Saving Seafood

Fishing Restricted Off Mass. to Protect Right Whales

February 1, 2023 — Citing threats to the endangered North Atlantic right whale, federal officials are invoking an emergency rule to ban lobster and crab trap and pot fishermen from working in a vast area of Massachusetts Bay over the next three months.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Tuesday said the emergency rule, which was also deployed in 2022, means that trap and pot fishermen fishing federal waters in an area known as the Massachusetts Restricted Area Wedge “must remove all trap/pot gear from this area, and may not reset trawls being actively fished, or set new trawls in this area for the period from February 1 – April 30, 2023.”

Read the full article at NECN

MAINE: Researchers seek statewide changes to save clam fishery from climate-driven collapse

January 30, 2023 — The Harraseeket River recedes slowly but steadily around Chad Coffin’s metal skiff, until the boat is beached on a partly exposed mudflat. Coffin and his daughter, Bailey Pennell, are already out of the skiff, rakes in hand and rubber boots sinking deep into the gray-brown muck.

They begin to dig — but not for soft-shell clams, also known as steamers, belly clams or Ipswich clams, a prized Maine commodity that Coffin has harvested here in Freeport for decades. Instead, he and Pennell are scrounging for quahogs, or hard clams. They fetch a lower price, but the part of these flats where any soft-shells might be found is closed to harvest after a recent rain.

“This used to be all clams when I started clamming,” Coffin said. “I would have been able to dig right there, where the mud’s showing already. And now we can’t. There’s nothing there.”

This is becoming a typical struggle for some Maine clammers. Though the soft-shell fishery is typically Maine’s second-most valuable after lobster, statewide landings for the clams are near all-time lows — down from close to 40 million pounds a year in the 1970s to fewer than 10 million pounds a year for most of the past decade.

Coffin and some researchers are confident they know the main reason: green crabs. This invasive species eats clams voraciously, and warming waters are causing the crabs’ population to explode.

“Climate change is just that piece of dynamite that’s been thrown into that room,” said Brian Beal, a professor of ecology and longtime clam researcher with the University of Maine at Machias. “That has just changed everything.”

Beal and Coffin are among the clammers, scientists and other observers who believe the problems facing the fishery are clear. But the solutions they’re calling for have been slow to gain traction at the state level.

Read the full article at The Maine Monitor

Third entangled right whale of 2023 found; Biden declines petition calling for measures to reduce ship strikes

January 30, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries announced a North Atlantic right whale was spotted entangled by ropes off the coast of Georgia, marking the third right whale entanglement discovered in 2023.

The whale, nicknamed “Nimbus,” was spotted entangled 13 miles off the coast of Jekyll Island, Georgia, U.S.A. According to NOAA, a team of authorized responders and experts managed to remove 375 feet of rope from the whale, leaving a “short segment” in its mouth that the responders are “optimistic” will dislodge over time.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Maine lawmakers reveal plan to bring floating wind turbines to Gulf of Maine

January 25, 2023 — A big plan was revealed in Augusta Tuesday to bring floating wind turbines to the Gulf of Maine.

The bill to jumpstart offshore wind development was unveiled at the State House.

Supporters claim the bill is about boosting responsible offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine, saying it will help drive down energy costs across the board.

They believe Maine could become an industry leader in offshore wind as a potential major source of clean energy.

Read the full article at WGME

 

Scallops dying off in Long Island are ‘a cautionary tale’ for New England

January 24, 2023 — Once one of the largest fisheries on the East Coast, Peconic Bay scallops have faced near complete die-offs on Long Island since 2019.

A study by Stony Brook University shows this could be a cautionary tale for New England.

Christopher Gobler, a co-author and endowed chair of coastal ecology and conservation in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, used satellite thermal imaging and recorded scallop heartbeats to measure how less oxygen and warming waters put stress on shellfish populations.

Data shows over the past two decades, the Peconic Bay estuary — and the entire Northeast — are warming at rates during summer that far exceed global average; Gobler said, “about threefold higher.”

Read the full article at wbur

MAINE: Scallopers meet with DMR on tweaks to the commercial fishery

January 24, 2023 — Fishermen have seen sea scallops stacked on top of one another in flush beds on the ocean floor and then vanish time and again throughout the decades of commercial fishing. In 2009, when stocks and landings fell concerningly low in what had been hot spots, fishermen agreed to a Department of Marine Resources (DMR) request to close some areas for three years. Then, after more than 60 meetings with fishermen, led by the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, in Stonington, a 10-year state management plan was adopted in 2012.

State waters were divided into three scallop fishing zones, with Zones 1 and 3 operated under limited access areas and designated open fishing days for divers and draggers, while a three-year rotation of fishing sites was used in Zone 2. As a whole, scallopers were on board, even though it meant operating under rules that limited when and where draggers and divers could fish.

With that plan at an end, Melissa Smith, the DMR’s resource coordinator for scallops, met with scallopers in January in all three zones to get input to tweak the plan. However, changes to the Zone 2 rotational plan were the main discussion.

“I think we’ve got a hard-fought battle ahead of us,” said Machiasport fisherman Mike Murphy, who has fished under the Zone 2 rotation for a decade. He said he had been willing to try the rotational management plan when it was floated over 10 years ago. But scallop areas change with time all along the Maine coast and so does the fishermen’s catch. Now Murphy is not so sure, after experiencing crowded fishing spots in the open areas, something that also depletes the stock.

“You put 70 boats [in one spot] and we’re going to clear it,” he said. “A lot of us want to see the whole rotational management thing go away. That’s going to be our battle.”

Read the full article at Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: The waters of Boothbay Harbor have gotten warmer over the past century, data show

January 24, 2023 — Maine’s Department of Marine Resources has maintained a hidden treasure in Boothbay Harbor for nearly 120 years — a daily measurement of sea surface temperatures, which provides an uncommonly long record of a warming ocean.

In the latest Data Monitor, The Maine Monitor broke those daily records (more than 42,000 of them!) into annual averages to show the estimated increase in water temperatures at Boothbay Harbor between 1905 and 2021. It shows a rough increase of 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit on average, from an annual average of 45.3 degrees F (or 7.4 Celsius) at the turn of the 20th century to just over 50 degrees F in recent years.

One important caveat on this data: DMR’s method for collecting the water temperatures in the harbor changed around 1950. Before, measurements were taken three times a day, during the day, using a thermometer in a bucket lowered into the water. In the 1950s, this was replaced with instruments installed just below the surface to take continuous measurements.

Read the full article at the Boothbay Register

Portland Press Herald: Gulf of Maine swath mulled as potential site for commercial wind turbines

January 20, 2023 — The potential use of wind turbines off the coast of Maine to generate electricity has drawn scientific and commercial interest for at least a decade – and now the federal government is taking a next step to determine where those turbines might go.

The U.S. Department of the Interior last August issued a formal request-of-interest to gauge the potential market for wind-energy leases within about 13.7 million acres of the Gulf of Maine. The department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has scaled this site down to a “draft call area” of 9.9 million acres, and now is looking to obtain public feedback on leasing the waters for commercial wind-power production.

The bureau will hold a meeting in Portland on Thursday to receive input from marine businesses, fishermen and other ocean users about the location and size of the area. The meeting is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn By the Bay, 88 Spring St., and the agenda and more information can be found here.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

MAINE: Maine Fishermen’s Forum is back and bigger than ever

January 18, 2023 — For the first time in three years, the Maine Fishermen’s Forum is holding a live event at the Samoset Resort March 2-4. This event is a one-of-a-kind event created for Maine’s fishermen and provides educational seminars covering topics from Management Actions Affecting Gillnet Fisheries, Plastic Aquaculture Gear, Economics of the Lobster Fleet, Eastern Maine Skippers Program, DMR Lobster Science Update, Gulf of Maine Scallop Fishery, and a Seafood Cooking Demonstration, to name a few. A tentative seminar schedule will be available on the website. Attendance is free, and families are encouraged to attend with children’s activities available.

This year’s event also features the largest trade show in the history of the Forum – exhibitors showing lobster traps, marine gear, new fishing gear, boatbuilders and dozens of others as well. They will be displaying their wares for fishermen, scientists and the managers who attend the show annually.

Read the full article at Boothbay Register

MAINE: New rule for Maine lobstermen to report catch

January 17, 2023 — Lobstermen in Maine have a new rule to abide by this new year that’s separate from the battle over right whale regulations that recently caused a lot of controversy for the industry.

The new regulation requires all commercial lobstermen to make monthly, electronic reports to the state including details on where, when, and how many lobsters are caught, and how many traps are in the water.

Read the full article at News Center Maine