Saving Seafood

Documentary Tracks Territory Dispute Over Lobster Bounty

December 7, 2018 — While many communities, including the Vineyard, have seen extreme declines in lobster populations over the years, the species has rebounded further north in a disputed area on the border of the United States and Canada. Fueled by warming waters due to climate change, this newly robust lobster area is being claimed by both countries, and it’s been dubbed the gray zone.

Lobster War, a new film about the building tension in the gray zone off the coast of Maine, will screen on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. Film director and Boston Globe reporter David Abel will appear for a question and answer session via Skype. He will be joined by Tubby Medeiros and Wes Brighton of the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, both of whom lobster in the waters around the Vineyard.

Speaking with the Gazette by phone, Mr. Abel said he learned about the gray zone through his environmental reporting for the Boston Globe.

“I’m interested in telling stories that look at how climate change affects us and how it’s not an abstract threat, but it’s having a real impact on people’s lives,” he said.

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette 

Herring fishermen likely to see dramatic reduction in harvest allowances

December 7, 2018 — Fishermen who seek one of the most important bait fish on the East Coast are likely to see a dramatic reduction in the amount they are allowed to harvest next year.

Commercial fisheries for herring are a major industry in the Atlantic states, where the little fish is important as lobster bait as well as used for human food. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it wants to cut the annual catch limit from nearly 110 million pounds this year to less than half that in 2019.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

JOHN BULLARD: Trump policies threaten New England fishermen

December 5, 2018 — The Trump Administration just approved dangerous seismic blasting to look for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean, a move that will threaten marine wildlife and fisheries. This announcement came on the heels of the National Climate Assessment, which the Trump Administration tried to downplay by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving. That’s right, Trump just sidestepped science — twice — to deliver a one-two punch to fishermen.

The scientific report on climate change offers a devastating look at the impact of climate change on the American economy — including fisheries in New England — if we fail to act fast. According to the report, the American economy will decline by up to 10 percent by the end of this century. Failure to reduce carbon emissions will continue to negatively impact the health of fish stocks, threatening the economic stability of our fishing industry and coastal communities.

None of this is news to New England fishermen, who already know the changes happening in their place of business: the ocean. They know warming waters have driven lobster out of southern New England towards Canada. They know that despite difficult quota cuts, cod is much harder to rebuild, and many flounder species don’t reproduce the way they used to.

Fishermen know that warming oceans have pummeled the Maine lobster industry, where revenues fell by $99 million in 2017. Some scientists warn that ocean acidification could make the scallop industry, a $500 million-dollar mainstay of New England’s fishing economy, the next to go. There’s no Plan B if this happens. And new oil and gas development could accelerate the decline of these and other species. Without action, the working waterfronts of New England could cease to work.

What was President Trump’s response when asked about the climate report from his own administration? “I don’t believe it.” Apparently his self-professed intellect is superior to more than 300 scientists from inside and outside the government who wrote the report. Because of his inability to accept the advice of his own scientists on what may be the issue of gravest importance to future generations, the president is putting our region’s fishing industry at risk.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

We’ll take your lobsters, eh? Canadian imports from US soar

November 30, 2018 — Trade hostility from across the ocean was supposed to take a snip out of the U.S. lobster business, but the industry is getting a lifeline from its northern neighbor.

Heavy demand from Canada is buoying American lobster as both countries head into the busy holiday export season, according to federal statistics and members of the industry. It’s a positive sign for U.S. seafood dealers and fishermen, even as the industry struggles with Chinese tariffs.

China emerged as a major consumer of American lobster earlier this decade, but the country slapped heavy tariffs on exports in July amid its trade kerfuffle with President Donald Trump’s administration. Lobster exports slowed to a crawl.

Industry watchers forecast the move as a potential calamity for U.S. seafood, but Canada has boosted the value of its lobster imports from America by more than a third so far this year, up to more than $180 million through September.

Canada has its own lobster fishing industry, which harvests the same species as U.S. fishermen, and the country sells lobsters domestically as well as to Europe and Asia. The country’s importing so many from the U.S. this year because it needs enough supply to send to China, said members of the lobster industry on both sides of the border.

“They go there to go to China, to avoid the tariffs,” said Spiros Tourkakis, executive vice president of East Coast Seafood, a dealer in Topsfield, Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Seattle Times

Maine fisheries and blueberries could be at stake due to climate change, report says

November 29, 2018 — Climate change has helped Maine’s lobster yield increase fourfold since the 1980s, as warming waters to the south have propelled lobsters north in search of colder waters. But if summer sea temperatures along Maine’s coast continue rising and cross a potentially perilous threshold, lobsters’ survival in a more temperate Gulf of Maine could be in doubt.

The Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, and the trend is expected to continue. The warming that has taken place so far, as well as the decline of cod, has proven favorable for Maine’s lobster yields in recent years, but if sea temperatures during the summer rise above 68 degrees Fahrenheit, lobster mortality will increase.

That’s one conclusion from a new report detailing the potential effects of climate change on Maine’s coast. The report, released earlier this month by the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, took a close look at how climate change could affect fishing and agriculture. It imagines five climate change scenarios, how they would unfold over the next two decades and the impacts from each one.

The report by Paul Mayewski, the institute’s director, and Maine State Climatologist Sean Birkel predicts an overall trend of warmer, wetter weather with rising sea temperatures, shorter winters, longer summers and more frequent storms.

These predictions are in line with the National Climate Assessment that the Trump administration published the day after Thanksgiving and came a week after Mayewski and Birkel’s report. The national assessment predicts an increase in extreme weather events due to climate change, and major economic losses and heightened health risks as a result.

A global or national climate change assessment might not be applicable to all states or even regions within a state, however, which is why UMaine’s Climate Change Institute has focused on specific regions of Maine, Mayewski said. Mayewski and Birkel used past climate change data collected through Birkel’s Climate Reanalyzer tool to make predictions about coastal Maine’s climate future, and they plan to do the same for other regions in the state.

“Our goal through reports like this is to give people a better idea of how the climate has changed in the past few decades, and understanding what the plausible scenarios are for future climate and how this might impact, in this case, fisheries and blueberries,” Mayewski said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Here’s how climate change will impact your part of the country

November 27, 2018 — Northeast:

  • There will be shorter winters and longer summers.
  • There will be a decline of species that support some of the most valuable and iconic fisheries, including Atlantic cod, Atlantic sea scallops and American lobsters.
  • Expect approximately 650 excess deaths per year caused by extreme heat by 2050
  • Health risks from contaminated flood waters. For example, because much of the historical development of industry and commerce in New England occurred along rivers, canals, coasts, and other bodies of water, these areas often have a higher density of contaminated sites, waste management facilities, and petroleum storage facilities that are potentially vulnerable to flooding.

Northwest:

  • Ocean/water warming: Increasing ocean temperatures and acidity impact fish survival, the report states. As water temperatures continue to rise, negative impacts on fisheries are expected to increase. With increased stream temperature projections, the report predicts a 22% reduction in salmon habitat in Washington by the end of the century if emissions continue to release at a higher rate. That kind of salmon population loss would correlate to a $3 billion economic loss.

Alaska:

  • The state is “warming faster than any other state” and “twice as fast as the global average since the middle of the 20th century.”
  • Devastating impact to fishing industry: Alaskan fisheries “are among the most productive and valuable in the world.” A “recent heat wave in the Gulf of Alaska, which led to an inability of the fishery to harvest the Pacific cod quota in 2016 and 2017 and to an approximately 80% reduction in the allowable quota in 2018.”

Read the full story at CNN

Fishing Leaders Seek Public Support for Herring Trawler Buffer Zone

November 26, 2018 — Local fishing industry leaders are seeking public support to finalize regulations that would push midwater herring trawlers at least 12 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.

The New England Fishery Management Council voted in September to recommend the measure in an effort to help protect the struggling fishery.

Local fishermen and the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance supported pushing the midwater trawlers back 50 miles to avoid localized depletion.

That concept is defined as a reduction of fish population, independent of the overall status of the stock, over a relatively small area as a result of intensive overfishing.

The new buffer zone would be estimated to reduce midwater trawler revenue by about 30 percent.

The midwater trawlers, which usually work in tandem, use large nets to scoop up entire schools of herring, which local fishermen have said negatively impact the local fishing industry and related economies.

Atlantic herring is a food, or forage fish for many larger fish species and whales which feed in the area. Herring is also an important bait fish in the New England lobster industry.

Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance CEO John Pappalardo says the restrictions now head to the National Marine Fisheries Service for review.

“I’m very confident that if all the people who helped us get a positive vote out of the council will one more time put effort in to making sure that the National Marine Fisheries Service adheres to the recommendation I am very confident we will end up with a positive result,” Pappalardo said.

Fisherman Charlie Dodge says the local industry and the public need to keep the pressure on at the political level to ensure the trawlers are pushed back.

“We’ve seen things before get to this point but even with keeping focus on it sometimes they never come to fruition,” Dodge said.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Overboard death rate falls for fishermen

November 26, 2018 — So, welcome back. We hope you had a fine Thanksgiving, whether you shared it with friends, family or that prickly tribe that inhabits North Sentinel Island out in the Andaman Sea. Though if it were the latter, it’s hard to imagine you’d be around to read this.

So, let’s open this week with some good news: Overboard deaths of commercial fishermen have declined by almost half to 204 in the period between 2000 and 2016, with credit going to better training, awareness and equipment.

According to studies by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the decline is a product of major safety initiatives by the U.S. Coast Guard in the wake of a series of accidents that killed 10 fishermen off the East Coast in 1999.

The most dangerous fisheries for overboard deaths, however, include the East Coast (particularly the Maine lobster fishery), the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery and Northwest salmon gillnetters.

The studies show overboard deaths have declined 47 percent since 2000, but remain the second leading cause of death among fishermen after vessel disasters.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Changing climate to put further pressure on New England, federal report predicts

November 26, 2018 — New England’s forests, fisheries and cultural traditions are already experiencing significant disruptions from a changing climate and will face additional transformation over the coming decades, according to a federal report released Friday.

Northeastern states are seeing some of the largest changes in the nation, yet conditions are shifting even faster in New England than the region as a whole, in some instances. Annual average temperatures in New England, for example, rose by roughly 3 degrees since the beginning of the last century compared to 1.8 degrees in the contiguous United States.

Those temperature changes – combined with shifts in precipitation levels and rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine – will continue to impact the health, economy and aging infrastructure of the region.

“For example, because much of the historical development of industry and commerce in New England occurred along rivers, canals, coasts, and other bodies of water, these areas often have a higher density of contaminated sites, waste management facilities, and petroleum storage facilities that are potentially vulnerable to flooding,” reads the report from 13 federal agencies.

“As a result, increases in flood frequency or severity could increase the spread of contaminants into soils and waterways, resulting in increased risks to the health of nearby ecosystems, animals, and people – a set of phenomena well documented following Superstorm Sandy,” the report says.

While the political debate over climate change continues, there is little doubt among fishermen or the scientists who work with them that the Gulf of Maine is changing. Maine fishermen now routinely see species once found only in southern or mid-Atlantic states while stocks of northern shrimp and cod have been depleted or moved north to cooler waters.

The report cited numerous examples of New England fishermen attempting to adapt to those changes and acknowledged that the arrival of new species will create new opportunities. But the authors also warned that markets, shoreside infrastructure as well as regulatory restriction on what fishermen can catch are often slower to respond.

Scientists also predict that species particularly important to New England face a bleaker future because of rising acidity levels as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Luke’s Lobster makes foray into retail with two new offerings at Whole Foods

November 20, 2018 — New York, U.S.A.-based Luke’s Lobster is making its first big retail push with two new offerings designed to give consumers an easy way to have lobster in their own home.

Luke’s is offering a “ready-to-eat lobster kit” featuring half a pound of lobster knuckle and claw meat, a packet of Luke’s Lobster seasoning, and instructions on how to make a lobster roll in the restaurant’s style at home. The other item is a “ready-to-cook lobster tail kit” that contains two raw Maine lobster tails; some lemon garlic marinade; and tips on how to thaw, prep, and prepare grilled marinated lobster tails.

Both items are priced at USD 19.99 (EUR 17.55) and debuted in Whole Foods Markets across the country on 16 November.

“We never dreamed when we opened one tiny shack nine years ago that we’d someday be in Whole Foods Market nationwide,” Luke’s Lobster founder Luke Holden said. “It’s an honor to be able to partner with the preeminent retailer of organic and sustainable food to bring America the world’s best-tasting seafood.”

The move is the first big push by the company into retail nationwide, according to a representative for Luke’s Lobster.

Read the full story at Seafood Source