Saving Seafood

Bait crisis could take the steam out of lobster this summer

April 1, 2019 — The boom times for the U.S. lobster industry are imperiled this year because of a shortage of a little fish that has been luring the crustaceans into traps for hundreds of years.

Members of the lobster business fear a looming bait crisis could disrupt the industry during a time when lobsters are as plentiful, valuable and in demand as ever. America’s lobster catch has climbed this decade, especially in Maine, but the fishery is dependent on herring — a schooling fish other fishermen seek in the Atlantic Ocean.

Federal regulators are imposing a steep cut in the herring fishery this year, and some areas of the East Coast are already restricted to fishing, months before the lobster season gets rolling. East Coast herring fishermen brought more than 200 million pounds of the fish to docks as recently as 2014, but this year’s catch will be limited to less than a fifth of that total.

The cut is leaving lobstermen, who have baited traps with herring for generations in Maine, scrambling for new bait sources and concerned about their ability to get lobster to customers who have come to expect easy availability in recent years.

“If you don’t have bait, you’re not going to fish. If the price of bait goes up, you’re not going to fish,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “We have to take the big picture, and make sure our communities continue to have viable fisheries.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

U.S.-Canada ‘Lobster War’ film to be screened in Waterville

April 1, 2019 — The waters off Machias Seal Island along the Maine coast are beautiful, but the war between U.S. and Canadian fishermen fighting over territory where climate change has caused the lobster population to explode is decidedly ugly.

That conflict is portrayed in vivid detail in “Lobster War: The Fight Over the World’s Richest Fishing Grounds,” an award-winning documentary film co-directed and produced by David Abel, a Boston Globe reporter, and Andrew Laub, a writer, editor, filmmaker, cinematographer, visual effects artist and soundtrack composer.

The film will be shown at 7:15 p.m. Sunday at Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville. Abel will engage in a question-and-answer session with the audience via Skype after the showing.

The 2018 film focuses on the clash between the U.S. and Canada over 277 square miles of ocean off the 20-acre Machias Seal Island that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War, according to Abel. U.S. lobster fishermen traditionally fished the so-called Gray Zone, but as the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than nearly any other water body on Earth, the lobster population there has grown significantly, prompting Canadian fishermen to assert their sovereignty there, he said. Fighting between Canadian and American fishermen over the territory has been ongoing, with threats of violence and sabotage.

Abel, an environmental reporter who has long covered fisheries issues, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that “Lobster War” shows how the warming waters of the Gulf of Maine are affecting lobster, Maine’s iconic species, whose population for the last 15-plus years has boomed, partly as a result of climate change.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Lobsters unharmed by Atlantic Canada salmon farm, 8-year study finds

March 22, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — An eight-year study of lobsters living below a salmon farm off New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island found the aquaculture operation had no impact on the crustaceans’ abundance, size or growth.

The peer-reviewed, industry-funded study was published this month in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

Its authors say it’s the most in-depth examination of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

“There isn’t anything like this. Any surveys that have been done have been sort of cursory,” said Jon Grant, the study’s lead author and a Dalhousie University oceanographer.

How the study worked

The study involved divers visiting a sample area under the Benson Aquaculture salmon farm at Cheney Head off Grand Manan in 2008, and returning every August and September.

To establish a baseline, surveying started before the fish farm opened. The study covered two production cycles at the farm, which uses pesticides to control sea lice and has been opposed by lobster fishermen.

It also included a fallow period and a farm expansion to 336,000 fish from 10,000 during the second production cycle.

An identical survey was conducted about a kilometre outside the farm.

By the time the project ended in 2015, divers had counted 1,255 lobsters inside the farm and 1,171 outside.

What the study found

“In both cases, whether it was on the farm or off the farm, over those eight years the abundance of lobsters went up. A lot. By 100 per cent or more. And there was no difference in those lobsters in any way — in their size, in their sex or their abundance, whether on or off the fish farm,” Grant told CBC News.

