Saving Seafood

Out of 2,600 applicants, 13 Mainers get licenses for elver harvesting this season

March 8, 2022 — Spring’s arrival will mean the reappearance of tiny baby eels in Maine’s estuaries — and of intrepid fishermen up before dawn hoping to net allowable quotas for excellent prices.

The baby eels are called “elvers” and they’ve been drifting northward since late winter from the Sargasso Sea, a region of the western Atlantic Ocean, south of Bermuda, where they were born. Their mission is to make it safely to inland waters and grow into adult eels.

At noon on March 22, a short harvest season will open that allows 425 Maine-based fishermen to net small amounts of elvers, most of which will be sold to Far East markets, where elvers are cultured and reared to adult size for the food fish market.

With elvers selling for $1,800 per pound in 2021, licenses are highly coveted, and fishermen hang onto them.

That’s why, when the Maine Department of Marine Resources opened a lottery for 13 licenses that became earlier this year, there were over 2,600 applicants.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

MAINE: DMR sets public hearing on whale rule changes

March 3, 2022 — Now that new federal regulations are in place to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from entanglement with fishing lines, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) has drafted revisions to state lobster and crab fishing laws to implement the changes.

For Chapter 75, Protected Resources Compliance with Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, the proposed changes align with gear marking, fishing ropes, weak links in fishing rope, the minimum number of traps per trawl and the seasonal closure of Lobster Management Area 1. For Chapter 25, Lobster and Crab Fishing, proposed changes to Zone B increase the trawl limit from a maximum of three traps per line to five traps from 3 to 12 nautical miles from shore.

A remote public hearing is scheduled for March 15 at 5 p.m. for Chapter 75 and 5:30 p.m. for Chapter 25.

“These changes are routine in nature to implement such a large federal mandate,” Maine Lobstering Union member and Deer Isle lobsterman Virginia Olsen said. “However, we, the MLU, do not feel the goal of a 98 percent reduction is a way the Maine lobster industry can survive moving forward. We feel more real-time science needs to be done and the restrictions put in place to date need to be reviewed for effectiveness before additional restrictions are implemented.”

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Maine’s most fertile scalloping grounds closed for season

February 23, 2022 — Maine’s most productive scallop fishing grounds are closed for the remaining weeks of the state’s fishing season.

Cobscook Bay is home to the most fertile scalloping waters in Maine. The Maine Department of Marine Resources typically closes scalloping grounds early to prevent overfishing. The department decided to close Cobscook for the season on Sunday.

Read the full story at the AP News

Committee rejects proposal for Maine lobster industry legal defense fund

February 23, 2022 — A Maine legislative committee largely rejected a bill Tuesday that would have created a legal defense fund to help the lobster industry fight recent and expected regulations designed to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

A bipartisan majority of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee members, despite expressing support for the bill’s intent, voted 9-4 “ought not to pass” after regulators, industry members and the state Attorney General’s Office said the bill could have unintended consequences and might be unconstitutional.

The industry would pay for the legal defense fund through surcharges on lobster trap tags and licenses. The surcharges would generate an estimated $900,000 a year for the legal fund, but would divert money away from other industry causes.

The money would be split three ways among the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Maine Lobstering Union and Maine Department of Marine Resources. The two industry groups would be reimbursed for any legal expenses incurred, and the state agency for added staffing expenses and any related legal action or research.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Lawmakers come out against higher fees for large aquaculture projects

February 22, 2022 — A key state legislative committee voted this week against recommending a proposal to allow the state to charge up to $250,000 in application fees for large scale aquaculture projects.

The bill was proposed by the Maine Department of Marine Resources as a way to cover the costs of vetting complicated aquaculture applications and prevent them from monopolizing the department’s resources to the detriment of others in the queue.

Seven of the marine resources committee’s 12 members voted against the bill. On Friday, the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Jay McCreight, D-Harpswell, said that she planned to ask the committee to reconsider the bill next week and, if allowed, would propose pulling the fee portion so two non-contested parts of the bill could move forward.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Maine lobster value soared 75 percent in 2021

February 16, 2022 — Maine fishermen landed nearly $725 million worth of lobster during 2021 – a leap in value of 75 percent over 2020 and by far the single largest year over year increase, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Preliminary numbers released Feb. 14 show state officials expect total landings will be up 10 percent, to over 108 million pounds. Final landings figures are expected to be complete in March.

Coming out of the protracted covid-19 crisis – with its huge impacts to Maine lobster domestic and international markets – the industry saw $7 to the boat prices during 2021 and reported up to $10 in early 2022.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine lobstermen post record-high $725 million haul in 2021

February 15, 2022 — Maine fishermen landed some $725 million worth of lobster in 2021, shattering the previous record of $541 million. It happened thanks to a sizeable harvest of 108 million pounds, but also sustained high prices at the dock.

Unlike 2020, when the lobster haul dropped below 100 million pounds for the first time in a decade, landings were back on track in 2021. And so was consumer demand.

Shipping and inventory issues related to the pandemic continued to pose some problems, but the Maine Department of Marine Resources says the lobstermen received an average $6.21 a pound last year — also a record. And that led to some surprises, like $34 lobster rolls in midcoast Maine last summer.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MAINE: Local lobstermen hear mostly bad news at Zone B Council meeting

February 8, 2022 — Area lobstermen heard little good news at a Jan. 31 Zone B Council meeting as Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher shared information presented earlier at a December 2021 Lobster Advisory Council meeting. 

New gear, reporting and trap line regulations and the temporary closure of local waters to lobster fishing – all aimed at protecting the endangered North Atlantic right whale – are changing how lobstermen fish today and in the future. But greater challenges will play out in federal courts, as lawsuits levied by well-funded environmental groups could shut the fishery completely down. 

“This represents the greatest threat to the industry,” Deputy Commissioner Meredith Mendelson said. 

If the federal court rules to vacate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s biological opinion, as one lawsuit requests, on grounds that it violates the Endangered Species Act and the 1946 Administration Procedures Act (which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations), then NOAA’s National Fisheries Marine Service (NFMS) could not legally authorize the fishery to operate. 

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Productive Maine Scalloping Grounds Might Close for Year

February 8, 2022 — Maine ocean regulators might close the state’s most productive scallop fishing grounds for the year.

The state is home to a winter scallop fishing industry that takes place in nearshore waters. The most fertile scalloping grounds in the state are in Cobscook Bay in rural Down East Maine.

The Maine Department of Maine Resources said the area is showing signs of pressure from the scallop harvest and will be evaluated for closure this week.

Read the full story from the AP at U.S. News & World Report