December 11, 2025 — In late October, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) issued its determinations on lobster stock in the Gulf of Maine, recommending NOAA keep management of the stock the same in 2026.
Included within that decision was a stock assessment, which indicated that the population was experiencing minor overfishing.
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
December 11, 2025 — In Maine, lobstermen last year took home over a half-billion dollars in revenue.
However, that fishery remains under threat as warming waters drive invasive species into lobsters’ habitats, species that both compete for resources and hunt the native lobsters. Working lobstermen’s ecological knowledge can be key in untangling these complicated dynamics, according to a Northeastern University professor of marine and environmental sciences.
Using an in-depth survey and interview process of lobstermen in Maine and Massachusetts, Northeastern University professor of marine and environmental sciences Jonathan Grabowski and his intercollegiate team studied the innate knowledge that lobster fishermen have of complex food-web relationships and animal interactions within and across different habitats. Their findings demonstrate that the insights of lobstermen, and local fishermen more broadly, provide an invaluable understanding of changing ecosystems as fishery management practices struggle to keep up.
Life as a lobsterman
Grabowski, who is also affiliated with Northeastern’s Coastal Sustainability Institute, and his team study how marine ecosystems function and change, but also how management practices impact fisheries. Coastal waters, their paper notes, are warming at a speed faster than management strategies can keep up with.
Cue the lobstermen, which, Grabowski notes, is the term the industry prefers for lobster fishermen of any gender. Most of those interviewed have decades of fishing experience. “More often than not, it’s north of 25 years,” Grabowski says, and it’s common to encounter lobstermen with over 50 years of experience.
December 10, 2025 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on December 15, 2025 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., to discuss days out measures for the remainder of Season 2 (October 1 – December 31) for the 2025 Area 1A fishery (inshore Gulf of Maine). Days out measures include consecutive landings days for Season 2. The webinar and call information is included below:
December 5, 2025 — The following was released by U.S. Representative Jared Golden
Ahead of two Maine fishermen’s testimonies to the International Trade Commission (ITC) today, Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) submitted a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer calling for fairer fishing rules between Maine and Canadian fishermen in the Gray Zone — a 277 square-mile area of ocean near Machias Seal Island that is fished by both countries and remains one of America’s only contested maritime borders.
The push comes as the ITC gathers stakeholder input from across industries to inform the White House and Congress on potential changes needed to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The trade deal, set to expire in 2036, requires the countries to explore a potential 16-year extension to preserve the arrangement until 2052. This review is mandated for July 2026. Golden voted against the USMCA in 2019, and is pushing for more parity between American and Canadian fishing regulations in the Gray Zone as a condition of any extension.
“The United States government should do everything in its power to ensure that our fishermen are not at a competitive disadvantage and deprived of economic opportunity,” Golden wrote in his letter to Greer. “Maine’s seafood harvesters have been awaiting a resolution to the Gray Zone for too long and at great consequence to their safety, their businesses, and the natural resources they depend on.”
Golden has previously written to President Trump about the steeper regulations Maine fishermen face compared to their Canadian competitors in the Gray Zone. Some of these rule disparities include the lack of a maximum size limit for catchable lobster for Canadians; Canada’s refusal to follow Mainers’ practice of marking egg-bearing females as off-limits; the American-only requirement to use expensive, weaker fishing gear to prevent right-whale entanglements; and a months-longer season for scallop harvesting for Canadians.
Golden submitted his letter along with testimony from Virginia Olsen and Dustin Delano, two Maine harvesters who serve as the Political Director of the Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) and Chief Strategist of Policy and Operations for the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), respectively.
Olsen and Swan’s Island fisherman and NEFSA board member Jason Joyce spoke today before the ITC, regarding the ways Canada’s less sustainable harvesting practices have harmed the fishery and Maine’s working waterfront.
