Saving Seafood

Maine scallop fishermen have same harvest limits in ’20-’21

November 10, 2020 — Maine’s scallop fishermen will be able to harvest the same amount of scallops under the rules for the coming season.

Fishermen in Maine harvest scallops by diving or by boat every winter. This year, they will be allowed to possess up to 15 gallons per day along most of Maine’s coast and up to 10 gallons per day in the Cobscook Bay area, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said.

The fishing season runs from late November to April. Fishermen harvested more than 400,000 pounds of Maine scallops in 2019. That was the lowest number since 2012.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

MAINE: Deadline Approaches for CARES Act Help for Fishermen

November 9, 2020 — The deadline is approaching for Maine fishermen to apply for help via the federal CARES Act.

The application period closes on Monday, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said. Assistance is available for fishermen in addition to aquaculturists and seafood dealers and processors.

The marine resources department said applications need to have been licensed to participate in their sector of the industry during 2019 to be eligible. The department said payments are expected to be made in December.

The coronavirus pandemic has hurt Maine’s seafood industry in part because of the hit taken by restaurants, which are critical customers for the industry.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

MAINE: Final week to apply for CARES Act Fisheries Relief funding

November 5, 2020 — If you work in Maine’s marine industry, this is the final week to apply for the CARES Act Fisheries Relief fund.

The Department of Marine Resources says it contacted eligible applicants last month by both mail and email, but wants to make sure anyone who can receive the aid is aware of the application process.

The federal funding relief is for licensed commercial fishermen, aquaculturists, seafood dealers and processors as well as for hire guides impacted by the pandemic this year.

Read the full story at WABI

Maine extends deadline for scallop license lottery

November 4, 2020 — Fisheries regulators in Maine are extending the period to apply for a scallop fishing license until the end of the week.

The state holds lotteries for licenses to harvest scallops by diving or by drag boats. The deadline to apply for a place in the lottery is Friday at 4:30 p.m.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources said it extended the deadline by a week because of concern that the lotteries might not have been as widely publicized as intended.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

Maine extends deadline for scallop license lottery

November 3, 2020 — Fisheries regulators in Maine are extending the period to apply for a scallop fishing license until the end of the week.

The state holds lotteries for licenses to harvest scallops by diving or by drag boats. The deadline to apply for a place in the lottery is Friday at 4:30 p.m.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources said it extended the deadline by a week because of concern that the lotteries might not have been as widely publicized as intended.

Read the full story from the Associated Press from the Caledonian Record

MAINE: Zone C lobster council OK’s trawl limit plan

October 27, 2020 — With the National Oceanic Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under a fast approaching, court-imposed deadline to develop new whale protection rules, the Zone C Lobster Management Council held a special meeting on the internet in late September to get an update on the situation from Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher and consider a zone-specific plan for gear modifications that will likely be required by NMFS.

On Aug. 19, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg gave NMFS nine months to craft new rules to protect endangered right whales from entanglement in lobster fishing gear. In April, Boasberg had ruled that NMFS violated the federal Endangered Species Act in 2014 when it adopted new rules governing the lobster fishery by failing to adequately consider the risk right whales might face if they become entangled in the vertical lines that connect lobster traps on the sea floor to marker buoys on the surface.

The judge vacated the NMFS “biological opinion” required by the ESA, which allowed continuation of the lobster fishery as it is currently practiced.

In August, the judge gave NMFS and the lobster industry until May 31, 2020, to come up with a new biological opinion and new lobster fishing regulations. He ordered NMFS to submit progress reports to the court every 60 days beginning Sept. 30.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Lobstermen: Documents Reveal ‘Catastrophic Impact’ Right Whale Protections Could Have On Industry

October 19, 2020 — Newly released documents by Maine’s Department of Resources are providing a glimpse of what federal action to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales could look like — including the closure of extensive areas of offshore ocean to lobstering.

In an August letter to the head of the agency that reviews proposed federal regulations, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher asked for a meeting to go over options for reducing the risk of right whales becoming dangerously entangled in lobster trap gear and rope.

That was after conversations with the federal Northeast Fisheries Science Center that brought to light a proposal that could put big swaths of ocean off-limits to lobstering — in federal waters known as Lobster Conservation Management Areas, or LCMAs.

LCMA 1, in particular, is heavily fished by Maine lobster boats.

“The concern was those areas in Area 3 could come across to Area 1 if, in fact, we don’t meet our risk reduction target,” Keliher says.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Groups still want state to consider Atlantic salmon for endangered status

October 15, 2020 — After being rebuffed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Department of Marine Resources, a group of conservation groups and individuals is remaining steadfast in its effort to have the state conduct an investigation into whether Atlantic salmon deserve inclusion on the Maine list of endangered species.

In June, that group of 10 groups and six individuals wrote to the DIF&W seeking an investigation. However, a month later in July, DIF&W commissioner Judy Camuso and marine resources commissioner Patrick Keliher replied saying they didn’t think state listing was needed, citing ongoing federal Endangered Species Act protection for the species, and cooperation between state, federal and non-governmental organizations on salmon conservation efforts.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

University of Maine Lobster Institute Hosting Series of Webinars

October 15, 2020 — Those looking to learn more about what’s going on in the lobster industry will want to check out a series of webinars being hosted by the University of Maine Lobster Institute.

Last week the Lobster Institute hosted their first online event, titled “Collaborative Chats: Successful Research Partnerships in the Lobster Industry.” The webinar, which was co-hosted by Amalia Harrington from Maine Sea Grant and Jessica Waller from the Maine Department of Marine Resources over Zoom, included an hour-long slideshow presentation followed by a Q&A.

Read the full story at Seafood News

MAINE: In a Boothbay Harbor, scientists are tying lobstermen’s ropes in knots to protect whales

October 7, 2020 — A group of state researchers in Boothbay Harbor are testing how much force it takes to snap hundreds of pieces of rope apart as they try to identify knot combinations and configurations of fishing line that will help protect whales from life-threatening entanglements.

Since early 2019, the small group of scientists at the Maine Department of Marine Resources have been testing a variety of different types of rope knotted together by putting them under strain with an old hydraulic tensile testing machine. They do their work in a garage bay on the department’s property on McKown Point Road. They have gone through a couple hundred different combinations of used and new rope tied together in various knots, testing each combination 10 times to determine their breaking points. They expect to try more than 900 different configurations in all.

The idea is to come up with a way Maine lobstermen can affordably satisfy federal laws that prohibit fishing activity from harming protected marine species such as North Atlantic right whales, of which only 400 or so remain. Maine lobstermen have been awaiting a new set of federal rules aimed at preventing whale entanglements that would force them to change the gear they use for the third time in slightly more than a decade.

The Department of Marine Resources researchers are hoping to find rope configurations that fishermen can put together from their existing gear, saving them the expense and trouble of replacing all their gear in order to continue harvesting lobster from the Gulf of Maine, which last year generated $485 million in statewide fishing revenue.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News