Saving Seafood

Extra menhaden quota awarded to Maine as lobster bait shortage concerns heat up

July 17, 2019 — As the peak summer season begins to beat down on Maine’s lobster harvesters, state officials have stepped in to help ease some of the bait shortage burdens pressuring the sector as of late.

Last week, the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Management Council approved Maine’s request to reopen its recently closed menhaden fishery for an additional 4.7 million pounds of catch, according to a recent report from the Portland Press Herald. On 30 June, the state had to end its menhaden fishing season early after it determined that harvesters had exceeded the annual quota of 2.4 million pounds for the key bait species by 1.5 million pounds.

With the state’s fleet of more than 100 vessels seemingly docked for the summer, menhaden were still being found in abundance in Maine waters from Kittery to Penobscot Bay, prompting officials to petition the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Management Council for extra quota.

With their wish granted, state officials are hopeful that “landing the extra menhaden quota now that peak lobster season has started and bait demand is picking up will help ease fears of a shortage predicted as a result of a 70 percent reduction of landings for herring, Maine’s most popular lobster bait,” the Portland Press Herald explained. Prices were already rising when the herring season opened on Sunday, 14 July, noted a special bulletin issued by Maine.gov one day later.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine lawmakers say new rules will come at lobster industry’s expense

July 16, 2019 — Maine elected officials are pushing back with gusto against new federal measures to protect the imperiled North Atlantic right whales because of the impact of the new regulations on the state’s vital lobster industry.

The moves by Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who characterized the whale protection measures as “foolish” and an “absurd federal overreach,” and the state’s congressional delegation ultimately could have repercussions on Massachusetts’ lobster industry.

Or not. No one seems to know right now.

“The actions by Maine were a bit of a surprise, but nothing has been determined yet,” David Pierce, director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said Monday. “At this point, we don’t know what the federal government is going to do in response. There will be upcoming meetings and discussions, but right now it’s really wait and see.”

On Friday, Mills penned an open letter to the Maine lobster industry in which she said federal regulators have not provided specific evidence that the nation’s largest commercial lobster fleet is a primary threat to the remaining stock of North Atlantic right whales, now estimated at about 410.

“There is a disturbing lack of evidence connecting the Maine lobster industry to recent right whale deaths,” Mills wrote in the letter. “The Maine lobster industry is not the primary problem for right whales.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

More Bait Fish Expected to Help Maine Lobstermen With Crunch

July 16, 2019 — The reopening of the fishery for a species of schooling fish could boost Maine‘s lobster industry during a season in which its favored bait might be hard to come by.

The Portland Press Herald reports regional fishing managers have approved Maine’s request to reopen the fishery for menhaden. That could make available a few million pounds of the bait fish, which are also called pogies.

The most popular lobster bait in Maine is Atlantic herring, but that fishery has been subject to deep quota cuts in recent years because of concerns about the stability of its population.

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

Maine delegation asks for help easing tariff impact on lobster industry

July 15, 2019 — Maine’s Congressional delegation is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to include funding for Maine’s lobster industry as USDA finalizes its aid package for agricultural producers affected by China’s retaliatory tariffs.

U.S. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District, and Jared Golden, D-Maine 2nd District, have signed a letter that reiterates an earlier request of relief for Maine’s lobster industry amid the ongoing trade war with China, according to a news release.

“Retaliatory tariffs have caused a very significant export market for Maine lobster — China — to all but disappear,” the letter says.

The delegation requested “significant” funds for Maine’s lobster industry through USDA’s Agricultural Trade Promotion Program.

“ATP funding will help to develop new export markets for Maine lobster, decreasing the blow of Chinese tariffs on an iconic American industry,” the letter said.

In June, the delegation sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to provide financial assistance to lobster businesses hurt by the ongoing trade war with China, similar to the relief being provided to American farmers.

The delegation noted that prior to the Trump administration’s tariffs imposed on a variety of Chinese goods, China had become the second largest importer of Maine lobster.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

How lobster went from the ‘poor man’s protein’ to the delicacy we eat today

July 15, 2019 — Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: It’s no secret that lobsters are pricey. And a standard lobster dinner in a restaurant can set you back $38 or more. Lobsters are considered a gourmet dish today, but there was a time when they were known as the cockroaches of the sea and even served to prisoners. So when did lobsters become such a delicacy? And why are they so expensive? There are a lot of species of lobster, but we’re interested in the recognizable, clawed lobsters you might see on the menu: Homarus americanus and Homarus gammarus, better known as American and European lobster. These two species are very similar. The biggest difference is their color. We went to Ed’s Lobster Bar in New York City to speak to someone who has a lot of experience buying, preparing, and cooking the crustacean.

Ed McFarland: So, one of the hardest things about working lobster is, truthfully, it’s the price range of lobster, and it fluctuates greatly and from year to year, and the price increases. And the yield when you clean a lobster is very low. So you could buy a pound-and-a-half lobster, I think this is what most people don’t understand, is in a pound-and-a-half lobster, there’s probably only 4 ounces of meat out of a hard-shell lobster. So there’s not much yield that comes out of the lobster. So when you’re cleaning the lobster yourself to make lobster rolls, it really turns into a very, very expensive product.

Narrator: To fully understand what makes lobster so expensive, we need to take a look at its history, because it wasn’t always as revered as it is now. Lobster’s history varies across the world, but, for a long time, it was a source of food for many of the poorest in society.

