Saving Seafood

MAINE: Sea farmers say bill to prevent large-scale aquaculture could hurt entire industry

April 14, 2021 — A Maine legislator who hopes to stave off industrial aquaculture and protect lobstermen and women from what he sees as a “large storm” headed for the industry is proposing a bill that small aquaculture farmers say could sink them.

The bill proposed by Rep. Robert Alley, D-Beals, aims to “protect Maine’s ocean waters, support robust regulatory oversight and the long-term health of the aquaculture industry,” according to a concept draft considered by the Committee on Marine Resources Tuesday.

The bill would revamp the permitting framework for state aquaculture leases, restricting the size of a lease and the number of leases and acres a person can hold, along with requiring leases be turned over to the state when they expire and removing an exemption from the Natural Resources Protection Act for leases over 5 acres. The bill also would prompt a review of the resources available to the state Department of Marine Resources’ aquaculture division.

Alley’s bill also would require that the department “convene stakeholder meetings to develop a strategic aquaculture plan with input from leaders in the aquaculture, lobster, fishing, tourism and recreation industries, as well as experts from the environmental and water quality regulatory community.”

While preventing large-scale aquaculture seems to be a primary goal of the proposed legislation, L.D. 1146, small sea farmers told committee on Tuesday that the changes would hurt them.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Elver season is now underway

April 7, 2021 — The elver season is already underway, but it likely won’t heat up in earnest until temperatures ratchet up a few more degrees. 

“People ain’t catching a whole lot right now,” said Ellsworth-based Darrell Young, the co-director of the Maine Elver Fishermen’s Association. 

The multimillion-dollar fishery opened on March 22, but local fishermen have reported little action while waiting for waters to warm up. 

They chalk the delay up to recent rains, which have kept the waters cool and flows fast, less than ideal conditions for the small spaghetti-like young eels that migrate upriver from the sea.   

As of April 1, a total of 315 pounds of the state’s 7,556-pound quota had been caught, according to the state Department of Marine Resources, though the agency cautioned that those figures were “extremely preliminary.”  

The Passamaquoddy Tribe fared better, catching 716 pounds of the tribe’s 1,288-pound quota, according to the DMR report.  

The elver season runs through June 7, or until the quota is met.  

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Maine Cod Fishery Posted Smallest Catch in History in 2020

April 5, 2021 — One of the oldest marine industries in the United States suffered the least productive year in its recorded history last year, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Maine cod fishery stretches back centuries but has been in dire straits in recent years because of tough new management measures and a lack of fish.

The 2020 fishery brought 58,730 pounds of fish to the docks. That is more than 20,000 pounds less than 2017, which previously was the least productive year. The fishery routinely topped 10 million pounds per year in the 1980s and early ’90s.

Members of the industry said the pandemic played a role in last year’s low total because of such factors as the disruption to the broader seafood industry and the closure of restaurants.

“We had a pretty lean year,” said Jodie York, general manager of Portland Fish Exchange, a Maine auction house. “It really is in large part due to the pandemic.”

The fishery has also struggled in recent years because of cod population levels that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has described as “significantly below target levels.” The cod population off New England has suffered due to past years of overfishing and environmental change, marine regulators have said.

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

Maine seafood industry set to receive new $17 million federal bailout

April 1, 2021 — Maine’s seafood industry will get another multimillion-dollar bailout from the federal government almost a year after the first round of pandemic-related federal aid was issued to the battered industry.

The state will receive about $17.1 million of $255 million in federal funding included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, designed to help the U.S. fishing industry survive, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this week.

Maine’s award was fifth-highest of 28 states and territories, trailing only Alaska, Washington, Massachusetts and Florida.

It’s still unclear how the funds will be split among the 18,000 licensed fishermen, seafood dealers, processors, aquaculture operators and charter fishing operators that make up Maine’s seafood industry, which, despite the pandemic, last year earned $516.7 million, the ninth-highest total on record.

The state is anticipating additional guidance from NOAA and couldn’t comment further, said Maine Department of Marine Resources spokesperson Jeff Nichols.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Stonington top port in state for 2020

March 29, 2021 — Maine’s commercial fisheries are thriving in spite of a pandemic year, tariffs on trade with China and looming issues affecting lobsters and lobstermen. The Maine Department of Marine Resources announced on March 24 an ex-vessel value of $516,796,614 for the state’s 2020 commercial landings.

Even Governor Janet Mills weighed in: “Maine fishermen and seafood dealers weathered one of the most difficult years in memory, but through hard work and an unwavering dedication to quality, they were able to once again provide tremendous value for seafood consumers, and a vital economic foundation for Maine’s coastal communities.”

Lobsters account for nearly 80 percent of the ex-vessel value, hauling in $405,983,832 worth of lobsters to Maine ports. DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher noted a 5 percent decline in lobster landings by pound compared to 2019. Nonetheless, the 96-million-pound catch was the ninth highest in Maine’s history. A higher than usual boat price of $4.20 per pound — compared to the $3.76 average — helped bring up the ex-vessel landing value for 2020.

The elver fishery, which saw dealer prices drop 75 percent to just over $500 per pound, still netted $5,067,521 for harvesters.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

In historically tough year, Maine fishermen brought in history’s 9th-most valuable catch

March 26, 2021 — Despite unprecedented market losses, Maine fishermen brought in over a half-billion dollars for their catch in 2020.

Valued at $516.8 million, the ex-vessel value, or price paid at the dock, of Maine’s commercially harvested marine species was the ninth-highest on record.

Maine’s lobster fishery once again accounted for most of the state’s overall landed value, with the lobster catch totaling $405.98 million.

While the landed value was down from $491.2 million in 2019 and the 2016 peak of $540.7 million, it was the seventh straight year that the lobster fishery exceeded $400 million.

“Maine’s lobster industry faced tremendous uncertainty in 2020,” Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a news release. “At this time last year, the industry was facing a pending market collapse due to COVID-19, but industry’s response was remarkable.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Maine officials seek to lower temperature of wind power protests

March 26, 2021 — With accusations flying between midcoast Maine lobstermen and offshore wind power advocates, state officials worked to reduce tensions as survey vessels chart a future cable route for a planned wind turbine site south of Monhegan Island.

The Maine Aqua Ventus project would be a 12-megawatt floating turbine to test the feasibility of using such anchored generators to build commercial-scale wind power arrays in the deepwater Gulf of Maine. The survey now is over a 23-mile route where an export cable would carry electricity to landfall and tie into the mainland power grid at South Boothbay.

In a bulletin to fishermen Wednesday morning, state Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher urged continued restraint in protests, after a peaceful demonstration Sunday by more than 80 vessels that cruised the cable route flying banners of protest.

“The purpose of this seabed survey is to map the seafloor in order to determine if the cable bringing power to shore can be buried. The purpose of burying the cable is to allow both mobile and fixed gear to fish around the cable without a problem,” Keliher wrote. “The developer has committed to working with the Department to ensure that fishing will be allowed around and over the cable route. I hope that we can find a way forward to complete this survey and achieve that goal.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Despite pandemic, Maine’s 2020 lobster haul was better than expected

March 25, 2021 — Maine’s lobster industry weathered the coronavirus pandemic better than expected, with the value of the 2020 landings decreasing only 17 percent from the previous year despite the closure of many of its traditional markets such as restaurants and cruise ships.

The overall haul was valued at almost $406 million, a decrease from 2019’s $491 million but still only the seventh time in the history of the fishery that the landed value exceeded $400 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the state Department of Marine Resources.

Maine fishermen hauled 96.6 million pounds of lobster in 2020, a 5 percent decrease from the 101 million pounds in 2019 and the first time in almost a decade that landings fell below 100 million pounds.

Dustin Delano, a lobsterman in Friendship and a vice president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, attributes the drop to a decrease in effort, not in supply.

“We decreased effort significantly from March to July, from when we heard about the virus,” he said, “We were skeptical, so guys took their time setting their gear out for summer.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: As tensions rise, fishermen are frustrated with offshore wind development survey

March 25, 2021 — Fishermen are denying allegations that they intentionally blocked a vessel conducting a survey for an offshore wind development project from doing its work earlier this week.

The survey vessel, Go Liberty, reported to marine law enforcement Monday that fishermen were blocking its path, preventing the ship from conducting a survey of a proposed cable path for the New England Aqua Ventus project, a one-turbine wind development project slated for the waters off Monhegan.

Maine Marine Patrol responded to the complaint but did not observe fishing boats blocking the vessel’s path, according to a Department of Marine Resources spokesperson.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine wants lobstermen to move gear from wind power cable survey route

March 24, 2021 — Acting on direction from Gov. Janet Mills, Maine’s marine resources commissioner on Wednesday asked captains who fish along a planned wind turbine cable survey route to voluntarily haul their gear, or he would have to tell the Marine Patrol to move it out of the way.

In a notice addressed to “Lobster harvesters who fish in or near the Monhegan survey route,” Pat Keliher sympathized with fishermen upset about the prospects of floating offshore wind  projects coming to the Gulf of Maine. And he told them that a gear count done over the past day by the Marine Patrol found far fewer buoys in the survey path than a survey vessel had reported.

But there’s still too much gear inside the route for the survey vessel to do its work, Keliher said, noting that it was in everyone’s interest to complete the survey to determine if  the cable can be buried. He asked fishermen to cooperate and remove any remaining gear for the next two weeks.

“The developer has committed to working with the department to ensure that fishing will be allowed around and over the cable route,” Keliher wrote to the lobstermen. “I hope that we can find a way forward to complete this survey and achieve that goal.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald