Saving Seafood

Mainers grapple with risk that a shrimp season this year could be the last one

October 5, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Scientists and policymakers gathered Thursday in Portland to weigh their desire for a 2018 Maine shrimp season — the first in five years — against the very real possibility that allowing shrimp to be harvested this year could leave the species beyond the point of return.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission presented a draft of its Northern Shrimp 2018 Stock Assessment Report, which those assembled at the Maine Historical Society heard with resignation but not surprise.

The northern (Maine) shrimp stock is depleted and the biomass is at an all-time low due to high fishery removals and a less favorable environment, according to the draft.

The mortality rate in 2011-2012, the last years with shrimp seasons — was very high, and the number of juvenile shrimp has remained “unusually low” since 2010.

Furthermore, the environment in the Gulf of Maine is in flux, Margaret Hunter of the Maine Department of Marine Resources and chairwoman of the assessment subcommittee, said Thursday.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Lobster industry blasts proposed regulations intended to protect whales

October 5, 2018 — Maine officials and members of the state’s lobster industry are blasting a new federal report on the endangered right whale, claiming it uses old science to unfairly target the fishery for restrictions.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources, the agency that regulates the $434 million lobster fishery, and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the trade group representing Maine’s 4,500 active commercial lobstermen, question the scientific merits of the report from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, which was issued in advance of next week’s meeting of a federal right whale protection advisory team.

“They’re painting a big target on the back of the Maine lobster industry, but the picture isn’t based on the best available science,” DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said Thursday. “If we use the wrong starting point, and that’s what this report is, the wrong starting point, what kind of regulations will we end up with? Ones that could end up hurting the lobster industry for no reason and won’t do much to help the right whales. That is unfair.”

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald

 

Plans for second-largest oyster farm in US state of Maine runs into resistance

September 27, 2018 — An effort to launch what would be the second-largest oyster farm in the US state of Maine is running into some resistance, the Portland Press Herald reports.

Doug Niven and Dan Devereaux, owners of The Mere Point Oyster Co., in Brunswick, have planned a 40-acre oyster farm in Maquoit Bay, consolidating 26 aquaculture licenses to produce about 5 million oysters annually.

The bay is about 3,000 acres and the Maine Department of Marine Resources limit for aquaculture farms is 100 acres. A site review shows the farm unlikely to affect boat traffic or hinder lobster harvesters and bait fishermen.

But some residents, calling themselves the Maquoit Preservation Group, attended a meeting of the Brunswick Town Council last week to voice concerns about the proposal, including especially the impact on the environment and the amount of noise produced by the oyster tumbler. One resident compared the oyster sorting machine to having a cement mixer on the water. They say they were surprised to learn of the size of the farm, as most other oyster farms in the area are just five to 10 acres.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Maine communities torn apart by age-old debate: Business growth or water views?

September 18, 2018 — It’s a 127-acre salt water pond shared by two southern Maine towns. The Piscataqua River Bridge surmounts its natural landscape, the perpetual buzz of interstate traffic a striking juxtaposition with the hum of wildlife and stillness of water.

It’s a special place for the 60-some residences, split between Kittery and Eliot, affixed to its shoreline.

A proposal by a local shellfish company to expand its aquaculture operations to the length of three football fields within the body of water has posed a considerable question some abutters are hastily trying to answer: Who exactly owns Spinney Creek, both literally and figuratively?

As a state-held public hearing date draws near, attention surrounds the application for a 3.67-acre, three-year experimental aquaculture lease submitted to the Maine Department of Marine Resources by Spinney Creek Shellfish, a business with 35 years of seafood history in Eliot, specifically on the creek.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine’s rebuilt scallop fishery looks to year of more growth

September 17, 2018 — Maine’s scallop fishermen are looking at another year of conservative management, and members of the industry say that could be the best way to make sure the fishery continues rebuilding.

