Saving Seafood

MAINE: How fisheries in Maine are restructuring amid warming waters

January 6, 2026 — Fisheries in Maine are a vital resource in our state. They provide thousands with jobs and millions with sustainable protein. But now warming waters are making it more difficult to manage the ins and outs of the industry.

The Gulf of Maine continues to be the fastest-warming body of water—2024 went down as the 12th warmest year on record. Changes like this are affecting marine life and causing local fisheries to conduct research and restructure in order to remain successful.

That is the focus of Jonathan Labaree, the Chief Community Officer at GMRI. Understanding how the industry is adapting reveals the complex challenge facing Maine’s fishing communities. “When we think about fisheries, we think about it in sort of four pieces,” Labaree explains. “The first piece is the resource itself. So the fish themselves and the people who harvest the fish, the place in which that’s happening, and then the kind of gear, the resources that they use to harvest those fish.”

Climate change is having different kinds of impacts on fisheries. The major one is that species are shifting their location. Fish are very responsive to temperature, so they have a tendency to move to find optimal temperature ranges for themselves.

These shifting species create a new dynamic around predator and prey relationships, fundamentally altering the ecosystem that fishermen depend on.

Read the full article at WMTW

MAINE: Hard-shell clam project aims to diversify aquaculture and shellfish harvesting in Maine

January 5, 2026 — An effort to diversify Maine’s aquaculture and shellfish industries is getting a boost from a hard shell clam farming project near Brunswick.

The project, led by the conservation science group Manomet, involved seeding some 400,000 quahogs in floating upweller systems that are commonly used in oyster farming, said senior fisheries director Marissa McMahan.

Read the full article at Maine Public

$400K worth of stolen Costco lobster meat being investigated in connection to other New England seafood thefts

December 31, 2025 — Imagine the buffet.

Forty-thousand oysters, lobster worth $400,000 and a cache of crabmeat all were stolen in separate incidents within weeks of each other in New England.

The first seafood vanished on Nov. 22 in Falmouth, Maine, where authorities suspect someone stole 14 cages full of oysters from an aquaculture site in Casco Bay. Many of the oysters were full-grown and ready for sale, and together with the cages were worth $20,000, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.

“This is a devastating situation for a small businessman,” said Marine Patrol Sgt. Matthew Sinclair.

The other two thefts happened in Taunton, Massachusetts, about 160 miles (255 kilometers) away. First, a load of crab disappeared after leaving the Lineage Logistics warehouse on Dec. 2. Then, on Dec. 12, lobster meat destined for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota was stolen by a fraudulent trucking company, according to the broker who arranged the pickup.

Read the full article at The New York Post

MAINE: After 53 years, Maine’s fishing voice falls silent

December 29, 2025 — This month marks publication of the last issue of Commercial Fisheries News, a regional newspaper based in Stonington, Maine, highly regarded throughout its 53-year run for its comprehensive and eloquent coverage of the fishing life in its home state and throughout the Northeast. It’s a sad passing, and it says as much about how we consume information as it does commercial fishing or the changing face of coastal Maine.

Although in many respects a so-called trade publication, CFN was at its heart a community newspaper, albeit for a community that came to stretch hundreds of miles, from Eastport, Maine, to the Mid-Atlantic. Originally called Maine Commercial Fisheries, the paper was renamed as its coverage — and influence — expanded.

“I always felt like we were part of the community we were covering,” says Brian Robbins, who over the past 40 years has written, sold ads, and most recently served as CFN’s editor.

Maine has proved to be fertile ground for fishing publications. As a boy, I scrounged old copies of Maine Coast Fisherman, first published in its own right in 1946. Billing itself “the mariner’s newspaper,” it was a celebration of coastal life Down East that, in addition to fisheries news, featured reports from lighthouse keepers, God’s Tugboat, and other columns.

In 1960, Maine Coast Fisherman acquired National Fisherman – not the other way around, I would note — and christened itself Maine Coast Fisherman combined with National Fisherman. Longtime NF editor David Getchell said giving breath to the seven-word title was “an awful struggle,” and eventually the paper settled on National Fisherman.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: Investigation continues into massive fire in Portland’s Old Port

December 29, 2025 — The investigation continues into a fire that tore through the historic Old Port waterfront in Portland, Maine, on Friday, damaging aging buildings and several boats.