“American fishermen have sacrificed more than most people will ever understand. They’ve rebuilt stocks, innovated gear, protected habitat, and carried the weight of conservation on their backs….” Joyce told the commission. “…We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for fair rules, equal competition, and respect for the sacrifices American fishermen have made to protect this shared ocean. The Gray Zone can no longer remain a gray area.”
“The MLU believes that a bilateral committee is needed to discuss the ongoing issues between both countries about the Gray Zone, conservation, seasons, and enforcement …” Olsen said. “… I feel we need to bridge the gap between what harvesters are seeing daily on the water to the observations by scientists. Until we do, the lack of trust will continue.”
The ITC is an independent, nonpartisan federal government agency. The commission oversees a wide range of trade-related mandates and provides analysis of international trade issues to the president and Congress. The ITC is led by a group of commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to nine-year terms.
Golden, who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, has fought fiercely on behalf of Maine’s fishing industry throughout his career. Last year he was the only representative from New England to join the effort to overturn a U.S.-only increase to the minimum catchable size of lobster. He also helped pass a six-year pause on new lobster gear regulations in 2022 — a moratorium he submitted legislative language to extend in July. He has submitted bipartisan legislation, the Northern Fisheries Heritage Protection Act, which would prohibit commercial offshore wind energy development in the critical, highly productive Maine fishing grounds of Lobster Management Area 1.
Golden’s full letter can be found here, and is included below in full:
+++
The Honorable Jamieson Greer
United States Trade Representative
Office of the United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20230
RE: Request for Public Comments and Notice of Public Hearing Relating to the Operation of the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada
Dear Ambassador Greer:
The Office of Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) submits the following public comment on behalf of various constituents in the Maine lobster industry: Virginia Olsen, the political director of the Maine Lobstering Union, and Dustin Delano, Chief Strategist of Policy and Operations for the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA). These leaders in the Maine lobstering community view the potential renewal of the United States – Mexico – Canada Agreement (USMCA) as an appropriate venue to implement co-management fisheries practices with Canada around the Gray Zone, a 277 square mile maritime area in the Bay of Fundy over which both the United States and Canada claim sovereignty. Doing so would strengthen the economic well being of American fishermen by both preserving the sustainability of integral Gulf of Maine fish stocks, while also ensuring that they are not at a competitive disadvantage compared to their Canadian counterparts.
The Gray Zone has been claimed by both the United States and Canada since the Revolutionary War. For centuries, the lobstermen and fishermen of Downeast Maine have relied on this marine area to harvest lobster, scallops, and halibut, often competing with the Canadians who utilize these same fishing grounds. Frustratingly, while the long-term viability of these stocks are essential to the economic success of both American and Canadian harvesters, it is our fishermen and lobstermen who are required to adhere to the highest standards of conservation. Maine lobstermen abide by a maximum size limit for harvesting lobster and Halibut; Canadian lobstermen do not. Maine lobstermen mark the tails of egg-bearing females with a v-notch and toss them back so they can spawn; Canadian lobstermen do not. Maine fishermen use less durable gear with weak links to reduce lethal entanglements with endangered North Atlantic right whales; Canadian lobstermen do not.
Past attempts to resolve this territorial dispute to support the competitiveness of U.S. fishermen have been ineffective. A 2023 U.S. Department of State Report written for Congress titled “Progress Toward an Agreement with Canadian Officials Addressing Territorial Disputes and Collecting Fisheries Management Measures in the Gulf of Maine” incorrectly states:
“The status quo benefits the United States by keeping the Gray Zone aligned with the more favorable measures applicable to the broader U.S. lobster management area within which it sits. Current cooperation has proved effective in managing the area. Negotiations to resolve the dispute would require significant dedicated resources. In the absence of a resolution of the territorial dispute, an agreement to resolve differing fisheries management measures in the Gray Zone could impact U.S. claims to sovereignty by creating regulations that differ from those applicable to the broader Gulf of Maine jurisdiction in which the Gray Zone lies.”
In reality, as management currently exists, there is no cooperation in managing this area.