Maine is known for producing scallops that are somewhat bigger than other East Coast states, and some are plucked from the icy waters by hand during winter. Others are harvested by boats with fishing gear. The Maine Department of Marine Resources has said strict management of the harvest has allowed the scallops to rebuild from collapse in the mid-2000s.

The state is looking to continue that trend this year with a season that keeps fishermen restricted to tight limits on the number of pounds they can harvest. Fishermen are also limited in the number of days they can fish, and the state is looking to trim a few days.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The News Tribune

Ocean Funding Will Benefit Right Whales, Sea Turtles, Salmon

September 11, 2018 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is sending more than $6 million to nearly 30 marine conservation projects as part of its Species Recovery Grant Program.

The grants are designed to help marine species that face threats in the wild. Four of the awards are going to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, which will do an assessment of how fishing impacts endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The Maine department is also getting grants designed to help the salmon population, which has been the focus of years of conservation efforts in the state.

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

Maine Scallopers Would Be Allowed Same Limits Under Proposal

August 28, 2018 — Maine scallop fishermen would be allowed to harvest the same amount of the shellfish per day under a proposal floated by state regulators.

The state’s scallop season takes place every winter in the state’s icy waters. The Maine Department of Marine Resources is proposing a 2018-19 fishing season in which fishermen in most of Maine would be limited to 15 gallons per day. Fishermen in a zone that includes scallop-rich Cobscook Bay would be limited to 10 gallons per day.

The proposal also includes localized closures. It’s up for public hearings next month in Augusta, Machias, and Ellsworth.

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

Maine Department Of Marine Resources Implements Rules To Avert Gear and Territory Conflicts

August 3, 2018 –The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is imposing a new five-trap limit for lobster trawlers in a restricted area around Mt. Desert Rock — about 6 miles off Frenchboro. Gear conflicts are growing common in the area, as smaller and larger boats compete for access to fertile lobster habitat.

Lobstermen in management Zone B, which includes Mt. Desert Rock, voted for the limit earlier this year, a limit that they say is in keeping with their longtime fishing traditions. They were responding to increased conflicts with bigger boats, many from other zones, fishing 15 traps and more on a single line.

“It’s pitting one group of fishermen against another,” says Patrick Keliher, DMR’s Commissioner.

Keliher says large lobster trawlers based in neighboring management zones — particularly Zone C to the south and west — are venturing into far offshore waters, in Zone B.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Maine Lobster Industry Has Yet to Feel Full Impact of China Tariffs

July 27, 2018 — Bob Baines does not believe new foreign tariffs will have an immediate impact on the Maine lobster industry.

“The state is catching mostly new-shell lobsters that don’t ship well to China or the EU yet,” he said, plucking a few twisting lobsters from his haul to display the small number mature enough for an overseas voyage.

That won’t last, Baines said, and harder shells will come with more difficult trade barriers.

Moving quickly around the deck of his lobster boat Thrasher, Baines unloaded flat crates of live catch onto a dock adjacent to the Spruce Head Fisherman’s Co-Op, where he serves as president of the South Thomaston nonprofit that brokers sales for more than 40 dues-paying members.

Read the full story at The Free Press

MAINE: Those lobster license plates are supporting $340,000 in research on vital industry

July 18, 2018 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources is using $340,000 from the sale of specialty license plates to bankroll lobster research.

The state agency is using lobster license plate profits to fund six research projects, including five run by the University of Maine and one by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and give $5,000 mini-grants to four other researchers. Project data will be shared through a research collaborative created to address the impact of a changing ocean environment on Maine’s lobster industry.

“Maine’s lobster industry is our most valuable and is a critical piece of the economy of nearly every community along the coast,” Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “We know that change is happening in the Gulf of Maine and we want to be positioned with improved science to adapt to those changes.”

The agency in charge of regulating the state’s $1.5 billion industry is trying to up its own scientific efforts with these grants, which will be shared and shaped by a research collaborative made up of state officials, scientists and industry leaders. At the centerpiece of the new emphasis is research to support Maine’s most valuable fishery. The plan was to fund $500,000 in lobster science projects.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald