Saving Seafood

Lobstermen worry looming deadline for new regulations comes ‘too soon’ to change gear

March 3, 2022 — At the beginning of the year, Maine lobstermen were having a hard time finding the new gear that is being required to help protect right whales. Though suppliers are now starting to see these new weak ropes and links come in, they haven’t received a flurry of new orders despite the looming spring implementation date.

Starting on May 1, lobstermen, depending on where they fish, will have to have ropes running from their buoys to traps that can break with 1,700 pounds of force, or have inserts in the line that allow it to snap easier should a whale ever get entangled in them.

But some say that date is just too soon to change gear.

The lobster industry, backed by state officials, has pushed back against the rules. Gov. Janet Mills, the Maine congressional delegation and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association have all called on federal regulators to delay the deadline until July to give lobstermen more time to get in line.

Still, the gear is becoming available.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Regulators delay action on trackers for lobster boats

February 28, 2022 — Regulators will be taking up a plan to require lobstermen to install electronic trackers on their boats this spring.

The American Lobster Management Board discussed the plan this week before deciding more time is needed to evaluate the issues.

Steve Train, a lobster fisherman from Long Island, Maine, said it’s important for lobstermen to buy into rules. They’re concerned about the proposal’s cost, purpose and privacy.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

 

Maine panel rejects legal defense fund for lobster industry

February 25, 2022 — A Maine legislative panel has rejected a proposed legal fund to buoy lobstermen whose livelihoods could be impacted by pending new federal regulations.

The Committee on Marine Resources voted Tuesday to reject a proposal to divert fees that the state imposes on the commercial fishing industry into a legal defense fund to help lobstermen fight the new regulations.

The proposal’s sponsor, Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, said the lobster industry is embroiled in multiple legal challenges over the new regulations and needs financial assistance. He said the new fund would be paid for by the industry by diverting more than $3 million a year in annual fees and surcharges that the state imposes on lobstermen.

“It won’t cost the state or the taxpayers a penny from the general fund,” Faulkingham, a lobsterman, said in recent testimony. “This is the industry asking to use some of its own money as a funding source for its necessary legal defense.”

Read the full story at The Center Square

Maine lobster at risk of losing a sustainability label over right whale concerns

February 22, 2022 — Maine’s lobster fishery is at risk of losing a key sustainability label over concerns for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Industry members, meanwhile, say the idea that Maine’s lobster fishery poses an environmental threat is nonsensical.

The California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program is considering which species to add to its “red list,” and North American lobster from both the U.S. and Canadian fisheries is a candidate, as are over a dozen other species fished up and down the East Coast, according to a draft assessment.

Seafood Watch, which is designed to help consumers make informed choices about sustainable seafood, rates fisheries as green for “best choice,” yellow for “good alternative” and red for “avoid.”

Industries on the program’s red list are “overfished, lack strong management or are caught or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment,” according to Seafood Watch.

It’s the latter reason that the program may urge consumers to steer clear of the state’s lobster fishery, which landed a record-value catch of $725 million in 2021. Trap-caught Maine lobster already has been downgraded to yellow status, but Seafood Watch representatives declined to answer questions about when the change occurred or when the fishery might be downgraded to red.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at The Portland Press Herald

 

Maine: Bill to support lobster fishing industry receives committee support

February 17, 2022 — The Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee voted on Tuesday to advance a bill by Rep. Holly Stover, D-Boothbay, aimed at supporting Maine’s lobster fishing industry following recent federal regulatory changes.

LD 1898, An Act To Address the Economic Impact of Federal Closures on Maine’s Fixed Gear Fishing Industry, would establish a fund to provide financial assistance to lobster fishermen who have been impacted by the closure of nearly 1,000 square miles of federal waters off the coast of Maine.

“The federal closures our lobster fishing industry are facing are immediate, which means they need immediate financial assistance to adapt quickly enough to sustain their livelihood and our economy,” said Stover. “I am grateful for the committee’s collaborative effort to make this bill the best it can be for our fishing industry.”

Read the full story at the Boothbay Register

Maine lobster fishery hits record value, but faces challenges in 2022

February 15, 2022 — The lobster fishery in the U.S. state of Maine has its most-valuable year in history in 2021, pulling in a record-shattering USD 724.9 million (EUR 638.1 million) in the year – an increase in value of USD 312.4 million (EUR 275 million) over the previous year – according to data released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The previous value record for the fishery was set in 2016, when the Maine lobster fishery earned roughly USD 541 million (EUR 476 million) in value, USD 184 million (EUR 161 million) less than it earned in 2021.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

As major seafood watch list weighs ‘red-listing’ lobster, Mass. lobstermen push back

February 10, 2022 — A popular seafood ranking guide is considering “red listing” American lobster and other New England fisheries for the danger they pose to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” list is used by grocery stores and restaurants like Whole Foods, Red Lobster and Aramark to inform their purchases.

But Massachusetts lobstermen are pushing back on the description of their industry as unsustainable.

“The [Massachusetts] lobster fishery is doing more than any other region,” said Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Beth Casoni. “We are currently under a three-month closure for the protection of right whales. No other state has 9,000 square miles closed to lobster vertical lines.”

Casoni also pointed to the local industry’s early adoption of weaker ropes that can break if a whale becomes entangled.

“When I saw this, I was quite concerned where they were lumping in all the states, all the regions in the United States, to have the American lobster listed as a red choice,” Casoni said. She said her group plans to submit comments to Seafood Watch challenging the designation.

Read the full story at WBUR

Maine lawmakers consider legal fund for lobster industry ahead of new whale protections

February 10, 2022 — Maine lawmakers are considering establishing a legal defense fund for the lobster fishing industry to help them navigate upcoming regulations meant to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.  

Republican state representative and lobsterman William Faulkingham proposed the measure, which would establish the fund — supported by license surcharges and lobster trap tag sales — and form a commission to govern it, The Associated Press reported. In a public hearing Tuesday, Faulkingham said the industry is facing “crippling regulations and industry collapsing lawsuits.”

Read the full story at The Hill

 

Maine delegation, lobstermen ask feds to postpone whale protection rules, citing rope shortage

February 9, 2022 — Maine lobstermen say there’s a critical shortage of specialized trap-gear they need to comply with new federal whale protection rules that go into effect this spring. The industry and Maine political leaders are asking the feds to postpone the deadline by two months. But some gear-makers and suppliers say they can make it available, if only someone would order it.

As of May 1, the new federal rules will require lobstermen to use rope that’s weak enough to allow endangered North Atlantic right whales to break through it without danger of deadly entanglements. Alternatively, lobstermen can install weak links in their existing traplines to achieve the same result.

“At this point, the beginning of February, I don’t have access to any type of equipment to modify my gear,” says Friendship lobsterman Dustin Delano, the vice president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. He says he’s been looking for gear that would make sense for his boat and his 800 lobster traps — but so far, no luck. And he’s anxious to get going on the time-consuming task of hauling and converting his gear.

“There’s a few options that exist but you can’t get that equipment,” he says. “I’ve looked into it myself, there isn’t enough, it doesn’t exist. So we can be told we need to comply by May 1, but if I can’t buy the stuff what am I supposed to do?”

Gov. Janet Mills and Maine’s Congressional delegation recently sent a joint letter to the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, asking to delay the gear-conversion deadline until July 1.

“That would save the industry more than $7 million in lost fishing time, and we believe it would have no or negligible impact on risk reduction,” says Sen. Susan Collins.

Read the full story at WBUR