Flames and smoke spread easily through structures along the Custom House Wharf, a 19th- and 20th-century hub for Portland’s fishing industry that now includes seafood restaurants, authorities said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Two firefighters sustained minor injuries but did not require hospitalization.

Read the full story at NBC Boston

MAINE: Northern shrimp fishery closed for at least 3 more years, following unsuccessful pilot

December 15, 2025 — The New England shrimp fishery will remain closed for at least another three years.

Federal regulators said Thursday they found no improvement in northern shrimp stock status and new lows in abundance. The fishery has been closed for about a decade.

But last winter, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts launched an industry-funded sampling pilot to learn more about the fishery in a warming of Gulf of Maine.

Seven of the nine participating fishermen were from Maine.

Fishermen were allowed to harvest up to 58,400 pounds of northern shrimp during the pilot. But they caught just 70 individual shrimp, totaling less than three pounds, according to regulators with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Read the full article at Maine Public

December Update on 2025 Atlantic Herring Area 1A Fishery Season 2 Days Out Measures

December 15, 2025 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts met December 15 via webinar to set effort control measures for the 2025 Area 1A fishery for Season 2 (October 1 – December 31) following an increase in available quota for Area 1A. The 2025 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is now 2,317 metric tons due to implementation of the new 2025-2027 specifications package.

After accounting for the fixed gear set-aside, 2025 landings so far from Area 1A, and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL), there are an estimated 289 metric tons available for harvest.

Currently, the Area 1A fishery is at zero landing days. The Area 1A days out measures moving forward for Season 2 are as follows:

  • Landing days will continue to be set at zero (0) through Monday, December 22.
  • The fishery will move to one (1) landing day starting at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, December 23.
  • The fishery will move to zero (0) landing days when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL has been caught or at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, December 24, whichever comes first. The fishery will remain at zero (0) landing days through the end of 2025.

While landing days are set at zero (0), harvesters are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A. Fishing for and possession of Atlantic herring may begin prior to landing days during Season 2.

Please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at efranke@asmfc.org for more information.

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting Motions (December 15, 2025)

Main Motion

Move to set the following schedule for Area 1A Season 2:

  • Set zero landing days through Sunday, December 21
  • Starting 12:01AM on Monday, December 22, move to one landing day
  • Move to zero landing days when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL has been caught or at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, December 23, whichever comes first, through the end of 2025.

Motion made by Ms. Ware and seconded by Ms. Griffin. Motion amended.

Motion to Amend

Move to amend to set the landing day to Tuesday, December 23.

Motion made by Mr. Abbott and seconded by Ms. Ware. Motion passes by unanimous consent.

Main Motion as Amended

Move to set the following schedule for Area 1A Season 2:

  • Set zero landing days through Monday, December 22
  • Starting 12:01AM on Tuesday, December 23, move to one landing day
  • Move to zero landing days when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL has been caught or at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, December 24, whichever comes first, through the end of 2025.

Motion passes by unanimous consent.

The announcement can also be found at https://asmfc.org/news/press-releases/update-on-2025-atlantic-herring-area-1a-fishery-season-2-days-out-measures-december-2025/

MAINE: Maine shrimp fishery closed for three more years

December 15, 2025 — On Thursday, December 11, 2025, the Northern Shrimp Section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Portland, Maine, voted to extend the moratorium on New England’s northern shrimp fishery for another three years. The Northern Shrimp Section, comprised of members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, made the decision to keep the fishery closed after hearing from the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee (NSTC).

The NSTC had set triggers for sea surface and bottom temperatures and recruitment, which could have started a discussion about reopening the fishery, and while sea surface temperatures reached the triggers, bottom temperature and recruitment did not.

But not everyone trusts those numbers. “You need data to manage the fishery,” says Glen Libby of Port Clyde, Maine. “And the NSTC doesn’t have any that’s reliable.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

New England’s shrimp fishery to shut down for the long haul after years of decline

December 11, 2025 — Regulators voted Thursday to extend a shutdown preventing New England fishermen from catching shrimp, a historic industry that has recently fallen victim to warming oceans.

New England fishermen, especially those from Maine, used to catch millions of pounds of small pink shrimp in the winter, but the business has been under a fishing moratorium since 2014. Rising temperatures have created an inhospitable environment for the shrimp, and their population is too low to fish sustainably, scientists have said.

An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to shut down the fishery for at least another three years. Abundance of the shrimp remained “poor” this year despite slightly improved environmental conditions, the Atlantic States said in documents.

Read the full article at the Associated Press