Saving Seafood

MAINE: Scallop license lotteries now available

October 15, 2019 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has opened two license lotteries: one for scallop drag licenses and one for scallop dive licenses. Based on licenses retired in 2018, the department is making available six scallop drag licenses and four scallop dive licenses for the 2019-2020 scallop season.

The license lotteries will remain open until 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 8.

Applicants may apply online at maine.gov/scalloplottery or may complete a paper application at the DMR offices in the Marquardt Building, 32 Blossom Lane, Augusta. The department will not accept paper applications through the mail.

Read the full story at Village Soup

MAINE: 15,000 Atlantic salmon will be put into the Penobscot River over the next three years

October 7, 2019 — As many as 15,000 adult Atlantic salmon will be put into the Penobscot River over the next three years, most of them after being raised in penstocks off the coast of Washington County. They are expected to create up to 56 million eggs as part of one of the most ambitious efforts yet at reversing the decades-long decimation of Maine’s wild salmon population.

The first 5,000 fish will be placed in the East Branch of the Penobscot River near the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument next fall as part of the Salmon for Maine’s Rivers program, which is funded by a $1.1 million federal grant and involves the state and federal governments, a Native American tribe and a New Brunswick-based company that raises salmon in pens off the Maine coast.

The grant will pay for successive annual infusions of 5,000 Atlantic salmon — half of them female — into the river until 2022, said Sean Ledwin, director of sea-run fisheries at the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Aquaculture Operation to Support Novel Approach to Wild Atlantic Salmon Restoration

October 3, 2019 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) will employ a novel approach to rearing Atlantic salmon for restoring native populations on the East Branch of the Penobscot.

The project, funded through a NOAA Section 6 Species Recovery Grant totaling $1,075,000, will involve a partnership between DMR, Cooke Aquaculture USA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, and the Penobscot Indian Nation to grow juvenile Atlantic salmon to adult size in aquaculture pens located near Cutler Maine. The adult salmon will then be released into the East Branch of the Penobscot to spawn, a river with large amounts of high-quality salmon habitat.

Smolts raised from native broodstock by the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery in Ellsworth, Maine, and smolts captured in the wild by rotary screw traps will be used to stock the marine net pens in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Smolts will include only those from Penobscot River origin to ensure the genetic integrity of salmon released into the river.

Plans call for increasing the number of smolts captured in the wild from the East Branch to be used to supply juveniles that will be grown out in the net pens. While hatchery spawned fish help ensure an adequate supply of fish for recovery goals, those spawned in the natural environment are more robust due to the impact of natural selection which results in fish that are better suited to survival in the wild.

The smolts will be placed in net pens under a limited-purpose aquaculture lease in Cutler, Maine where they will be fed and managed in cooperation with Cooke Aquaculture USA for 16 to 30 months, during which time they will grow to mature adults. The DMR will hold the lease on the pens while Cooke will supply the pens and feed for the salmon as they grow.

“We are committed to be part of this wild Atlantic salmon enhancement project in Maine. Cooke Aquaculture has the experience working with Atlantic salmon in their natural environment based on proven aquaculture and fish-health science. Working with the Penobscot Nation and government partners, together we will make this restoration program a success by seeing the fish return to their native waters,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO, Cooke Aquaculture USA.

Approximately 5,000 adult fish will be transported from the net pens to target tributaries and the mainstem of the East Branch of the Penobscot River in the fall of 2021 or 2022 where they will find suitable habitat to naturally spawn. This will result in more spawning adults than have been present in the Penobscot River for decades.

While net pens are not new in Maine for cultivating Atlantic salmon, using them to cultivate salmon for conservation purposes at this scale is new in Maine and showing promise in a Bay of Fundy partnership between Cooke and Canadian provincial and federal governments, First Nations and academia.

The Penobscot Indian Nation has inhabited the Penobscot River drainage since time immemorial. The deep cultural, spiritual and historical connections between the Tribe and the Atlantic salmon of the Penobscot River go back thousands of years, said Dan McCaw, Fisheries Program Manager for the Penobscot Nation. The Penobscot Nation is hopeful that this new program can help to restore this iconic species to its ancestral homeland and applauds the collaborative nature of this multi-stakeholder endeavor.

As populations expand, the goal is to build healthy wild populations of Atlantic Salmon on the East Branch, including the potential for downlisting. The estimated 5,000 adults produced by this effort could result in 20 times more eggs in the gravel in the Penobscot River basin compared to existing stocking and natural reproduction, said Sean Ledwin, Director of DMR’s Searun Fisheries and Habitat Division.

The program will involve surveys of redds in spawning areas to assess spawning success of released fish. Released fish will also be tracked using Passive integrated transponders (PIT tags) and radio telemetry. Electrofishing surveys and use of rotary screw traps, along with genetic analysis, will be used to assess the abundance of offspring from this effort.

The program will also include a public outreach effort undertaken by the department and other program partners that will provide information on salmon and other sea-run species, and the impact of protecting ecosystems on which they rely.

https://www.maine.gov/dmr/news-details.html?id=1597983

Maine regulators to meet with lobstermen again about new whale rules

September 18, 2019 — Maine regulators are working on a new slate of meetings with the state’s lobstermen to discuss potential new whale protection rules that could impact the fishery.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is developing a proposal for the federal government about how to better protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. It had scheduled several meetings with lobstermen about the proposal for this month, but has temporarily put them on hold.

Department spokesman Jeff Nichols said a revised schedule will be out after regulators have had a chance to develop a proposal that reflects “another review of all data.”

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

Maine Proposes To Keep Scallop Season Mostly Status Quo

September 10, 2019 — Maine is considering a scallop fishing season that would allow fishermen to harvest levels of the shellfish similar to last year.

The state’s scallop season takes place in the winter and spring and provides some of the most valuable seafood in Maine. The Maine Department of Marine Resources says daily possession limits would remain the same as last season.

The state is also seeking to close some areas along the coast to allow the scallop population to rebuild. That includes eastern Casco Bay and Upper Sheepscot River.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

A large algae bloom has been spotted off Maine’s coast

August 29, 2019 — State officials are monitoring a large algae bloom in Casco Bay that stretches from around Chebeague Island to Phippsburg.

Kohl Kanwit, director of the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ Bureau of Public Health, said Karenia mikimotoi is a nuisance species that turns the water rusty brown and can have a foul smell. But she said it has no effect on human health and safety, either by swimming or eating seafood caught in the water.

Kanwit said if the bloom gets large enough, it can harm marine organisms.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: DMR puts hold on whale rule meetings

August 27, 2019 — Hold everything.

Early last week, the Department of Marine Resources published a list of tentative dates for a second round of lobster zone council meetings relating to the measures Maine intends to submit to the National Marine Fisheries Service to reduce risk to right whales supposedly posed by lobster gear.

At the end of the week, DMR postponed the meetings scheduled for Zone C in Stonington and Zone E in Wiscasset.

On Tuesday, DMR sent out a notice postponing all the zone council meetings until further notice.

“At this time, DMR is advising the industry that the entire schedule of meetings is currently on hold,” the notice from DMR Lobster Resource Manager Sarah Cotnoir said. “The commissioner (Patrick Keliher) regrets the delays but wants to ensure that we develop a proposal for submission to NMFS that reflects a thorough review of all data.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Regulators To Meet With Lobstermen Again On Right Whale Plan

August 26, 2019 — Maine fishery regulators are planning a second round of meetings with lobstermen in the state to prepare for potential new restrictions designed to protect endangered whales.

A federal government team has called for removal of many vertical trap lines from the Gulf of Maine to reduce risk to North Atlantic right whales, which number about 400. The Maine Department of Marine Resources held a series of meetings with lobstermen about the new rules earlier this year. The last took place in late June.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

MAINE: Second round of meetings scheduled on right whale issue

August 23, 2019 — Lobstermen will get another bite at the right whale problem over the next few weeks at a series of meetings scheduled by the Department of Marine Resources.

The meetings are being held to discuss rules proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service that could force Maine fishermen to cut the number of vertical buoy lines they use by 50 percent.

Earlier this week, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher announced that he would hold a second round of meetings with each of the state’s seven Lobster Zone Management Councils to consider area-by-area suggestions of how to deal with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s proposed rule that would require a 50 percent reduction of vertical endlines on lobster traps in much of the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: Shellfish harvest sites reopened after long red tide season

August 21, 2019 — Maine has recently lifted long closures of several shellfish harvest sites due to the potentially fatal biological toxin known as red tide.

The Portland Press Herald reports this year’s closure remained in place for three months in parts of southern Maine, nearly three times as long as the typical four to five weeks.

Jeff Nichols, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said the department hasn’t determined the cause of the longer red tide season.

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