.  For a map of these areas please visit the lobster species page under the Resources tab.

Read the full release here

Food banks pushed to the brink

June 8, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic and economic slowdown has left at least 20 million Americans out of work, sending demand skyrocketing at food banks and other feeding programs around the U.S. The Agriculture Department is already spending $3 billion on surplus meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables to help nonprofits meet their needs, but anti-hunger advocates say there’s another way Washington should help: Increase food stamp benefits so hungry families can buy more groceries instead of leaning on food banks.

The president on Friday threatened once again to slap duties on automobiles from the EU because of the bloc’s tariffs on U.S. lobsters. Trump said he’s putting Peter Navarro in charge of resolving the dispute, dubbing his hawkish trade adviser the “lobster king,” reports Pro Trade’s Doug Palmer.

The EU currently has an 8 percent tariff on live Maine lobsters, plus duties ranging from 16 percent to 20 percent on processed lobster. Meanwhile, Canada can export lobsters to Europe without paying any duties, leaving U.S. producers at a disadvantage.

“That’s an easy one to handle,” Trump said at a roundtable with commercial fishermen in Bangor, Maine, on Friday. But his administration has negotiated with Brussels for two years without reaching an agreement, and in November, the EU rejected a U.S. proposal for a mini-trade deal covering lobsters and chemicals.

China, another large market for lobster exports, also imposed retaliatory duties on American lobsters after Trump slapped tariffs on a wide range of Chinese goods. Trump on Friday directed Navarro to put pressure on Beijing by slapping even more tariffs on some Chinese goods.

Trump opened up a national marine monument in the North Atlantic to commercial fishing, undoing ecological protections implemented by the Obama administration. Under the proclamation, the New England Fishery Management Council will determine the amount of fishing allowed in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, some 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Mass. Pro Energy’s Ben Lefebvre and Eric Wolff have the details.

Read the full story at Politico

President Trump Opens National Monument to Commercial Fishing

June 6, 2020 — President Donald Trump on Friday opened 5,000 square miles of ocean off the New England coast to commercial fishing, reversing an order signed by President Barack Obama shortly before he left office.

“I’m a believer in conservation, but they’ve gone crazy,” he said before an audience of Maine lobstermen, fishermen and crabbers.

The Obama order that declared the area a national monument “was deeply unfair to Maine lobstermen, threatened to cripple family businesses and cost American fishermen millions of dollars,” Trump said. He separately vowed to fight foreign tariffs that hurt the Maine seafood industry.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which is larger than the state of Connecticut, is one of just five marine monuments and the first in the Atlantic Ocean. It is home to endangered right whales, sea turtles, puffins and rare deep-sea cold-water corals.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

In another step to reduce environmental regulations, Trump allows commercial fishing in nation’s only marine monument in the Atlantic

June 6, 2020 — Overturning one of his predecessor’s more far-reaching environmental measures in New England, President Trump on Friday signed a proclamation allowing commercial fishing in nearly 5,000 square miles of protected waters off Cape Cod.

The decision undermines one of the main goals of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, a controversial preserve about 130 miles southeast of Provincetown that President Barack Obama designated in his final year in office. It was the first marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Connecticut-sized area features a range of unique coral, rare fish, endangered marine mammals, and sea turtles. It contains three underwater canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and four underwater mountains.

Fishing groups had lobbied for the change, saying the restrictions had cost the industry millions.

“This action was deeply unfair to Maine lobstermen,” Trump said shortly before signing the proclamation during a meeting with commercial fishermen in Maine. “You’ve been treated very badly. They’ve regulated you out of business.”

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Lobsters and Sea Scallops Moving Out of Southern N.E.

June 5, 2020 — Researchers have projected significant changes in the habitat of commercially important American lobster and sea scallops along the Northeast continental shelf. They used a suite of models to estimate how species will react as waters warm. The researchers suggest that American lobster will move further offshore and sea scallops will shift to the north in the coming decades.

The study’s findings were published recently in Diversity and Distributions. They pose fishery management challenges as the changes can move stocks into and out of fixed management areas. Habitats within current management areas will also experience changes — some will show species increases, others decreases, and others will experience no change.

“Changes in stock distribution affect where fish and shellfish can be caught and who has access to them over time,” said Vincent Saba, a fishery biologist in the Ecosystems Dynamics and Assessment Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a co-author of the study. “American lobster and sea scallop are two of the most economically valuable single-species fisheries in the entire United States. They are also important to the economic and cultural well-being of coastal communities in the Northeast. Any changes to their distribution and abundance will have major impacts.”

Saba and colleagues used a group of species distribution models and a high-resolution global climate model. They projected the possible impact of climate change on suitable habitat for the two species in the large Northeast continental shelf marine ecosystem. This ecosystem includes waters of the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, the Mid-Atlantic Bight, and southern New England.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Trump to hold roundtable on commercial fishing while in Maine

June 4, 2020 — President Donald Trump will hold a roundtable discussion with parties involved in the commercial fishing industry during his visit to Maine on Friday, according to a White House official.

The president is slated to come to the Pine Tree State to visit the Puritan Medical Products facility in Guilford, which manufactures medical swabs used in coronavirus testing. The Guilford company is one of the two largest swab manufacturers in the world and is opening a new swab manufacturing facility in Pittsfield this summer to meet the surging demand for swabs.

The company is using $75.5 million in federal funds under the Defense Production Act to open that facility.

The president is expected to discuss regulations and how to expand economic opportunities for the commercial fishing industry, according to the official.

Details of when exactly the visit will take place have not been disclosed.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Researchers predict warming Atlantic will push lobsters offshore, scallops northward

June 4, 2020 — East Coast sea scallop stocks will likely follow lobsters in shifting away from rich Mid-Atlantic and southern New England grounds in the coming decades as a consequence of warming ocean waters, according to a new study that projects the impact of climate change on the two richest Atlantic fisheries.

Researchers used species distribution models and a high-resolution global climate model to picture the possible impact of climate change on habitat for lobsters and scallops in the Northeast continental shelf ecosystem, ranging from the New York Bight north to southern New England, Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.

Their findings, recently published in the journal Diversity and Distributions, suggest that over the coming 80 years both lobsters and scallops will be shifting northward, and lobsters also moving into deeper Gulf of Maine waters.

The researchers note that the latest benchmark assessment of the lobster stock, cited by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 2015, showed the stock in the southern Mid-Atlantic range was already severely depleted due to several environmental factors including recruitment failure and shell disease related to warmer waters.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine Looking for New Ways to Save Whales From Fishing Gear

June 3, 2020 — Maine is in the final year of funding for a project that seeks to better protect endangered whales in the Gulf of Maine from entanglement in fishing gear.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is using the project to collect data about vertical line fishing in the gulf, and develop a model to determine the fishing industry’s current use of the lines. The department is also hoping to use the model to predict the conservation benefits of new proposed regulations.

The state is slated to receive more than $200,000 in federal funds for the project this fiscal year, bringing the total federal money it has received to more than $700,000, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Less Effort, More Lobster? New Research Suggests That Fewer Traps Can Still Yield Profitable Results

June 1, 2020 — New research suggests that the U.S. lobster industry could place fewer traps in the water and still gain just as much profit. And that finding could play a role in the debate over what should be required of Maine lobstermen to reduce entanglements with endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The study was published this week in the peer-reviewed Marine Policy Journal. Lead researcher Hannah Myers is a graduate student at the University of Alaska’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Studies. She took a close look at landings and other data from lobster-fishing territory that crosses the international Hague Line between Nova Scotia and Maine.

“We found that Canadian fishers in the Gulf of Maine caught about the same amount of lobster using seven and a half times less effort than Maine fishers on the U.S. side,” she says.

The researchers found that while the Canadians spent fewer days at sea and fished fewer traps, the traps they pulled had almost four times as many lobsters in them.

Read the full story at Maine Public