“We don’t detect any evidence that the fish farm affected behaviour, growth or abundance of those lobsters.”

He said the study proved one hypothesis: the population inside or adjacent to the farm matched growth seen elsewhere in lobster fishing areas.

“It reflects the fact that the fishery is ongoing and it’s thriving and that fish farming does not seem to have impacted it, at least in eastern New Brunswick,” said Grant, who is funded by New Brunswick-based Cooke Seafoods and holds the NSERC-Cooke industrial research chair in sustainable aquaculture.

Surveys ordered by government regulators

The surveys were a requirement of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the New Brunswick government. The Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association funded the study.

The field work was carried out by SIMCorp, a New Brunswick-based marine environmental consulting firm that works for the aquaculture industry in Atlantic Canada and Maine.

SIMCorp is recognized as the standard for aquaculture, said Grant.

Tara Daggett, a SIMCorp biologist and co-author of the study, said the results are encouraging news for the aquaculture industry.

“We can fairly say aquaculture can coexist with fisheries and other species. It has a place,” she told CBC News.

However, Daggett cautioned the results only reflect what happened at one fish farm.

“The fish farm is typical of Grand Manan with sandy and cobbled bottom, but in science we don’t extrapolate. We need to test at other sites.”

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

MAINE: Petition seeks moratorium on large aquaculture leases

March 22, 2019 — Save Maquoit Bay, a group formed to address issues with aquaculture, and lobstermen from around the state have submitted a petition to the Department of Marine Resources requesting an immediate moratorium on aquaculture leases greater than 10 acres in size.

The petition has 189 signatures, 39 more than required to open rulemaking around aquaculture leases, according to a news release.

The petition comes in the wake of an application by Mere Point Oyster Co. for a 40-acre lease in the bay, which is in the north end of Casco Bay, in between Freeport and Brunswick. The application, for a 10-year lease, is to cultivate Eastern oysters, bay scallops and sea scallops.

Mere Point Oyster Co. is owned by Dan Devereaux and Doug Niven.

Supporters of the petition spoke about it at a Tuesday news conference at the State House.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Feds look to create Jonah crab fishery

March 22, 2019 — Fifteen years ago, the Jonah crab was barely an afterthought to fishermen and fishery managers alike.

When the crabs were considered at all, it was chiefly as unregulated bycatch to the American lobster industry. Untargeted and largely unloved by fishermen and unknown by consumers, the crabs became the living embodiment of a niche fishery.

But then something happened: landings of Jonah crabs exploded, from nearly 3 million pounds in 1994 to more than 17 million pounds in 2017 — with more than 70 percent of the haul coming out of Massachusetts waters. They are used as food, sometimes to substitute for the popular and more expensive Dungeness crab.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Daily Times

Florida Targets ‘Criminal Conspiracy’ In Spiny Lobster Fishery

March 21, 2019 — State wildlife investigators announced Tuesday that they’ve wrapped up a two-year investigation targeting what they say is a criminal conspiracy in the spiny lobster fishing industry.

Lobster is Florida’s most valuable commercial fishery, with landings usually worth more than $40 million a year.

Investigators went undercover and conducted surveillance in what they called “Operation Thimblerig.” Thimblerig is another term for shell game.

Three people face felony charges including racketeering, fraud and identity theft.

Investigators say the primary suspect is Elena Reyes, 67, owner and operator of Florida Marine Fisheries Consultant, a business with an address in Palmetto Bay.

She’s accused of cheating the state out of about $200,000 by underreporting the sale price of trap tag transfers. Every commercial lobster trap in Florida is required to have a tag from the state and the number of those tags is limited, making them valuable.

When the tags are sold, the state gets a surcharge, so by underreporting the sale price, Reyes created a “considerable deficit” in the amount the state was owed, according to the FWC.

