Saving Seafood

Northeast seaweed: Maine production continues to climb; doubling projected by 2025

January 29, 2021 — Seaweed continues to be a promising industry in coastal communities along the U.S. East and West coasts. Globally, the industry is valued at $12 billion, but commercial growth could be boosted by improved processing infrastructure and expanded markets.

While 95 percent of edible seaweed products in the United States are imported, there is a wild and growing cultivated harvest in the Northeast. A March 2020 study published by the Island Institute, titled “Edible Seaweed Market Analysis,” looked at growth potential in Maine’s edible seaweed markets over the next 15 years. The report found that production in Maine will grow about 12 to 15 percent annually over the next decade and is expected to more than double seaweed production by 2025.

Sugar kelp and alaria aquaculture are low-barrier and relatively affordable. They provide value-added opportunities for commercial fishermen and local economies, particularly where wild fisheries have declined. Maine Department of Maine Resources data on farm raised seaweed indicates that in 2018, 53,564 wet pounds valued at $37,897 were landed. In 2019, 280,612 wet pounds valued at $176,132 were landed.

Atlantic Sea Farms, a large commercial seaweed farm in Maine with 24 partner farmers, grew 30,000 pounds of seaweed in 2018. This year, the company planted enough for 800,000 pounds. The crop Atlantic Sea Farms cultivates ends up in products including fresh and frozen seaweed in pureed cubes and ready-to-eat and fermented products.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine seafood gets a boost with new branding initiative

January 28, 2021 — Maine’s seafood industry just got a boost.

The state has launched the Maine Seafood branding and promotion initiative.

The $1 million campaign seeks to unify all Maine seafood into a single brand.

In a December press release, the state reports that retail seafood sales have gone up 35% in 2020 compared to 2019.

The initiative’s website seafoodfrommaine.com connects Mainers to seafood suppliers near them to help bring seafood to Mainers’ kitchens when they can’t go out to restaurants.

It includes a comprehensive directory to help seafood lovers find specifically what they need along with recipes. In the coming months, the initiative plans to expand their directory and social media presence.

Read the full story at WGME

MAINE: Lobstermen react to proposed NOAA rule

January 27, 2021 — At what cost does saving the North Atlantic right whale come?

A Jan. 20 public meeting on the latest proposal to reduce the risk of whale entanglements in fishing lines focused on northern and eastern Maine lobster fishing. The virtual meeting continued discussions between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and lobstermen that began in 2019. The Maine Department of Marine Resources submitted its own risk-reduction proposal in January 2020 that NOAA said did not fully meet its goals.

At this latest meeting, local lobstermen echoed similar concerns they aired when discussions started two years ago: NOAA is relying on incomplete and outdated data, and fishermen are not seeing right whales in Maine waters. NOAA scientists agree that more data would be useful.

“We don’t have a lot of recent data to let us know that they’re not still going there,” said Colleen Coogan, a NOAA biologist who is part of its whale Take Reduction Team (TRT). “Maine has been working pretty aggressively trying to get more data.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: Scallop fishermen brave the cold and new territory

January 26, 2021 — Scallop season remains in full swing until the end of March for much of the waters of Maine. Despite a recent area closure affecting the Casco Passage and western Toothacker Bay off Swan’s Island, imposed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), both draggers and divers from Mount Desert Island have caught a fair share.

In 2019, scallopers harvested 3.5 million pounds of scallops statewide, bringing in more than $4.3 million.

Diver Ed Monat of Bar Harbor has been swimming along the frigid ocean floor to harvest scallops.

“There’s been a moratorium on [new] scallop licenses for so long, and there are not a whole lot of divers scalloping,” he said.

The fishermen who drag for scallops may do so Monday through Thursday, whereas the permitted days for divers changes from month to month. This month, they can fish on Fridays and Saturdays. Monat has been doing half-hour dives to mine shallow waterbeds for the shellfish.

When asked about the catch, Monat said it’s been hit or miss.

“I’ve gone harbor to harbor, places I’ve never been before to find them … sometimes I find them and sometimes I don’t,” he said. Before the recently implemented closures, Monat went diving off Swan’s Island. He’s also fished Frenchman Bay and Bass Harbor, as well as other areas around MDI this season.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Maine reviewing federal dredging project in Blue Hill area

January 11, 2021 — Authorities in Maine are collecting public comments about the potential impact to the fishing industry of a proposed federal dredging project in the Blue Hill area.

The Army Corp of Engineers and town of Blue Hill want to create a federal navigation channel in Blue Hill Harbor. It would be an 80-foot wide channel from deep water to the town landing, documents state.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is collecting comments about the potential impacts of the dredging until Jan. 25. The marine resources department will provide an assessment of the fishing industry impacts to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Read the full story at the Caledonian Record

MAINE: Final Penobscot salmon estimate for last year drops by nearly 200 fish

January 7, 2021 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has reduced its estimate of Atlantic salmon returns to the Penobscot River by nearly 200 fish, but the final estimate for 2020 — 1,440 salmon — is still the highest annual return since 2011. In November, state fisheries scientists announced an estimated 1,603 Atlantic salmon had returned to the Penobscot River.

Jason Valliere, a marine resource scientist for the DMR, said each of his regular reports filed since July have included a disclaimer explaining that the official year-end estimate of returning fish was subject to change. Those counts are adjusted after data becomes available, taking into account individual fish that are captured, returned to the river to free-swim to spawning grounds, then re-captured by fisheries staffers at the Milford Dam.

The 2020 total was up from 1,152 in 2019, and is the largest run of salmon since 3,125 salmon returned to the river in 2011. The average run for the eight years from 2012 to 2019 was just 708 salmon per year.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NOAA proposes new round of whale protections

January 6, 2021 — A proposed rule released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Dec. 30 aims to lower North Atlantic right whale entanglements in commercial fishing lines. Its release follows two years of research, public meetings and comment.

Federal regulators found the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) proposal submitted last January to be lacking — by 8 percent.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service seeks a 60 percent risk reduction to whales while the Maine DMR plan would only achieve a 52 percent reduction, NOAA informed Maine DMR in January 2020. Both proposals increase the number of traps per trawl line to reduce the number of vertical lines in the ocean, allow for gear marking to identify which state a whale fatality occurred in, require weak links in lines that would allow an entangled whale to break free and provide for seasonal closures in one lobster management area (LMA).

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: Fishing industry grapples with state’s offshore wind array plan

December 18, 2020 — The state’s plan to install an array of wind-energy turbines off Maine’s southern coast for research purposes has prompted concerns among fishermen.

“You’re shutting down habitat that we fish now so you’ll be displacing a lot of guys who are fishing out there,” said Portland lobster fisherman John Bisnette.

His observations came during an informational webinar hosted Tuesday by the Governor’s Energy Office and the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The Governor’s Energy Office is the lead agency in the array’s development. The webinar was one of three the agency was holding this week and next to get input from the fishing industry about potential siting and impacts of the array.

“The state has initiated a collaborative process that gives fishermen and other stakeholders direct influence in the development of the proposed project,” according to the meeting announcement.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Two new promotions seek to shore up Maine’s seafood industry

December 15, 2020 — Two new initiatives are underway to support Maine’s seafood industry through the downturn it has experienced this year.

The state has launched a promotion aimed at home cooks, who have been one of the bright spots for seafood sales this year.

And on Dec. 16, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland will hold “Split the Seafood Bill Day,” an initiative that will cover half the cost of meals that include seafood sourced from the Gulf of Maine at any of 20 participating restaurants for the first 200 diners.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources, with support from Gov. Janet Mills, launched the branding and promotion initiative last week with a $1 million investment from $20 million in CARES Act relief funds allocated for Maine’s commercial fishing and seafood industry.

The largest wholesale markets for Maine seafood traditionally include restaurants and food service. With those industries shut down or sharply curtailed, marketing shifted to retail sales aimed at home cooks.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Some unemployed Maine residents to get one-time $600 payment

December 9, 2020 — Some Maine residents who are unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic will receive a one-time payment of $600, Gov. Janet Mills’ administration said Wednesday.

Mills, a Democrat, said the payments are part of the state’s new Pandemic Relief Program and they are intended to assist unemployed people in Maine who might lose federal unemployment benefits at the end of the month. Mills and other Maine leaders have called on the federal government to extend unemployment benefits nationwide.

The payments will go to self-employed people, people who are sole proprietors and other business owners who are unemployed and losing federal benefits this month, Mills said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press