During the Viking era, lobsters as food became much more popular in northern Europe as boats more suited to deep-sea fishing became available. And by establishing meat-free days for certain religious holidays, the church also increased the demand for seafood, including lobster.

Across Europe, lobsters became associated with status and a lavish lifestyle. And they were often featured in paintings to show wealth. But the value of lobster remained low in North America. Native Americans used lobsters as fishing bait and crop fertilizer, a practice that European colonists later copied.

Read the full story at Business Insider

Maine lobstermen get new bait option amidst herring quota cuts

July 12, 2019 — Maine lobsterman have gained a new option for baiting their traps as Cooke Aquaculture USA has secured permission from the state’s Department of Marine Resources to process and use whole blackbelly rosefish as lobster bait.

The new bait comes as the fishery’s main source of bait, herring, has faced a significant cut to quotas in 2019 and potentially beyond. The New England Fishery Management Council elected to slash the herring quota from nearly 50,000 metric tons (MT) to just over 15,000 MT – a 70 percent reduction – in the wakes of biomass surveys that indicated substantial declines in recruitment and biomass of the fish.

That quota cut means the lobster industry has to go without roughly 55 million pounds of bait in 2019; and the management council may cut quotas further in 2020 and 2021.

“Lobstering is an important part of the communities where we operate. Lobster fisherman are our friends, neighbors, and in many cases, family,” Glenn Cook, CEO of the Cooke Inc. family of companies, said in a release.  “When we learned about the bait shortage and its impact on the lobster industry in Maine, we began to explore possible solutions.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Lobster Bait Fish Coming to Maine From Uruguay Amid Shortage

July 11, 2019 — Maine’s lobster fishermen will be able to use a new species of bait fish to try to get through a shortage of herring that has troubled the industry in recent years.

Lobstermen typically bait traps with Atlantic herring, but federal fishery regulators have enacted dramatic cutbacks to the catch quotas for that fish. The Maine Department of Marine Resources said Thursday it has approved the blackbelly rosefish as a new species that can be sold and used as lobster bait in the state.

The blackbelly rosefish is an abundant species that ranges from Canada to South America. Cooke Aquaculture, a New Brunswick, Canada-based company, requested Maine’s approval to sell rosefish as bait, and the company announced plans to harvest the fish off Uruguay.

“We believe this is a solution to address concerns from the lobster fishery on the challenges they are currently facing on account of bait shortages,” said Glenn Cooke, chief executive officer of Cooke Inc., which includes Cooke Aquaculture.

Most of the U.S. lobster catch comes to the shore in Maine, where lobstermen landed nearly 120 million pounds (54 million kilograms) of the valuable seafood last year. Fishermen rely heavily on herring as a bait source, though they also use other species, such as menhaden.

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

Federal regulations to save whales could hurt Maine’s lobster industry

July 11, 2019 — New federal regulations aimed at saving endangered whales could have unintended consequences for Maine’s lobster industry.

Now Maine’s congressional delegation is trying to stall them.

Maine’s lobstering industry will soon have to drastically change how they operate.

“It could put a few of the smaller guys right out of business, because they can’t compete with it,” lobsterman George Anderson said.

New federal regulations are forcing them to cut the number of buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine by half this September.

“Yes they do have to cut down on some of their end lines, but on the other hand it’s going to put a hardship on some of us,” Anderson said.

Read the full story at WGME

New RAS proposal entered for former Garbo Lobster facility in Connecticut

July 9, 2019 — Officials in Groton, Connecticut, U.S.A. announced recently a private company is interested in buying a recently shuttered lobster facility in the city and turning it into a land-based fish farm.

East Coast Seafood’s Garbo Lobster facility caught the eye of Deaderick SSB, a Delaware-based limited liability company, according to The Day.

The 34,700-square-foot former facility at 415 Thames Street, built in 2002, is located along the Thames River and is owned by Just in Case LLC under East Coast Seafood Group of Topsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A., according to land and business records. East Coast, which owns Garbo Lobster, shuttered the lobster facility in January. The company said at the time it planned to shift Groton’s operations to a Prospect Harbor, Maine, facility that East Coast Seafood and Garbo Lobster acquired in 2012, as well as to its facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Mark Branse, a lawyer hired by Deaderick SSB to work on local land-use issues, told The Day the company plans to purchase the property and raise fish in the facility.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

For lobster industry, a boatload of stresses

July 8, 2019 — This year’s delayed lobster season kicked off with a cold, rainy spring and bait worries, but lobstermen haven’t been idle. Instead, they’ve been hunting for a way to cope with looming North Atlantic right whale protections.

“The overall feeling around the docks this year is pretty glum,” said Jason Joyce of Swans Island. “Catch is low, expenses are high and (there are) stormy forecasts ahead thanks to wealthy, politically connected multinational environmental groups that have been targeting us as their latest fundraising villain.”

Lousy spring weather means many midcoast lobstermen have set only half their traps. Farther Down East, lobstermen have set their traps but the catches are light. Topping it off: Bait prices are about twice what they were last summer in some ports.

Underscoring those challenges is the persistent uncertainty about what right whale protections will do to Maine’s $485 million industry, a concern heightened by recent reports of six right whale deaths in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Many of Maine’s 4,500 licensed commercial lobster fishermen have been following federal efforts to protect the endangered right whale, especially a mandate that the Maine fleet reduce its buoy lines by half to prevent entanglements.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald