Saving Seafood

NOAA mum on Maine defection

September 9, 2019 — So, you may have read in the pages of this here newspaper, or online at gloucestertimes.com, that the Maine Lobstermen’s Association on Aug. 30 informed NOAA Fisheries that it was repealing its support of the current federal plan to afford more protections to the imperiled North Atlantic right whales because of what it considers faulty science, an unfair portrayal of the lobster industry’s culpability and a rushed process.

When we reached out to NOAA Fisheries on Wednesday for comment on the seismic move by the nation’s largest lobster industry membership, we were told to expect a statement from NOAA Fisheries on Thursday. Thursday came and went, no statement. Probably Friday, we were told.

We checked back on Friday. Maybe, we were told. But it really felt like probably not.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

Lobster industry group lays out objections to whale proposal

September 5, 2019 — It’s not just that proposed federal rules intended to protect endangered right whales from entanglement with fishing gear will be expensive and difficult to implement, industry representatives say. It’s also that they won’t work.

That’s the argument Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, made in a letter sent to NOAA Fisheries on Friday.

The proposed rules came from a meeting in April of a federal stakeholder group, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, which includes McCarron and four other Maine lobster industry representatives. That Maine delegation is now withdrawing support from the “near-consensus” plan, McCarron wrote.

“The Agency’s current rulemaking does not address the full scope of known human causes of the decline in the species and will be insufficient to reverse the right whale population’s downward trend,” she wrote.

At the April meeting, McCarron notes, the full group recommended that NOAA Fisheries “revisit the Team’s recommendations if revisions to the model suggest … a distinctly different understanding of risk” to the whales.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Lobster fishing group withdraws support of whale agreement

September 5, 2019 — An organization that represents Maine’s lobster fishermen is pulling its support of a proposed plan to protect endangered whales.

The subject of North Atlantic right whale conservation has been a major source of contention for the lobster fishery in Maine, which supplies by far the most U.S. lobster. There are only about 400 of the whales, which are prone to entanglement in fishing gear.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has taken a closer reading of the science behind the plan, which a federal team recommended in April, and believes it places too much of the onus on lobster fishermen, association executive director Patrice McCarron said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at News Center Maine

Maine group backs out of right whale agreement

September 4, 2019 — On Friday, Aug. 30, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association officially withdrew its support from a federal proposal to reduce fishery impacts on the North Atlantic right whale biomass, citing NMFS data that shows the proposal would not be effective in reducing right whale mortality.

“NMFS own data show that that the lobster fishery is the least significant cause of right whale serious injury or mortality,” said Patrice McCarron, the association’s president, “while ship strikes, gillnets and the Canadian snow crab fishery pose much greater risks.”

According to MLA’s analysis, the Canadian snow crab fishery accounts for 31 percent of right whale serious injury and mortality; gillnet and netting gear represent 13 percent; unknown trap/pot gear represents 4 percent; and U.S. trap/pot gear represents 4 percent.

U.S. and Canadian vessel strikes account for the remaining 48 percent of right whale injury and mortality.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: Lobstermen’s group pulls its support for proposal to protect right whales

September 4, 2019 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is withdrawing its support for a proposed right whale protection plan, claiming it was rushed into voting in favor of major fishing restrictions without adequate time to review the science behind the plan.

Upon review, the state’s largest lobstering trade group expressed its displeasure with the plan, saying it is based on error-prone data, untested science and documentation that is biased against the lobster industry.

The association says the government unfairly focuses federal right whale conservation efforts on Northeast lobstering without fully investigating and documenting other threats to the species and its habitat, from Canadian crab fishers and shipping vessels to seismic testing and offshore wind projects.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine Voices: Mills’ stand on fishing rules praised by lobster industry

July 29, 2019 — As Executive Director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), I applaud Gov. Mills’ July 11 Message to Maine’s Lobster Industry acknowledging the federal government’s “disturbing lack of evidence connecting the Maine lobster industry to recent right whale deaths.”

Maine’s lobstermen understand that right whales are at risk and we are committed to being part of the solution. But as Gov. Mills rightly points out, the data show that Maine is just a small part of a complex problem.

