Saving Seafood

Florida Keys lobster industry, reliant on Chinese consumers, braces for potential tariff impact

April 24, 2025 — In Conch Key, Kelly Cordova’s crews are getting traps ready for lobster season.

She’s been on the water her whole life.

“This is our family’s business,” said Cordova. “My mom and dad started when they were 15.”

But even as the Trump administration softens its tone on China tariffs, there’s still uncertainty over the possibility of reciprocal tariffs tacked on to the live lobster they export.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do. It’s really, really scary right now,” said Cordova.

Spiny lobster is a multi-million dollar industry in Florida and the Florida Keys are the biggest producer, harvesting nearly 4 million pounds last season.

Read the full story at Local 10

MAINE: Lobster industry hails executive order easing fishery regulations

April 22, 2025 — Lobster trade associations in Maine are hailing an executive order from the White House that would ease or eliminate regulations on seafood fisheries.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association “has been fighting government overregulation for years and won a historic court case that challenged draconian whale rules taking a big step forward in ending this abuse of power,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. The executive order “recognizes the challenges our fishing families and communities face and we appreciate the commitment to reduce burdensome regulations and strengthen the competitiveness of American seafood.”

“Maine fishermen have been supporting Maine’s economy for generations,” said Virginia Olsen, a lobster fisherman and director of the Maine Lobstering Union.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

New study paints gloomy picture of climate change’s impact on commercial fishing

April 22, 2025 — A new study of some of California’s most commercially significant aquatic species paints a grim picture for the future of the state’s fishing industry under the growing threat of climate change.

The study, compiled by a host of researchers including federal and state scientists as well as researchers from UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis, looked at 34 aquatic species in an attempt to gauge how each would fare under predicted climate change scenarios.

Among the species studied were Dungeness crab, red abalone, Pacific herring, Pismo clams, pink shrimp, Pacific bonito and California spiny lobster. The group ranked each by their level of vulnerability to changing environmental conditions.

“The most striking thing that we found is that among the species that were ranked as the most highly vulnerable happened to also be some of California’s economically valuable and culturally important species,” said Mikaela Provost, assistant professor of fisheries ecology at UC Davis and co-author of the study.

California’s oceans are highly productive due to seasonal upwelling which keeps water temperatures cool and filled with nutrients. But models of future conditions forecast disruption through rising temperatures, deoxygenation and potential changes in circulation.

Read the full story at NBC Bay Area

Proposed fund could help Maine lobstermen test new fishing gear

April 28, 2023 — State lawmakers are considering a measure that would create a new fund to help lobster fishermen test gear designed to reduce entanglement risks to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The proposed fund would set aside $1 million for each of the next two years. The money would be paid to lobster fishermen who test ropeless and other kinds of new fishing gear designed to minimize interactions with right whales.

The most recent federal spending bill set aside nearly $20 million for fishing gear.

But Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said it’s reasonable that lobstermen receive a stipend for the work itself.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MAINE: Lobstermen frustrated by regulations after new study shows whale entanglements decline

June 30, 2022 — A new report has Maine lobstermen saying, “I told you so.”

The report says large whale entanglements dropped in 2020, including for the right whale.

Lobstermen in Maine have long argued they should not be blamed for the right whales’ population decline, which makes this new study from NOAA all the more frustrating.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Harpswell lobster boat captain Forrest Moody said. “This is what we know.”

Moody calls the new changes to the industry “life-altering.”

“There hasn’t always been evidence to prove or say what they were asking us to do but we still were, we were still made to do it,” Moody said.

Read the full story at WGME-TV

UMaine and lobster industry team up on innovative collaboration to map Maine’s fishing effort

June 6, 2022 — The University of Maine is leading an innovative new research project to collaborate with Maine’s lobster industry to explore the potential to use data owned by commercial lobstermen to map fishing effort. These data may be used to minimize conflict from potential future offshore wind development.

The state of Maine has set an aggressive goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and is looking to floating offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine to supply renewable power, as well as economic benefit.

Participants in Maine’s commercial fisheries are concerned that offshore wind development could result in lost fishing grounds and pose significant navigation and safety concerns. While Maine’s lobster fishery accounted for 82 percent of the value of Maine’s commercial seafood landings in 2021, there are no comprehensive data on where and when Maine lobstermen fish. To minimize the impact on Maine’s lobster fishery, better data are needed on the location, type and intensity of fishing activity in the Gulf of Maine.

Kate Beard-Tisdale is leading this collaborative project to use data already being collected by commercial lobstermen to fill these data gaps.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

New England lobster, crab boats could begin using experimental ropeless gear with federal permits

June 6, 2022 — Federal fisheries officials are proposing a special permit to allow up to 100 New England lobster and crab boats to use experimental high-tech systems to retrieve their traps. That would mark a big expansion in the development of fishing systems that could help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The technology uses remote-control systems to locate and trigger traps or buoy lines to the surface, reducing the use of vertical rope lines that can entangle the right whales.

Henry Milliken supervises a prototyping program for the so-called “ropeless” gear at the Northeast Marine Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.

Read and listen to the full story at Maine Public

NMFS to expand Northeast ropeless gear trials

June 1, 2022 — Up to 100 commercial lobster vessels would be allowed to test alternative gear without static vertical lines, under an exempted fishing permit application filed by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Up to 30 of those boats would be allowed to fish using so-called ropeless gear in areas where conventional lobster gear with vertical line is restricted under the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, according to a notice issued May 31 by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The permit application, to be published in the June 1 Federal Register, is subject to a public comment period through June 15. NMFS is looking to on-demand or pop-up buoy retrieval systems in the lobster fishery as a long-term solution to reducing whale entanglements in lobster gear, particularly for the highly endangered northern right whale.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Rep. Moulton introduces bill geared to lobstermen coping with right whale rules

May 31, 2022 — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, has introduced a bill called the CLAW (Conserving Lobstering and Whales) Act that would establish a tax credit to make it easier for lobstermen to afford gear meant to reduce the chance of endangered right whales becoming entangled.

Hunted to the brink of extinction by the early 1890s by commercial whalers, it’s estimated there are fewer than 350 right whales in existence, according to NOAA Fisheries’ website. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are the leading causes of mortality, NOAA Fisheries says.

However, there is concern that regulations to conserve right whales, including seasonal area closures and the added cost for weak rope and inserts and gear marking requirements, have created an added cost burden to lobstermen.

Moulton said he and his office have been working on the legislation with various industry stakeholders, including the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association and the Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Maine’s struggling Atlantic herring fishery gets boost from NOAA disaster assistance

May 9, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries has awarded Maine $7,191,787 to provide disaster assistance for the state’s struggling Atlantic herring fishery. NOAA Fisheries will work with the Maine Department of Marine Resources to administer these funds.

“The drastic reduction in Atlantic herring quotas has caused significant losses in primary income and threatened job security for many in the herring industry,” said Senator [Susan] Collins, in a news release. “Given the unstable status of our Atlantic herring fishery, and its role in supporting Maine’s iconic lobster industry, I advocated for the State of Maine’s commercial fishery failure declaration request.  This financial assistance provided through the designation is crucial to the survival of Maine’s Atlantic herring fishery.”

Read the full story at the Penbay Pilot