Investigators say she also stole personal information from about 60 people who hold commercial fishing licenses. That information was used to get a restricted species endorsement for people who would not otherwise have qualified. A restricted species endorsement is special permission from the state required to fish for certain kinds of fish, including spiny lobster.

Read the full story at WLRN

MAINE: Group including lobstermen wants state to clamp down on aquaculture licenses

March 21, 2019 — Lobstermen are among the organizers of a citizen petition asking the state to limit where new aquaculture operations are sited in Maine’s coastal waters, claiming the surge in new licenses affects where they can drop traps.

A wave of aquaculture operations has swept along the coast in the last few years, sparking concerns from lobstermen and others about waterfront access, aesthetics and interference with commercial fisheries.

A 40-acre oyster farm proposed in Maquoit Bay in Brunswick by Mere Point Oyster Co. is a flashpoint in the debate. The hearing on its application prompted three days of prolonged, contentious discussion, involving landowners in the upscale neighborhood of Merepoint, members of the town’s fishing community and others.

“I’m here to let the Department of Marine Resources know that their system of granting aquaculture leases is broken or, even worse, non-existent, as far as it pertains to the commercial lobstermen in this state,” John Powers, a lobsterman who has fished around Brunswick for 40 years, said at a news conference in the State House on Wednesday.

Powers was among a handful of organizers who submitted a petition with 189 signatures to the Department of Marine Resources, almost 40 more signatures than needed to trigger the rule-making process.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: A third run for lobster processing law

March 18, 2019 — Perhaps the third time will be the charm. We shall see.

State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr is back with his bill that would permit processing of fresh and frozen lobsters in Massachusetts and cease the mandate to send Massachusetts-landed lobsters out of state for processing into parts.

The Senate passed the bill. But then the Senate passed the measure the previous two times it appeared on the calendar, only to have the House each time put the kibosh on it.

This year, Tarr and supporters of the bill took a different route. They attached the bill to a supplemental budget already passed by the House.

That means the bill, now before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, still has a chance to live on if it remains in the supplemental budget following the conference committee.

And it should.

As we’ve previously written, supporters have made a strong case that changing the law would provide expanded and more efficient markets for lobstermen, create jobs and other platforms of growth for the processing industry, help coastal communities, such as Gloucester, diversify their waterfront infrastructure, and provide consumers with more choices.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

East Coast Seafood, St. James Smokehouse win 2019 Seafood Excellence Awards

March 18, 2019 — East Coast Seafood won the 2019 “Best New Foodservice” Seafood Excellence Award for its Lobster Macaroni & Cheese Bites, and St. James Smokehouse was awarded the “Best New Retail” prize for its Saint Pure Salmon at Seafood Expo North America on Sunday, 17 March.

Topsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based East Coast Seafood is the world’s largest distributor of live and frozen North American lobster. Its Lobster Macaroni & Cheese Bites, designed for the foodservice industry, are a creamy mixture of macaroni and a blend of parmesan, asiago, and mozzarella cheeses, within a crunchy golden-brown coating. The appetizers are produced without preservatives or artificial flavors and are designed to be deep-fried at the restaurant level.

“It was a complete surprise, we’re extremely excited about it and proud,” East Coast Seafood Vice President of Marketing Garrett Digney told SeafoodSource. “It’s been a great team effort for the item, and we’re extremely happy.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Black seabass terrorizing New England’s lobsters

March 14, 2019 — Black seabass — a saltwater fish that previously was rarely taken commercially and recreationally in Massachusetts, US, or other parts of southern New England — have increased in number there and are rattling the lobster industry, reports the MV Times, a local news service.

They’re eating the younger, smaller crustaceans, in particular, and maiming the larger ones they can’t fit in their mouths.

“They feed aggressively,” Rutgers University marine biologist Olaf Jensen is quoted as saying. “They’re not picky eaters. If it’s the right size and it’s alive, they’ll eat it.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News