Saving Seafood

Maine’s annual elver harvest value jumps by more than $11M

June 18, 2021 — Maine’s annual baby eel fishing season has ended with a statewide catch worth an estimated $16.5 million, representing an $11.5 million increase over the value of the state’s 2020 harvest.

Worldwide demand for eels was abnormally low in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic depressed global trade and demand for eels at restaurants. The vast majority of baby eels caught in Maine are shipped live to eastern Asia, where they are raised in aquaculture ponds to adult size and then harvested for the global seafood market.

Maine is limited to an annual harvest of roughly 9,600 pounds of baby American eels, also known as elvers, to help protect the species from overfishing. The state’s annual elver fishing season runs each year from late March through early June. Maine is the only state with a sizable elver fishery.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: U.S. Interior Secretary to visit Acadia National Park on Friday

June 17, 2021 — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit Maine on Friday to talk with state and tribal leaders about the Biden administration’s support for public lands.

Haaland will join Gov. Janet Mills and all four members of Maine’s Congressional delegation at Schoodic Point, a smaller and lesser-known part of Acadia National Park located on a peninsula in eastern Hancock County.

The visit kicks off with a special sunrise musical performance by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and several Wabanaki musicians at 4:05 a.m. That event is by invitation only.

Haaland is the first Biden administration Cabinet member to visit Maine.

Haaland’s approach is likely to be radically different from that of Ryan Zinke or David Bernhardt, her predecessors under former President Donald Trump. The Washington Post reported this week that Haaland has recommended restoring protections to three national monuments that had been rolled back by Trump. They are Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah, as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of Massachusetts.

There had been some concern in 2017 that Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument also might be targeted for a reduction in size, but that never happened.

Read the full story at Central Maine

Increasingly valuable pogie fishing season gets underway in Maine

June 15, 2021 — Russell Libby turned to his crew at CBS Lobster and Bait on Union Wharf on Monday afternoon, telling them another boat was due in five minutes. Libby also told them it was close to sinking.

That turned out to be an exaggeration but not by much.

Before long, a small fishing boat came chugging around the corner. The Deja Vu II was so loaded with pogies, the open transom was several inches underwater.

The crew was jubilant.

“That’s the most I’ve had on there in 20 years,” said Capt. Dan Harriman of Cape Elizabeth.

Dozens of plastic barrels stood stacked on the vessel’s deck. What little open space remained was awash in fish. The crew stood ankle-deep in them. Even the engine compartment was full of pogies.

“We’ve got some down forward — we really do,” crewman Corey Doughty shouted up to the dockworkers. Doughty is also from Cape Elizabeth and Harriman’s cousin.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Red Lobster latest seafood vendor to get hit with sustainability-focused lawsuit

June 15, 2021 — A growing number of class-action lawsuits are being filed against seafood retailers and foodservice outlets, claiming their offerings do not meet their own sustainability claims.

Earlier this month, in a complaint filed in the U.S. Superior Court in the District of Columbia, ALDI was accused of false advertising and marketing, with the advocacy group GMO/Toxin Free USA alleging ALDI’s claim that its salmon is sustainably sourced is not credible. Earlier this year, Mowi agreed to settle a similar lawsuit for USD 1.3 million (EUR 1.1 million). The complaint alleged that the sustainability claims on its Ducktrap River of Maine smoked salmon were false.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine’s having a lobster boom. A bust may be coming.

June 15, 2021 — Ask any outsider what Maine brings to mind, and the response might well be: Bone-chilling winters. Forests. Moose. Quaint fishing villages along a rocky coast. Flannel shirts and Bean boots. And lobsters—lots of lobsters.

These cold-water-loving, bottom-feeding crustaceans are top of mind for many Mainers too, including Monique Coombs. She’s the director of community programs for the Maine Coast Fisherman’s Association, in Brunswick. She’s also the wife of Maine lobsterman, Herman Coombs, and the mother of 16-year-old Joceylne, who’s going into the family trade. Homarus americanus—the American lobster—is what keeps bread on the Coombs’ table.

Last year during the pandemic shutdown, Maine didn’t get its usual blast of summer visitors, but there were plenty of lobsters. Signs are promising for a revived tourism season in 2021, and Monique expects it to be another good year for lobsters.

But that doesn’t stop her from worrying. The waters off Maine’s coast are warming, and no one knows what that’s going to mean for the state’s half-billion-dollar-a-year lobster industry—the largest single-species fishery in North America. Some fear that continued warming could cause the lobster population to collapse.

Read the full story at National Geographic

MCCF hosts online Lunch & Learn ‘Inheriting Change: A Panel Discussion Featuring Youth Perspectives on Climate Change and Maine Fisheries’

June 15, 2021 — Please join Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries on Friday, June 25 at 12:30 p.m. for, “Inheriting Change: A Panel Discussion Featuring Youth Perspectives on Climate Change and Maine Fisheries.” This month’s webinar will feature perspectives from four members of a generation that will inherit the consequences of climate change on our local fishing communities. Hallie is a COA student and member of “Maine Youth for Climate Justice,” who thinks “we need to have a just transition to a livable future for everyone, including fishermen.” Elijah is a 19-year old fisherman from Eastport who is already diversifying his work to integrate kelp and mussel aquaculture with his lobster fishing and boat building. Rylee, who just graduated from Deer Isle Stonington High School as Salutatorian, and Sophie, from George Stevens Academy, have seen the stresses of the reaction to climate change on fishermen and their families. This one-hour discussion will be moderated by Parker Gassett, Marine Extension associate with Maine Sea Grant. Participants will be invited to join the discussion during.

To register, please visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MDwLe4L6Rse2p3CniY8Ntg.

Learn more about MCCF at http://www.coastalfisheries.org.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Regulators are using underwater drones to enforce lobster trap rules

June 14, 2021 — The enforcement of lobster trap rules far offshore is getting increased attention from state and federal regulators, who are turning to new technology to inspect gear for compliance with requirements that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from deadly entanglements.

Michael Henry, a top fisheries enforcement officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration here in the Northeast, said physically inspecting bulky gear out in federal waters dozens of miles off Maine can be a daunting and time-consuming task.

“It’s been a challenge for us for a long time to be able to effectively haul lobster gear offshore — just the environmental challenges, the safety challenges,” he said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: This father and son traveled through rough seas to keep a family fishing tradition alive

June 14, 2021 — Like a lot of things on the old boat, the starter was beat up and broken.

To get underway, Nick Nieuwkerk connected the electrical terminals with the metal end of a screwdriver. Then, with a zap and spark, the ancient Detroit Diesel engine roared to life.

But then the throttle wouldn’t stay put, so Nick’s father, Knoep Nieuwkerk, rigged it open with a spoon and piece of string. Eventually, the pair were steaming out of Woods Harbor, Nova Scotia, on their way to Portland on April 7, aboard a 44-foot fishing boat that had seen better days since it first hit the water, 42 years earlier.

There was no guarantee they’d make it, but they had to try.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Officials identify fisherman whose body was recovered off Waldoboro

June 10, 2021 — The state has identified the 34-year-old fisherman whose body was recovered Tuesday morning following an all-night search by federal, state and local crews in the waters off Waldoboro.

The Maine Marine Patrol reported Wednesday morning that James Guptill was the man whose body was recovered at about 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday. His body was found about a half mile from where other local fishermen found an empty skiff, aground and unoccupied, on Monday evening near Havener Point.

Guptill held a commercial shellfish harvester license as well as a non-commercial lobster license.

His body was taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta for an autopsy.

Maine Department of Marine Resources spokesman Jeff Nichols said the search was along the Medomak River where the boat was found.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Lobster lovers feeling the pinch of high prices

June 8, 2021 — Summer weather has arrived, and New England tourists are hungry for a lobster roll or a whole cooked lobster – but they’re going to have to pay up.

Lobster is more expensive than usual this season due to a limited supply, high demand and the reopening of the economy as the nation moves past the coronavirus pandemic. Consumers are headed back to seafood restaurants and markets for the first time in months, and the lobsters there to greet them are at a premium.

Some Maine stores charged $17 or $18 per pound for live lobster in May, and that was about twice the price a year ago. Prices are lingering in the $13 or $14 range this month. Lobster is usually expensive in late spring, but this season has seen prices that are higher than typical.

The wholesale price for live, 1.25-pound lobsters in the New England market was $9.01 per pound on May 1, business publisher Urner Barry reported. That was about $2.70 per pound more than the previous May 1, and the highest price for that date in at least five years, the company reported.

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