Saving Seafood

Cut bait: Regulators move to slash Atlantic herring catch

September 28, 2018 — The New England Fishery Management Council voted this week to approve a new management approach to the region’s Atlantic herring fishery that will significantly scale back catch limits for the species over the next three years.

Based on the council’s latest stock assessment, recruitment numbers were lower than the previous low point in the 1970s when record catches essentially wiped out the fishing. Assessments show that recruitment numbers have been well below average for the species since 2013.

The regulation change, called Amendment 8, has been in the works for several years. The herring committee created nine alternatives for the management plan, ranging from taking no action on the previous management plan to a 50-nautical-mile prohibition on all midwater trawling gear.

The council decided to approve an allowable biological catch control rule, a revised version of Alternative 4B, which will slash the total allowable catch of herring from 49,900 tons to 21,266 tons in 2019. The 2018 total of 49,900 tons was already slashed from the year’s original ACL of 110,500 tons of Atlantic herring. A shortage in herring landings also means a shortage of lobster bait throughout New England.

“There’s no one that has more at stake,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “The lobster industry has already been dealing with issues related to bait, and the latest decision by the council will likely cause those problems to be even worse.”

The Gulf of Maine herring fishery was shut down by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission for much of September as the fleet neared its catch limit.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: Large pogy catch good news for lobstermen who feared bait shortage

August 14, 2018 — Maine has landed a record number of pogies this summer, forcing regulators to shut the bait fishery down just as lobster season peaks.

All of the landings have yet to be counted, but officials say it is likely that an unusually large pogy fleet will have caught almost 7 million pounds of the fish, which is more than double last year’s landings. This comes as especially good news for Maine lobstermen, who use pogies to bait their traps when the herring supply runs low, as it is expected to this year.

“Every pogy used was herring not used,” said Kristan Porter, a Cutler lobsterman and president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, which has been working with its members to prepare them for the herring shortage. “There also are some in coolers stored and ready. … The increase in landings is a good thing.”

State officials say Maine had run through its 2.4 million pound annual quota of pogy, also known as menhaden, by July 22, even though the quota was 13 times what it had been in 2017. Pogies were still running strong, however, with purse seiners harvesting them farther north than they had in decades, so Maine got regulatory approval to catch extra.

Over the last three weeks, the Maine pogy fleet has claimed almost all of the 4.5 million pound quota set aside for a handful of states to share when the oily forage species shows up in local waters in unusually high numbers. The high rate of catch prompted Maine to close the so-called episodic fishery on Saturday, with regulators expecting all of the shared quota to be used up.

Part of the high catch rate comes from the size of the fleet. In past years, only a handful of fishing vessels have entered Maine’s regular pogy fishery. This year, however, the fishery attracted 50 fishing vessels during the regular season and 64 in the special episodic event fishery, officials say – no doubt drawn to Maine by word of the large number of schools reported up the coast.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

All shell, no shock: Lobster prices strong as season picks up

July 23, 2018 — New England’s lobster industry faces big new challenges in selling to Europe and China, but the trouble hasn’t caused prices to budge much for American consumers.

The business is in the midst of its busiest part of the year, when tourists flock to coastal states with a beachside lobster dinner in mind. Summer is also when prices tend to fall a bit because it’s when the majority of lobsters are caught.

But the prices haven’t fallen much. Retailers are selling live lobsters in the $7 to $12 per pound range in Maine, where the American lobster industry is based. That’s not too far behind recent summers.

“It’s starting to pick up, so of course the price is dropping. But that’s pretty normal,” said William Adler, a lobsterman out of Green Harbor, Massachusetts. “Now it’s starting to come alive, and prices are still good right now.”

Members of the industry are concerned about heavy new tariffs applied by China to U.S. seafood this month, because that country is a major lobster buyer. Canada also recently brokered a deal with the European Union to remove tariffs on Canadian lobster exports to Europe, while the U.S. has no such agreement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

Looming bait shortage poses another threat to Maine lobster industry

July 17, 2018 — Feeling pressure from trade tariffs and pending rules to protect right whales, Maine’s lobster industry is facing yet another threat: a severe bait shortage.

