Saving Seafood

Maine Shrimp Hitting Market Thanks to Spawning Study

PORTLAND, Maine — January 29, 2016 — Despite a moratorium on the northern Maine shrimp fishing season for the third consecutive year, a few wholesale buyers, restaurants, and markets could have some Maine shrimp on their hands — and plates — this winter, due to a scientific study currently underway throughout the state.

Fisheries regulators have closed the northern Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery every year since 2014, saying the shrimp population has dipped to an unsustainable low level.

Northern Maine shrimp is now considered by the regulatory committee to be “collapsed,” and a 2015 report indicated that from 2012 through 2015, the Maine shrimp population was the lowest on record during the 32 years that scientists have collected data.

However, this week, some Maine fishermen have been harvesting Maine shrimp from traps and trawlers as part of a sampling project being conducted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Technical Committee— a regulatory panel that manages the fishery — as well as other agencies including the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the School of Marine Science at the University of Maine in Orono.

Read the full story from Maine Pubilc Broadcasting

Former State Trooper Andrew Foss Joins Ranks of Maine Marine Patrol

January 12, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources: 

Andrew Foss, a ten year veteran of the Maine State Troopers has joined the ranks of the Maine Marine Patrol. Foss, a lifelong resident of Washington County, was sworn in by Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher in January and began serving in the Lubec Patrol of Section 6, which stretches from the Hancock Bridge to the Canadian border.

Marine Patrol Officer Foss fills a vacancy created by the promotion of Russell Wright to Sergeant of Section 3, which runs from the Kennebec River to the St. George River.

Foss began his career in law enforcement as a Police Officer in Lubec where he served from 1986 to 1987. He also served as a Washington County Sherriff’s Deputy between 2001 and 2005. In 2005, he joined the Maine State Police and served from Machias until 2015. “Officer Foss’ extensive experience in law enforcement and knowledge of the people and places in Washington County will serve him well in his career in the Marine Patrol,” said Major Rene Cloutier.

Foss also brings to the position knowledge of the working waterfront in Washington County. Between 1991 and 2005 he worked for several aquaculture operations including Maine Pride Salmon, Treats Island Fisheries and Atlantic Salmon of Maine. His duties included site work, boat operation, scuba diving, and operation of computerized feeding systems. “Officer Foss’ experience on the water, operating boats and dealing with a commercial operation gives him unique insight into the challenges and opportunities of the working waterfront in downeast Maine,” said Major Cloutier.

“I like working on the ocean and I feel lucky to have been hired by the Marine Patrol,” said Officer Foss. “Working in Lubec is like going back home. I probably know 80 percent of the local fishermen and I look forward to getting to know fishermen in the area better.”

The Maine Marine Patrol is a bureau of the Maine Department of Marine Resources and provides law enforcement, search and rescue, public health, and maritime security on Maine’s coastal and tidal waters. Information about the Maine Marine Patrol, including contact information can be found at http://www.maine.gov/dmr/bmp/homepage.html.

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Lubec native Andrew Foss recently joined the ranks of the Maine Marine Patrol after a 10 year career with the Maine State Police. Officer Foss (center) was recently sworn in by Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher (left). Also pictured with Officer Foss is Major Rene Cloutier (right). Officer Foss is serving in the Lubec Patrol of Section 6, which stretches from the Hancock Bridge to the Canadian border.

 

MAINE: Marine Resources Committee schedules hearing on elver legislation

January 6, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee has scheduled a public hearing on a bill introduced by Rep. Walter Kumiega (D-Deer Isle) that would give the Department of Marine Resources more flexibility in managing the elver fishery.

The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 13, in Room 206 of the Cross Building in Augusta.

Sen. Brian Langley (R-Hancock County) is among the bill’s co-sponsors.

Kumiega, House chairman of the Marine Resources Committee, has proposed a bill that would, he said last month, “provide increased flexibility and promote maximum utilization of the elver quota by Maine’s elver harvesters.”

The law as it now stands calls for a 48-hour fishing closure each week to give the juvenile eels, commonly known as elvers, a chance to pass upstream on their spring journey from the sea to their spawning grounds in Maine’s streams, lakes and ponds. The closed period is now set by statute and runs from Friday at noon to Sunday at noon each week. Kumiega’s bill would let DMR set the 48-hour closed periods by rule prior to the start of the season, based on the timing of the weekly tidal cycle. The department would consult with industry members to determine which weekly 48-hour period would have the least impact on the fishery opportunity by setting the closed periods when the tides are the least advantageous to harvesting.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

 

Inflatable vessel to help Maine improve disentanglement efforts

December 24, 2015 —  With recent funding from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Maine Department of Marine Resources has taken another step forward in its ability to lead whale disentanglement efforts.

The $20,000 grant will be used by the DMR to purchase a soft bottom inflatable boat that can maneuver more safely and effectively when Maine Marine Patrol, along with key DMR staff, respond to entangled whales.

“Often, responders have to pull alongside an entangled whale which might surface underneath the boat,” said DMR Scientist Erin Summers, who is coordinating the purchase. “A soft bottom boat will move and form to the body of the whale, making injury to the whale less likely. A hard bottom boat is also more likely to tip when hit from below, which could endanger the responders.”

Read the full story at Wiscasset Newspaper

 

Maine to acquire soft-bottom boat for whale entanglements

December 20, 2015 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Maine Department of Marine Resources is getting a $20,000 grant that it will use to help make it safer for its staff members to respond to whale entanglements along the coast.

The grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund will be used to purchase an inflatable, soft-bottom boat that will be used by Marine Patrol to help free whales from ropes in the ocean, the state agency announced in a prepared statement released this week.

The agency currently uses one or more boats with rigid, v-shaped hulls to deal with entanglements, but such boats can pose a hazard both to whales and the people in the boats if the whale should surface underneath the vessel, according to Department of Marine Resources staff. The hard bottom is more likely to injure the whale, which already could be sick or injured, than a soft-bottom boat. A hard-bottom boat also is more likely to tip or capsize if the whale pushes it up out of the water.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

 

Shrimpers wanted for research program

December 19, 2015 —  The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is closer to embarking on its planned sampling program for the endangered Gulf of Maine northern shrimp stock and is looking for trawl and trap vessels to help collect shrimp and data.

The commission, which hopes to begin the test-tow portion of the the program in mid-January and the trap portion about a month after that, is looking for a total of four trawl vessels and two trap vessels from New Hampshire, Maine or Massachusetts, according to Tina Berger, spokeswoman for the ASMFC.

Anyone interested in participating in the project should contact Maggie Hunter at the Maine Department of Marine Resources by Jan. 4.

The $10,000 program is designed to catch the northern shrimp, Pandalus borealis, while they are in inshore waters to collect data on the timing of the egg hatch, as well as the size, gender and development stages of the shrimp.

The vessels will be expected to fish approximately once every two weeks until the shrimp no longer carry eggs, which Berger estimated will be some time near the end of March.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

Mrs. Deb Wilson Receives 2015 Melissa Laser Fish Habitat Conservation Award

November 16, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership:

Mrs. Deb Wilson was presented the 2015 Melissa Laser Fish Habitat Conservation Award by the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP) for her exemplary work in furthering the conservation, protection, restoration, and enhancement of habitat for native Atlantic coastal, estuarine-dependent, and diadromous fishes. The award was presented at the 74th Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Annual Meeting Welcome Reception in St. Augustine, Florida on Monday, November 2nd.

Through her tireless fundraising and project oversight to restore the Damariscotta Mills fishway in Nobleboro, Maine, Deb has been instrumental in the return of more than 1 million alewives accessing 4,700 spawning acres upstream. With too many depleted runs along the coast, Damariscotta Mills fishway serves as a model of sustainable, community-based fisheries management and a beacon of possibility for other communities seeking to restore their diadromous fish runs. Deb spreads that message through education and outreach initiatives such as the annual Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration Festival, which welcomes around 100,000 visitors each year. She brings her restoration experience to the whole coast through service on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Shad and River Herring Advisory Panel.

The award was established in memory of Dr. Melissa Laser, who was a biologist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, where she worked tirelessly to protect, improve and restore aquatic ecosystems in Maine and along the entire Atlantic Coast.  Dr. Laser brought her smiling dedication and enthusiasm to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Habitat Committee and Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership’s Steering Committee. Her contributions to these committees and to her home state were tremendous. Deb approaches her work with the same combination of warmth, humor, positivity, respectfulness, and quiet enthusiasm that Melissa exemplified, which has led to truly unique contributions to habitat conservation.

For additional information, please contact Lisa Havel, Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or lhavel@asmfc.org.

MAINE: DMR approves reduction to scallop fishing days

October 21, 2015 — Scallop fishers in parts of Maine will have fewer days to do their job this season compared to last year.

The Department of Marine Resources has voted in favor of a 10-day reduction for the upcoming season. Scallop season runs from early December to mid-April, at a time when lobster fishing is not as lucrative.

The area that will see a change this year, called Zone 1, runs from New Hampshire to the Penobscot River. Last season, scallop fishing in that zone was allowed on 70 days. This season, it’ll only be allowed on 60.

Read the full story at WCSH6 Portland

 

MAINE: Pembroke company seeks to make Washington County the ‘clam capital of Maine’

October 19, 2015 — It’s a crisp sunny morning in early October in the Washington County town of Pembroke and Tim Sheehan walks briskly across an empty parking lot to greet me. He’d been expecting good news about clam flats in northwestern Cobscook Bay being reopened, but instead of a parking lot full of diggers delivering clams to Gulf of Maine Inc., the seafood business on Route 1 he co-owns with his wife, Amy, there’s just a quiet sunlit absence.

The flats had been closed for almost a week after an historic rainfall on Sept. 30 forced Maine’s Department of Marine Resources to close the entire coast to shellfish harvesting. Even though he knows the closures are a temporary and necessary precaution — until water quality testing determines there’s no longer a risk of runoff pollution contaminating soft shell clams and mussels in the tidal flats — it’s still hard for Sheehan to accept another blank day on his company’s ledgers.

“I’m a dealer, our business depends on clams,” he says.

He’s not alone in that frustration on this bright Tuesday morning. By mid-morning, a dozen or more clammers had sent text messages asking Sheehan if the flats were open yet. Others had pulled up to his seafood warehouse in pickup trucks — some more than once as the sun advanced towards high noon — wondering the same thing.

“Still no word,” Sheehan tells them. Weathered faces nod impassively. They’ve been through this drill before. A full-time clammer, Kittery or Pembroke no difference, is always waiting for something — the tides to change, DMR closures to lift, prices to go up and tiny seed clams to grow to harvestable sizes.

By his own admission, patience doesn’t come easily to Sheehan, who says by nature he’s driven to solve problems. It’s been a hallmark of the wholesale seafood business he and his wife created three years ago, when they realized the scientific specimen business they incorporated in 2002 — whose sales had plummeted with the recession — wasn’t coming back fast enough to keep them in Washington County.

Read the full story at Maine Biz