Saving Seafood

Who Has The Edge In The Lobster Trade War?

September 27, 2018 — There are few New England scenes as iconic as the ol’ lobster shack. Local crustaceans being served up fresh and delicious in whole or in roll form. Well, it turns out that “just-off-the boat” experience has pretty broad appeal … like as far away as China.

“There’s always been a demand for it, but they wanted the live lobster,” said Arthur Sawyer, a Gloucester lobster fisherman and President of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “Live lobster — ya know — it’s like a 36 hour thing to get to China.”

A decade ago, the Chinese market for U.S. live lobster was essentially nonexistent. But a few years back, shippers finally worked out how to reliably get fresh live lobster to China. It was a game changer. Last year, the country imported nearly $150 million worth.

“There’s a whole lot of exporters that have gotten into the lobster business strictly because of China,” said Sawyer.

But live lobster got swept up in the trade war this July, when Beijing slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports. And just three months in, it’s already having an impact here. Vince Mortillaro, a local wholesaler, said China has stopped buying from him completely, and he’s has had to lay off three employees.

“They’re affecting me a lot,” he said of the tariffs. “We’re losing like 40,000 pounds of sales a week.”

For now, the pinch wholesalers are feeling has yet to trickle down to lobster fishermen on the boats, who sell to the wholesalers, or the lobster-craving public. As for why? Well, it’s complicated. Live lobster exports are an important part of the equation. But a sizable chunk of New England total haul each year gets sold off to be processed.

Read the full story at WGBH

Maine Fishermen Worry That New Regulations on Herring Will Hurt Small Businesses, Lobstermen

September 27, 2018 — A day after fishing regulators adopted strict new measures to prevent herring stocks from collapsing, some New England fishermen say they fear for their own survival.

Herring are a crucial forage fish for whales, seabirds and other predators. But they’re also the primary bait fish for lobstermen around New England. And, in the face of bleak stock assessments, there’s disagreement about the best way forward for the fish and fishermen.

At the New England Fish Company on Portland’s waterfront, Ryan Raber and his sister, Susanna, say they will likely have to lay off some crew and staff to keep their second generation bait business going. They have 25 employees. Herring and mackerel are the primary species the company targets for bait, but if the rules adopted by the New England Fishery Management Council are approved, the Rabers and others won’t be able to catch herring the way they used to or catch as much.

“Last year we had a quota of about 100,000 metric tons,” says Ryan Raber. “This year industry worked with NOAA to reduce it to about half that to 55,000 tons. Next year’s quota will be down to around 15-thousand tons.”

Read the full story at Maine Public

New England regulators scale back Atlantic herring catch

September 26, 2018 — Regulators on Tuesday tightened restrictions on the fishing of Atlantic herring but didn’t go as far as some groups wanted to help rebuild declining stocks of the small, oily fish that’s not only important to New England fishermen but is also a critical link in the marine food chain.

The New England Fishery Management Council unanimously approved a new management approach that will dramatically cut the catch limits for herring over the next three years, but the regulatory board stopped short of temporarily shutting down the fishery, as one option on the table would have required.

The new rules adopted by the council, which put in place a formula for setting annual catch limits, were applauded by some environmental advocates as recognition of the fish’s key role in the larger ocean ecosystem.

“The population is stressed, and we really need to start building resiliency,” Erica Fuller, senior attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, told the council.

But the decision was made over the objections of groups representing commercial fishing boats that catch herring and lobstermen who use the fish as bait. They argue that the herring population goes through natural ups and downs influenced more by environmental factors than fishing pressure.

Read the full story at The Providence Journal

 

Maine lobstermen say move to avert collapse of herring fishery will have dire consequences

September 26, 2018 — Regulators are taking drastic steps to avert a collapse of the herring fishery, adopting trawling bans and proposing rock-bottom quotas.

While environmental groups and those who fish species that rely on herring for food, like striped bass and tuna, cheered the action, the Maine lobster industry was left wondering how it will survive without its favorite bait. Patrice McCarron, the executive director of the Maine Lobstermen Association, predicted it will force some lobstermen off the water.

“It is going to be really devastating,” McCarron told the New England Fisheries Management Council on Tuesday. “People aren’t going to be able to fish. There’s just not going to be enough bait. If you do get bait, you’re going to be on rations. The price of bait is going to skyrocket. … A lot of people are going to go out of business.”

About 70 percent of all herring landed in the U.S. ends up as bait, mostly for the lobster industry. In the last five years, as lobster hauls increased, the demand for herring went up, too, just as herring landings began to fall, McCarron said. That has driven up the bait price. In 2013, Maine lobstermen were paying $30 a bushel. Now, a bushel costs $45 on the coast, or $60 on the islands.

McCarron expects the price of bait to double next year, which would be a disaster for Maine lobstermen, she said. Her organization has been meeting with Maine bait dealers to talk about their storage capability, which she said was limited, and herring alternatives such as pogeys and redfish, whose prices likely will rise as lobstermen are forced to abandon herring as bait.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Right Whale Rules May Have Worsened Fishing Gear Entanglements

September 26, 2018 — A report by federal scientists says it’s time for a new look at regulations that aim to protect the endangered North American right whale — because they aren’t working and may have made things worse.

Over the last decade, regulators required lobstermen to change their gear and reduce the overall number of traplines in U.S. waters. But the new 30-page National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration technical memo finds that a 2015 rule requiring fewer trap lines in the water — with more traps per line in some areas — meant lobstermen had to use stronger lines to accommodate the increased loads. The tougher rope may have unintentionally contributed to an increase in the severity of potentially deadly entanglements with right whales.

They also find that as lobster seek cooler waters farther offshore, lobstermen are following them, right into likely whale travel lanes. Meanwhile, right whales are changing their patterns, too, swimming longer distances to forage for increasingly unpredictable prey species.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Sustainable Fisheries Coalition: NEFMC Should Adopt Recommendations of Herring Advisory Panel at September Meeting

September 24, 2018 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Coalition:

The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition (SFC) is urging the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) to adopt the recommendations of its Herring Advisory Panel at its meeting this week. The recommendations of the Advisory Panel continue the conservative management of Atlantic herring, without imposing unnecessarily harsh restrictions on the herring and lobster fisheries.

The Council will be meeting to consider two main herring issues: establishing guidelines for setting herring catch levels, and addressing alleged user conflicts and localized depletion. The SFC believes that the Advisory Panel recommendations on both of these issues provide reasonable and sufficiently conservative means to address resource sustainability and minimize adverse interactions among marine users.

When setting the Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) for herring, the Council has identified two priorities: “account for the role of Atlantic herring within the ecosystem,” and “stabilize the fishery at a level designated to achieve optimum yield.” The SFC believes Alternative 1 best meets both of these objectives while minimizing near-term economic impacts for herring- and lobster-dependent communities.

A new stock assessment shows the Atlantic herring population has been suffering from poor recruitment, meaning low levels of young fish have been entering the population. This has led to a drop in the overall herring population. As a result, managers are reducing allowable harvest levels over the next few years. The catch reductions needed to help maintain the spawning populations over the next three years could be dramatically harsher under some ABC “control rule” options being considered, including shutting the fishery down completely. Alternative 1 provides the highest possible amount of a very limited catch over at least the next three years, allowing the population to grow while mitigating the impacts on fishing communities.

When it comes to dealing with localized depletion and addressing other user conflicts, the SFC supports the preference of the Advisory Panel, Alternative 9. Alternative 9 would open certain closed areas to the herring fishery during the winter, from January to April.

Allowing winter fishing in this particular area, which includes part of the Gulf of Maine as well as waters off Cape Cod, will help avert conflicts between herring vessels, other fishermen, recreational anglers, and whale watching tours.

When considering the issue of user conflicts and localized depletion, it is important that the Council’s decision recognizes that localized depletion of herring has never been documented. Herring, and the species that feed on them, are both highly migratory, and travel over a wide range. Any potential impact from the herring fishery would be limited in duration. Alternative 9 is the proposal that best recognizes this reality.

The Sustainable Fisheries Coalition is comprised of: Capt. Jimmy Ruhle of the F/V DaranaR, Lund’s Fisheries, Seafreeze, Inc., The Town Dock, Irish Venture, Cape Seafoods, Western Sea Fishing Co., Ocean Spray Partnership, and O’Hara Corporation.  It represents mid-water trawl and purse seine vessels currently operating in the Atlantic herring fishery, as well as processors, bottom-trawlers, and at-sea freezer vessels.

Read an SFC letter to NEFMC Chairman John Quinn on Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan here

 

Atlantic herring quotas may be cut again

September 14, 2018 — The Atlantic herring is a small, seemingly unremarkable fish that has distinguished itself through sheer numbers. When herring spawn, they can cover the ocean bottom in a carpet of eggs inches thick. Migrating schools of the fish can number in the billions and have been known to stretch miles wide.

But despite its prolific nature, there are growing concerns in some quarters about the state of the fish’s population, which, according to federal data, has been in decline for the last five years. Environmental advocates and some fishing groups worry that if herring is overfished, it could spell trouble for striped bass, tuna and a whole host of other species in Rhode Island and elsewhere along the Northeast coast that prey on it.

“If there’s no big stocks of herring to entice these other fish into Narragansett Bay, they may pass us by,” said Michael Jarbeau, baykeeper for Providence-based environmental group Save The Bay.

On Tuesday, the New England Fishery Management Council will decide on a new set of regulations known as Amendment 8 that could include restricting fishing areas for herring and could for the first time account for the fish’s place in the larger ecosystem.

The council’s Atlantic herring committee met last week and backed a less restrictive version of the rules out of concern that anything tighter would shut down the fishery for as long as three years as stocks recover. The full council may adopt the committee’s recommendation or go forward with any of a host of other options.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Baked, then boiled: Why one Maine restaurant is sedating lobsters with marijuana smoke

September 20, 2018 — Lobsters in one Maine restaurant go out in a blaze of glory once they hit the pot. The owner of a lobster joint is sedating her crustaceans with marijuana smoke before cooking them — which she says gives them a blissfully humane death.

Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Southwest Harbor, told the Portland Press Herald that she had been looking for a way to reduce suffering of her signature menu item. She experimented with blowing marijuana smoke into a tank with one lobster, Roscoe (basically, she hot-boxed him). When Gill returned him to a tank with the other lobsters without his claw bands, she says, he was less aggressive. Gill has a medical marijuana license.

She plans to offer it as an option for customers who want their lobsters to be baked before they’re boiled. But that doesn’t mean the customer will get stoned from their dinner.

“THC breaks down completely by 392 degrees, therefore we will use both steam as well as a heat process that will expose the meat to 420-degree extended temperature, in order to ensure there is no possibility of carry-over effect,” Gill told the Press Herald. So while some might see it as a humane death for the lobster, others might think it’s a waste of perfectly good weed.

Chefs and scientists have long pondered the question of whether lobsters feel pain. Experiments have shown that crustaceans are responsive to stimuli that cause pain, like heat, but it is unclear whether this is a reflex or a pain response from their nervous systems. It’s also unclear whether cannabis has the same pain-relieving effect on lobsters that it has on humans.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Trimester 3 Effort Controls

September 19, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section (Section) members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts met via conference call on Tuesday, September 18th to discuss Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) effort control measures for Trimester 3 (October 1 – December 31). Section members agreed to five consecutive landing days until 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be harvested, or until further notice. Vessels may only land once every 24-hour period.

  • For the first week of October, beginning on October 1, 2018: Vessels in the States of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may possess and land herring from Area 1A starting at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, October 1st up to 11:59 p.m. on Friday, October 5th.
  • Beginning on October 7, 2018: Vessels in the State of Maine may land herring starting at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays up to 5:59 p.m. on Fridays. Beginning October 8, 2018, vessels in the State of New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may land herring starting at 12:01 a.m. on Mondays up to 11:59 p.m. on Fridays.

The Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort on:

  • Friday, October 12 at 1:00 p.m.

To join the call, please dial 888.585.9008 and enter conference room number 502-884-672 when prompted.

Trimester 3 landings will be closely monitored and the directed fishery will close when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be reached. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until the start of Trimester 3.

For more information, please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or mware@asmfc.org.

A PDF of the announcement can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/5ba145f1AtlHerringDaysOutTri3_Sept2018.pdf.

Trump Sets Tariffs On $200 Billion In Imports From China

September 19, 2018 — President Trump announced Monday that he is ordering 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports from China.

Trump also threatened to add tariffs on about $267 billion of additional imports if China retaliates against U.S. farmers or other industries.

It’s the latest round of an escalating trade dispute between the two countries.

The tariffs follow duties on $50 billion in goods imposed earlier this year. The latest levies are set to go into effect Sept. 24 and remain at 10 percent until the end of the year. If China doesn’t make concessions, the new tariffs will then jump to 25 percent, a senior administration official said.

The new tariffs will apply to hundreds of items — ranging from seafood to handbags to toilet paper — that were on a list released July 10. But, the official said, they will exclude some consumer electronics such as smartwatches and Bluetooth devices as well as health and safety products such as high chairs, bicycle helmets, child car seats and playpens.

The U.S. has complained that Beijing forces American companies doing business in China to transfer technology and intellectual property.

“These practices plainly constitute a grave threat to the long-term health and prosperity of the United States economy,” Trump said in a White House statement. Trump urged Chinese leaders to “take swift action to end their country’s unfair trade practices.”

Read the full story at NPR