Saving Seafood

Maine fishing industry awaits distribution of federal stimulus money

May 19, 2020 — While Maine is due to receive $20 million in federal funding to help shore up fishing trade losses caused by the COVID-19 economic downturn, industry leaders say more relief is needed to address the full scope of the decline.

“It’s not a lot of money for the size of the problem that we are dealing with in Maine,” Ben Martens, Executive Director of The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA) told The Center Square. “The goal is to get the money out the door as soon as possible, at least that should be the goal, so we can all survive this.”

The $20.3 million going to Maine is part of $300 million allotted to the seafood industry under the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act. The $300 million will be helping about 30 states, with Alaska receiving the highest amount, roughly $50 million, Martens said. Maine’s amount was the fifth highest in the nation.

Dividing the $20.3 million among Maine’s 18,000 licensed fishermen, seafood processors, charter fishing operators and aquaculture workers will be up to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at The Center Square

Seafood industry waiting for $300M from CARES act gets good news

May 8, 2020 — The seafood industry has been hit hard by the closure of restaurants throughout the country but it could be a step closer to getting relief money after the federal government appeared to begin offering a state-by-state breakdown of the funds.

Confusion over who qualifies for CARES Act funding has delayed the money from being distributed to anyone, Ben Martens of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association told FOX Business

“It’s great we’re finally seeing some movement getting that money out the door,” Martens said. “It’s not going to go very far in the state of Maine when you start thinking about the needs of the fishermen on the docks, the processors … Everybody needs help.”

Read the full story at FOX Business

Maine fishing industry hopes for more COVID-19 relief money

May 5, 2020 — It’s been more than a month since President Donald Trump put aside $300 million in relief money for the fishing industry, and Maine delegates have sent several letters urging the president to quickly release that money.

With restaurants and trade opportunities limited, the head of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association says the current funding isn’t enough to cover all the expenses Maine fishermen face.

“In terms of lobster fishing we have a lot of expenses like fuel and bait,” Turner Family Lobster Company Owner Travis Turner said.

Travis Turner has lobstering in his blood, having grown up fishing with his father. He says it’s a job that’s especially tough to navigate through this pandemic.

Read the full story at WGME

Fishing groups have “Day of Action” to help fishermen access COVID-19 aid

April 24, 2020 — On Friday, 24 April, as U.S. President Donald Trump signed an extension of small business COVID-19 relief programs into law, a national group of independent fishermen set aside the day to make sure they and their colleagues had access to the programs designed to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic.

It comes a day after the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and others held a webinar for fishermen and crew members on the packages available to them.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Culinary events seek to build demand for Maine’s underappreciated fish

February 5, 2020 — A new series of events called “What’s the Catch?” seeks to build consumer awareness of Maine’s underutilized fish species.

Greater consumption of species like monkfish, redfish, flounder and hake could help fishermen who primarily depend on the lobster fishery to diversify their income. And that’s an important consideration if today’s robust lobster stocks ever decline, Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, told Mainebiz.

The association is collaborating with Luke’s Lobster on the series, which features a different fish species at four monthly events and highlights fishermen and the working waterfront.

Hosted the second Wednesday of each month from January through April, the series is part social event and part educational.

The January event featured monkfish. The next event, featuring redfish, is scheduled for Feb. 12, from 6-8 p.m., at Luke’s Lobster on the Portland Pier. The March 11 event features flounder, and the April 8 event will focus on hake.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Fishing industry mourns loss of two respected lobstermen

January 28, 2020 — Maine’s fishing industry is mourning the loss of captain Arnold Nickerson IV of Arundel and his crew Christopher Pinkham of Boothbay Harbor. The two died at sea off Portland while fishing aboard Nickerson’s lobster boat, the Hayley Ann, on Jan. 23.

Nickerson was known by most as Joe.

“I’ve known Joe for years, and he has been an incredibly valuable contributor for two terms on the [Department of Marine Resources] Advisory Council, especially with regard to the groundfish and elver fisheries with which he was most directly involved,” the department’s commissioner, Patrick Keliher, said in a news release.

“I chose him to serve on the council because of his perspective as an experienced, successful fisherman and his calm and constructive approach to problem solving,” Keliher continued. “He was committed to the proper management of Maine’s marine resources, and was willing to give his time to help his fellow fishermen. I always valued his insights and ideas. He was a first-rate fisherman, and an excellent representative for Maine’s fishing community.”

“It is hard to state the depth of the profound sadness that we have all felt at the news that Joe Nickerson and his crew Chris Pinkham perished at sea while out fishing,” Ben Martens, the association’s executive director, said in a press statement.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Maine Aquaculture Association launches video to boost state’s farmers

January 21, 2020 — The Maine Aquaculture Association has kicked off a new video series focused on telling the personal stories of aquatic farmers throughout the state to increase public visibility and underscore how aquaculture complements existing marine industries in coastal communities.

The series, titled “The Faces of Maine’s Working Waterfront,” borrows a premise that has boded well for the state’s commercial fishing industry – interviewing industry members at work out on the water to give consumers an inside look at the trade. The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association has been producing a video series called “Hard Tellin’” for a couple years.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Warmer waters mess with the Northeast’s cod-given right to fish

June 24, 2019 — Fishing has been the economic and cultural pillar for many coastal towns along the Northeast coast for generations. But a warmer climate threatens the abundance and distribution of key species like haddock and Atlantic cod. And that will spell trouble for these fishing towns, according to new research.

“Fishermen need to travel farther from port to fill their nets, reflecting shifts in the location of their target species,” quantitative ecologist Lauren A. Rogers, who co-authored the study, explained.

A warmer climate makes species migrate north; the timing of species to arrive into fishing areas is shifting as well. This complicates fishermen’s jobs as they may not see a species during a time when regulations allow them to fish for it.

“Fishermen are on the frontlines of climate change,” Monique Coombs, director of marine programs at the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, told Grist. “Clam harvesters see the shells of the intertidal species softening because of ocean acidification. Changing weather patterns inhibits fishers’ safety because they are no longer able to depend on weather forecasts.”

Read the full story at Grist

How eating sea bass and crab can help Maine lobstermen

April 8, 2019 — A group of Rhode Island fishermen who witnessed southern New England’s near-shore lobster fishery evaporate and its offshore fishery diminish dramatically in their time on the water came to last month’s Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockland to give lobstermen here a bit of seasoned advice: Embrace ecosystem change while you’re in a good position to do so.

These southerly neighbors acknowledge the Maine lobster fishery is currently rockin’. Preliminary numbers released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources set the value of last year’s 119 million-pound lobster haul at $484.5 million, up from $438 million generated by 112 million pounds of lobster harvested in 2017. Both years are down, though, from the all-time high lobster landings of 132 million pounds (worth $541 million) set in 2016.

The two-species Rhode Island fishermen told their Maine counterparts they should be targeting are Jonah crab and black sea bass. The former have long lived in offshore waters in the Gulf of Maine and the latter, a tasty fish historically found in the mid-Atlantic region, are showing up farther north because of warming waters.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine’s lobster industry braces for ‘catastrophic’ cuts to bait fish catch

February 21, 2019 — For the second year in a row, federal regulators have dramatically reduced the amount of Atlantic herring fishermen can haul after scientists counted far fewer juvenile Atlantic herring in the waters from Canada to New Jersey.

While determining that Atlantic herring, the chief bait used by lobstermen, is not overfished, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said “recruitment” — the number of juvenile herring — is so low that last Friday they finalized a rule reducing by more than half the amount of Atlantic herring that fishermen may catch in 2019, from 50,000 metric tons to 21,000 metric tons.

Regulators hope the dramatic cut will prevent or reduce the risk of the fishery becoming depleted, NOAA said in a release.

The new limit has prompted predictions of bait shortages and sky-high prices and has members of Maine’s fishing community describing the situation as “catastrophic” and “devastating.”

“It’s huge,” Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said. “Prices are going to go up, and lobstermen are going to be struggling to find as much bait as they are accustomed to.”

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News