Regulators want to cap this year’s herring landings at last year’s levels, or 50,000 metric tons, and slash next year’s quota of the most popular lobster bait from 110,000 to 30,000 metric tons. They want to do this to offset record low numbers of newborn herring that are entering the fishery to replace those that are caught, eaten by other predators or die from natural causes.

The 2019 quota could fall even lower if regulators adopt a separate proposal to leave more herring in the sea to feed the fish, birds and marine mammals that eat them, including Gulf of Maine species such as cunner, cod, seals, whales, puffins and terns. The New England Fishery Management Council could decide the issue as early as September.

“We need to think about the realities of the 2019 lobstering season with eyes wide open,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said in the group’s July newsletter. “There will be an acute bait shortage and bait prices will be very high. … We must start now to think about how we fish and when we fish. We must think about how we can be more efficient.”

That will mean different things for different lobstermen, McCarron said – some will decide to use less bait in each trap, use a finer mesh bait bag or forgo the practice of dumping old bait and simply add to it with each haul. Some might switch baits, swapping out herring for pogies or redfish, even though a herring shortage will likely cause price spikes and shortages there, too.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

U.S. law enforcement’s boat stops along maritime border rankle Canadian fishermen

July 6, 2018 — U.S. Border Patrol agents have ramped up their activities along Maine’s maritime border with Canada in an operation that has rankled Canadian fishermen, surprised Americans and alarmed civil liberties groups already concerned about the agency’s activities.

The agents are stopping vessels in a rich lobster fishing area known as the Gray Zone that is claimed by both the United States and Canada.

Twenty-one Canadian vessels and an unknown number of American boats have been questioned by Border Patrol since October 2017 with no immigration arrests, said Stephanie Malin, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman.

Maine fishermen report being stopped and asked for identification, and some boats have reportedly been boarded by Border Patrol agents. Canadian fishermen, meanwhile, say the stops are occurring in international waters and Border Patrol agents shouldn’t be boarding their vessels.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine lobster industry braces for looming bait shortage

July 2, 2018 — Maine’s lobster industry is on watch as fisheries regulators weigh whether to make significant cuts to herring catch limits, which could drive up bait costs that have already seen a sharp increase over the past decade.

Maine’s lobstermen draw their bait from the Atlantic herring stocks, which are managed by the New England Fishery Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service.

In recent updates, the council said it planned on setting a significantly lower herring catch quota in 2019 than in 2018. The catch limit for 2018 was 111,000 metric tons, the same as it was in 2017. But the herring fleet landed many fewer fish than that last year, harvesting just 50,000 metric tons.

The council also called for a reduction to the catch cap for the rest of 2018 amid concerns about low densities and slow replenishment in the fish stock.

“The decline of the most important forage stock in New England is a significant blow, not only for the lobster industry that uses it for bait, but also for those species that rely on herring as forage like groundfish, tuna, whales, and seabirds,” Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, wrote in a recent post. “Without this motion, rumor has it that the herring fishery would need to be capped at 15 metric tons in 2019, far lower than the 100-metric ton fishery that has operated in recent years.”

A herring stock assessment group held meetings in late June to try to determine its next steps and come closer to determining what quota it might propose. The group should release more details about the expected catch limits in the fall.

“Everyone’s worried about the quota and what that’s going to be,” said Kristan Porter, a Cutler lobsterman and president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “There’s bait around right now, but what happens in the fall? We just don’t know.”

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Fishermen feeling bait price squeeze

June 28, 2018 — “We made no money this spring,” said Bass Harbor fisherman Justin Sprague.

The cost of operations for lobstering continues to increase while the boat price of lobster has hardly budged. The cost of herring, the preferred bait for most Maine lobsterman, has gone up especially sharply.

“We don’t have any margin at this point,” Sprague said. “It’s frustrating, to say the least.”

Bruce Colbeth manages the C.H. Rich lobster wharf in Bass Harbor.

“By the time these guys pay for fuel, bait and stern men, there ain’t too much left for them,” he said. “I remember six years ago you could sell (herring) bait for $26 a bushel. Now it’s doubled.”

Herring bait is sold in trays. Fisherman Chris Goodwin said he paid almost $80 per tray for herring bait the last time he stocked up.

A ton of bait can be divided into about 13 trays, Cody Gatcomb of C.H. Rich explained. A tray of fish bait is equivalent to 1.5 bushels, Colbeth said. He saw a recent 3-cent per pound increase at his operation.

That adds up fast.

At the moment, not considered prime season, C.H. Rich Co. is selling between 350 and 400 trays of herring bait a week, Colbeth said. Once the season begins in July, they can expect to sell up to 800 trays of bait each week.

Some fishermen have reserved barrels of herring bait for the upcoming season in preparation for a possible shortage, Gatcomb said.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Environmental group plans lawsuit calling for ban on lines used by lobstermen

June 27, 2018 — Another environmental group is threatening a lawsuit to stop Maine lobstermen from using vertical fishing lines that it says pose a danger to right whales.

Whale Safe USA has served the Maine Department of Marine Resources with a written notice of its intent to sue that agency, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and individual Maine lobstermen for violating an Endangered Species Act prohibition on killing and injuring endangered species such as the right whale.

The paperwork serves as a 60-day notice of civil action.

Led by Massachusetts advocate Max Strahan, who has called himself the “Prince of Whales,” the group wants to stop Maine from issuing licenses to fishermen who use lobster pot gear that can entangle right whales, especially the ropes that connect lobster pots that sit on the ocean floor to the buoys that float on the surface.

“The MDMR in its current and past incarnations has been responsible for the killing and injuring of many endangered whales and sea turtles since before the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973,” Strahan said in a prepared statement. “It knows it (is) killing endangered whales and sea turtles but it simply will not stop.”

Some scientists who study right whales say the species, whose numbers have dropped to about 450 animals, could be doomed to extinction by 2040 if society doesn’t take significant steps to protect them.

Seventeen right whales were found dead in the summer and fall of 2017 in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Cape Cod, many because of ship strikes or entanglements.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Climate Change Brought a Lobster Boom. Now It Could Cause a Bust.

June 21, 2018 — At 3:30 in the morning on a Friday in late May, the lobstermen ate breakfast. Outside, their boats bobbed in the labradorite water, lit only by the dull yellow of streetlamps across the bay. It was windy, too windy for fishing, but one by one the island’s fishermen showed up at the Surfside cafe anyway. Over pancakes and eggs, they grumbled about the season’s catch to date.

Some of the lobstermen said it was just too early in the season. Others feared that it was a sign of things to come. Since the early 1980s, climate change had warmed the Gulf of Maine’s cool waters to the ideal temperature for lobsters, which has helped grow Maine’s fishery fivefold to a half-billion-dollar industry, among the most valuable in the United States. But last year the state’s lobster landings dropped by 22 million pounds, to 111 million.

Now, scientists and some fishermen are worried that the waters might eventually warm too much for the lobsters, and are asking how much longer the boom can last.

“Climate change really helped us for the last 20 years,” said Dave Cousens, who stepped down as president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association in March. But, he added, “Climate change is going to kill us, in probably the next 30.”

Read the full story at the New York Times

Feds weigh costly new regulation for Maine lobstermen

June 15, 2018 — The federal government is considering requiring all Maine lobstermen to report their harvests after each outing, a move that may face stiff opposition from an industry worried about the cost.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requested comment on the proposal in a notice posted to the Federal Register on Wednesday. Maine is the only state that doesn’t require all lobstermen to report catch-level information after each haul, and the policy change is expected to receive backlash from its powerful fishery lobby.

“We’re going to get a lot of probably negative comments on this because it’s going to be a burden for people,” said Peter Burns, a lobster policy analyst with NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “The lobster industry is very strong. For the longest time, they wanted to protect their fishing information, their proprietary business information.”

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Lobsters accounted for 44 percent of Maine’s total commercial catches in 2017, the largest portion of the 254 million pounds of fish netted, and brought in nearly $434 million. The total lobster supply chain adds as much as $1 billion to Maine’s economy each year, according to a 2016 study by the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association. The administration says only 10 percent of the state’s lobstermen currently report trip-level data.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner