Saving Seafood

Despite calls for ‘ropeless’ fishing gear, Maine lobstermen have doubts

December 14, 2021 — The elimination of fishing lines that run from lobster traps on the Gulf of Maine’s seafloor to marker buoys on the water’s surface is increasingly being sought as a way to help save the estimated 336 endangered North Atlantic right whales left in the world. But Maine lobstermen are skeptical.

Lobster industry officials say that the technology currently isn’t commercially viable and questioned if it’s really necessary in Maine, where whale sightings are rare.

“I think some people are probably contemplating it and some people can’t ever imagine it ever working,” Patrice McCarron, the head of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said.

McCarron emphasized that each fisherman is their own individual business and when it comes to testing out the gear, they have to make decisions based on what’s best for them.

Ropeless gear gets rid of the persistent vertical fishing line that can entangle whales and other species. Alternatives include gear that releases a buoy to the surface and others that fill a bag with air, floating the traps up to a waiting boat.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. James Bruce Recognized as Law Enforcement Officer of the Year

December 10, 2021 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

As the Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Southeast Regional Fisheries Training Center, Lieutenant James Bruce reflects the dedication of the U.S. Coast to the protection and enforcement of the region’s Living Marine Resources. For his service and work to improve training operations, Lt. Bruce received the Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award at this week’s meeting of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council in Beaufort, North Carolina. (Pictured are Lt. James Bruce, Council Chair Mel Bell (right) and Spud Woodward, Chair of the Council’s Law Enforcement Committee.)

Lt. Bruce oversees the training, curriculum, and certification for the more than 150 Coast Guard Law Enforcement Officers that annually enter the Fisheries Training Program in Charleston, South Carolina. The Southeast Regional Fisheries Training Center (SRFTC) is one of five such training centers regionally located around the country. “We are fortunate to have an excellent U.S. Coast Guard Fisheries Training Center in Charleston,” said Chairman Bell. “With his strong academic background in fisheries, including a master’s degree from Scripps, Lt. Bruce has been actively involved in the fisheries management process and a dedicated advocate for improving fisheries enforcement.”

Since assuming command of the Training Center in 2019, Lt Bruce has pioneered initiatives directly impacting fisheries enforcement. These include a coordinated effort to expand the footprint of the Training Center by providing operational support for fisheries boardings and surge operations in federal waters, resulting in a 13% increase in fisheries boardings in the South Atlantic between 2019 and 2020. Working with NOAA Fisheries Highly Migratory Species (HMS) office, Lt. Bruce led the effort to create a “Status of Fisheries” website, tracking regulations in real-time to provide information to enforcement officers. Lt Bruce also led staff at SRFTC in producing the first-of-its-kind “QR” coded reference guides for on-scene enforcement officers dealing with possible violations of HMS Lacey Act and Florida recreational lobster regulations.

The Law Enforcement Officer of the Year award was established by the Council in 2010 to recognize distinctive service, professionalism, and dedication to enforcing fisheries regulations in the South Atlantic region. Nominees for the annual award may be submitted from each of the southeastern state law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard, and NOAA Fisheries.

According to his peers, Lt. Bruce is known for his unyielding curiosity and purposeful drive, utilizing his academic background in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation to speak formally through education programs, engage with local fish houses, and bring a real-world viewpoint to the officers he trains.

“I have to say I am humbled by the selection, especially knowing the caliber and esteem of the state and federal fisheries enforcement officers that I get the privilege to work with,” said Lt. Bruce. “The real prize is getting to work alongside NOAA OLE and the many state agencies in our South Atlantic region. It’s really great that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council makes such an effort to recognize law enforcement and our collective effort to enforce fisheries regulations and the objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act to prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, and increase the long-term economic and social benefits in our region.”

 

As the legal battle continues, lobstermen fear new federal closure could hurt industry long-term

December 10, 2021 — The battle over new federal restrictions designed to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale is far from settled.

It has been just over a week since at least 150 lobstermen had to get their traps out of a nearly 1,000-square-mile swath of the Gulf of Maine following a judge’s order.

“It’s too bad that Maine fishermen are really getting a bad rap,” Larabee said. “They’re all stressed. They’ve been pushed back. Where do you go?”

On this day, he and his two-man crew are fishing just outside of LMA 1, the zone now closed to fishing from October 18 through January 31 each year.

Some, including the state’s lobster unions, have claimed the closure by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration falls during the peak fishing season.

According to data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, lobstermen statewide hauled most consistently from July-October last year. They brought in a whopping 20 million pounds in October at peak, before numbers steadily fell back down through January.

DMR officials estimate the closure will have a $2 to $4 million impact on fishermen alone.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Lobster fishers to weigh in on plan for monitoring of boats

December 9, 2021 — Federal fishing managers are looking for feedback from lobster harvesters about a plan to require electronic tracking.

An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate regulatory authority, is considering implementing the tracking requirements for lobster and Jonah crab boats that have federal permits. The board approved the proposal for public comment on Monday.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

After Supreme Court rejects appeal, lobstering union vows to continue fight

December 7, 2021 — The Supreme Court on Friday turned down a request by the Maine Lobstering Union and others to end a closure of lobstering waters off the state’s coast.

The union, Damon Family Lobster Co. Inc., Fox Island Lobster Co. LLC and Frank Thompson had filed an emergency injunction application on Wednesday with the court, seeking to halt enforcement of an earlier ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

That decision had stayed one by the U.S. District Court for Maine to stop a new four-month closure of 967 square miles of the Gulf of Maine to lobster fishing.

The developments all stem from a plan, issued by the Fisheries Service on Aug. 31, that aims to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale by creating new requirements affecting Maine lobstermen. In addition to the October-through-January ban on lobster fishing with buoy lines, implemented for the first time this year, the plan includes mandates for additional gear marking and gear modification.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

 

MAINE: In the land of lobster, seaweed is finding its niche

December 7, 2021 — The annual Maine harvest of seaweed pales in comparison to lobster landings in pounds and value. Yet increasingly, lobstermen have joined other entrepreneurs in growing, harvesting and marketing Maine seaweed. Seen as another means of diversifying the state’s commercial fishing industry, it is turning into a multimillion-dollar industry and keeping in-shore fishermen busy during lobster’s off season. 

Rockweed, common along the Maine coast, accounts for about 95 percent of commercially harvested seaweed. It’s used for packing lobsters, as fertilizer and a nutritional additive for pet and livestock feed, and to extract alginate, used to thicken foods, cosmetics and even paint. 

But a smaller but growing market is for kelp, sugar kelp, dulse and Alaria, edible sea vegetables grown and harvested for nutritional and flavor supplements in a variety of foods. 

“People are recognizing its health benefits, its environmental benefits, and it tastes great,” Island Institute’s Sam Belknap said. The institute recently supported new aquaculturists, including seaweed growers, in a program for fishermen.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

A guide to understanding the fight over whales and lobster gear in the Gulf of Maine

November 26, 2021 — Right now, lobstermen are hauling their gear out of a 967-square mile stretch of ocean, roughly 30 miles offshore, in the Gulf of Maine.

Lobstermen don’t want to vacate the area, especially during the lucrative, deep-water, winter fishing season but federal courts and lawsuits are forcing them to do so.

Last week, the Federal First Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a seasonal prohibition by the National Marine Fisheries Service on lobstering with buoys and lines in that area. The closure, running October through January, is an attempt to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from deadly entanglements in lobster gear.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

 

Rhode Island’s fishing industry received support through federal grants

November 24, 2021 — U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse alongside Congressman Jim Langevin and David Cicilline announced Tuesday a designation of fishery failure from the U.S. Department of Commerce for the Rhode Island fishing industry, specifically the Rhode Island’s Atlantic herring fishery.

A 2019 assessment showed that herring population is in a dramatic decline, with 2019 reporting less than a fifth compared to their 2014 harvest. Herring are a key bait fish used in both commercial fishing and lobster industries.

Read the full story at NBC6

 

Maine lobstermen have two weeks to pull traps from whale protection area

November 22, 2021 — Virginia Olsen called the situation “beyond frustrating”.

Olsen is a lobster fisherman from Stonington and the political director for the Maine Lobstering Union.

Earlier this week, union members and all the other lobstermen in Maine lost a big fight in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston when judges reinstated the federal government’s closure of a 967-square mile area of ocean off the Maine coast.

The closure, originally scheduled to be in effect from Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, is part of a plan from NOAA Fisheries and the National Marine Fisheries Service to help protect endangered right whales from becoming tangled in lobster gear.

A federal judge in Bangor last month sided with the union’s arguments against the closure and imposed an injunction to stop it. The appeals court reversed that decision, and now the closure is in effect, according to NOAA Fisheries.

The Maine Lobstering Union and others in the fishing industry said there has been no hard evidence right whales are in that closure area. But federal regulators said there is evidence, including data obtained this year from underwater acoustic devices.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Slinky pots and ropeless gear: next angles for whale avoidance

November 22, 2021 — With new regulations turning whale avoidance into a top priority in the Gulf of Maine and off California, front-line fishermen sat Friday for a panel discussion at Pacific Marine Expo on what the future may hold for trap fisheries.

NMFS and the state of California are looking to ropeless gear for lobster and crab fisheries as the long-term solution, but such systems are still in development.

California’s Dungeness crab fishermen are yet again cooling their heels in port, awaiting an updated assessment of humpback whale movements and an all-clear from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to set gear, once the agency judges the danger of entanglements is lowered.

In recent years the usual November crab season opening has been delayed as whales congregate to feed before heading south for their breeding season, said Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

The 2020 season opener was delayed into December — and then complicated when fishermen protested what they considered unfairly low prices for crabs. A price settlement and agreed-on opener didn’t happen until January.

Read the full story at National Fisherman