This report – and past U.S. federal government assessments of the Gray Zone – are misleading, and the fishermen I represent have told me repeatedly that the current regulatory framework in the area does not benefit American fishermen; it hurts them.
The implementation of a co-management practice in a renewed USMCA would address this harmful, unfair regulatory disparity. That is why the renewal of the USMCA provides a reasonable forum to discuss and potentially implement a co-management agreement, which should include Canadian and American fishermen working together to determine and follow the same regulations.
The United States government should do everything in its power to ensure that our fishermen are not at a competitive disadvantage and deprived of economic opportunity. Maine’s seafood harvesters have been awaiting a resolution to the Gray Zone for too long and at great consequence to their safety, their businesses, and the natural resources they depend on.
These constituents are prepared to provide testimony at the International Trade Commission on November 17th on the merits of a co-management practice in a renewed USMCA agreement.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
December 5, 2025 — Maine Operation Game Thief is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in a major theft from an oyster farm in Falmouth.
Maine Marine Patrol says, on Nov. 22, Michael Scafuro of Portland went to check his aquaculture site near The Brothers Islands in Casco Bay when he discovered 14 aquaculture cages and 40,000 oysters, many of which were ready for sale, were missing. The cages and oysters are worth nearly $20,000.
Marine Patrol searched the area at the time to determine if the gear could have broken free of the anchors that hold it in place, but none of the gear was found. Marine Patrol says the rope, anchors and buoys that hold the gear in place were still on the site, but the cages in which the oysters are held during cultivation and the oysters in them were missing.
November 26, 2025 — Maine’s Department of Marine Resources has scheduled an online meeting to solicit input from commercial menhaden harvesters for the 2026 season. The DMR is seeking the input from pogey fishermen as it develops management measures for the upcoming season.
The state’s preliminary allocation for the coming season is 19,571,649 pounds, with an Episodic Set Aside of 4,119,117 pounds. The ESA amounts to 1 percent of the total East Coast allocation and is shared among the states.
The ESA can be accessed by individual states once they have used their individual allocation, but large schools of menhaden are still available within their territory.
Atlantic menhaden—pogies—are the principal bait used by Maine lobstermen and a valuable part of the state’s fisheries economy.
November 24, 2025 — According to a new annual report from NOAA Fisheries, there were 95 total confirmed large whale entanglements nationwide last year. In the Northeast Atlantic, the majority of entanglements were reported in Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay. Three occurred off the coast of Maine.
NOAA spokesperson Andrea Gomez says that two of those three whales were humpbacks, and one was a minke. One of the humpbacks was found dead outside of Portland, entangled in a fishing net. The other humpback and the minke were found alive off Jonesport and Stonington, entangled in Maine lobster gear. The minke was able to shed the gear on its own, and Maine Marine Patrol was able to disentangle the humpback.
November 24, 2025 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
NOAA Fisheries and the states of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts project the Atlantic herring fishery will catch 92% of the Area 1A sub-annual catch limit by November 24, 2025. The Area 1A directed fishery will close effective 6:00 p.m. on November 24, 2025 and remain closed until further notice. Vessels that have entered port before 6:00 p.m. on November 24, 2025 may land and sell, from that trip, greater than 2,000 pounds of herring from Area 1A.
November 21, 2025 — The U.S. government can continue requiring America’s lobster fishing boats to use electronic tracking devices to collect data, a federal appeals court has ruled, denying claims by some in the industry that the monitoring amounts to unreasonable search and seizure.
Fishing regulators began requiring federally permitted lobstermen to install electronic tracking devices that transmit location data in late 2023. The data improves understanding of the lobster population and can inform future rules, authorities said.
The tracking devices transmit lobster boat locations using an onboard global positioning system and must be used whenever a vessel is in the water, including when it’s docked or being operated for personal use, court records state.
A group of lobster fishermen sued, claiming the tracking requirements are unconstitutional, but a federal district court rejected that claim and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston upheld the ruling Tuesday.