Lobstermen recognize that the right whale population will not improve without everyone doing their part to aid in the species’ recovery. However, assigning 60% of the risk to our fishery, which has only one confirmed right whale entanglement dating back to 2002 and zero confirmed serious injuries or mortalities, will not save the species. Maine’s solution must reflect the actual risk Maine lobstermen pose to right whales. We should not be forced to implement changes to achieve an arbitrary goal if those measures won’t realistically help the right whale population recover.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Changes to lobster fishery to help whales might arrive 2021

June 28, 2019 — Changes to the Maine lobster fishery designed to help a critically endangered species of whale might arrive in 2021 after a lengthy rulemaking process.

A team assembled by the federal government has called for the removal of half the vertical trap lines from the Gulf of Maine to reduce risk to North Atlantic right whales. The Maine Department of Marine Resources has been meeting with lobstermen around the state to begin the process of crafting rules to achieve that goal.

The state held the last of several meetings with lobstermen about the new rules on Thursday in Freeport. Hundreds of members of the state’s lifeblood industry have attended the meetings.

Maine hopes to present a plan to the federal government by September, department spokesman Jeff Nichols said before the meeting. The industry is getting ready to grapple with the task of getting so much gear out of the water, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

“There’s definitely concern among lobstermen because they will be changing how they fish,” she said. “It’s not a simple task, but once guys are thinking it through and making changes, there seems to be viable strategies for each person.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

New England council calls for further curbs on herring catches

June 12, 2019 — Recommendations made by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) will further reduce Maine lobster harvesters’ access to herring as a baitfish.

According to the Associated Press, the council has recommended that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cut herring catch levels to 25 million pounds (11,400t) for 2020, down from 15,875t this year. Five years ago, herring catch limits were set at 90,718t, the news service said.

“Maine lobstermen will continue to identify new bait sources to further diversify our bait supply and develop efficiencies in our bait use,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, told the news service.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Lobster industry faces another deep cut in bait

June 12, 2019 — Lobster fishermen will likely have to contend with another deep cut to the availability of bait next year due to a Tuesday recommendation by a fishery management board.

Federal regulators have slashed the catch limits for Atlantic herring, which is an important source of bait for America’s lucrative lobster fishery, over the past year. The New England Fishery Management Council voted Tuesday to again reduce the catch limits, this time to a little more than 25 million pounds in 2020.

The cut would reduce the Atlantic herring catch to its lowest level in decades, and less than a quarter of the 2017 total. The reduction comes on the heels of an earlier cutback that reduced this year’s quota to less than 35 million pounds when the catch had been more than 200 million pounds just five years ago.

It remains to be seen how much of an impact the cut in bait supply will have on the lobster industry and consumers of lobster, but another reduction is “certainly not the news we want to hear,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

“Maine lobstermen will continue to identify new bait sources to further diversify our bait supply and develop efficiencies in our bait use,” McCarron said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times

BANGOR DAILY NEWS: Better information needed as Maine lobstermen take on challenge of protecting right whales

May 21, 2019 — In the early 2000s, the news appeared good for endangered North Atlantic right whales. Their population grew significantly, due to both rising numbers of births and fewer deaths from ship strikes and entanglements in fishing gear.

That good news has come to an end. Twenty of the rare whales died in just two years — 2017 and 2018, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. For the first time in nearly four decades of monitoring, it appears no right whale calves were born last year.

The consortium estimates there are only 411 right whales off the Atlantic coast.

Given these dire numbers, U.S. fisheries regulators have proposed dramatic declines in the amount of fishing lines in waters where the whales are believed to congregate and pass through.

Last month, a team devoted to reducing right whale deaths told Maine officials that the state must reduce the risk it poses to right whales by 60 percent.

The team recommended that Maine’s lobster fishery cut the number of vertical lines in the water by half. Vertical lines run between traps and buoys on the surface of the water to mark their location. The recommendations will be turned into proposed federal rules, which will be subject to public comments. The process could take up to two years.

Read the full opinion piece at the Bangor Daily News