August 24, 2020 — On August 21, President Trump addressed a crowd in Maine regarding recent shark conservation efforts.
Atlantic Herring Days Out Call on August 21 – Canceled; Area 1A Fishery Moves to Zero Landing Days for Season 1 on August 23; and Eastern Maine Spawning Closure in Effect Starting August 28
August 20, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Season 1 Landing Day Adjustment/Canceled Call
The Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) Atlantic herring fishery is projected to have harvested 92% of the Season 1 allocation by August 20, 2020. Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, August 23, 2020, the Area 1A fishery will move to zero landing days through September 30, 2020, as specified in Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring. Therefore, the previously scheduled Days Out call on August 21, 2020, at 8:30 AM has been canceled.
Vessels participating in other fisheries may not possess more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip per day harvested from Area 1A. In addition, all vessels traveling through Area 1A must have all seine and mid-water trawl gear stowed.
The Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are expected to reconvene in September via conference call to set effort controls for the 2020 Area 1A fishery for Season 2 (October 1 – December 31). An announcement will be issued once the meeting is scheduled.
Eastern Maine Spawning Closure
Additionally, the Area 1A fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. The Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management approved a forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal states III-V, to trigger a spawning closure. However, if sufficient samples are not available then closures will begin on predetermined dates.
There are currently no samples from the Eastern Maine spawning area to determine spawning condition. Therefore, per the Addendum II default closure dates, the Eastern Maine spawning area will be closed starting at 12:01 a.m. on August 28, 2020 extending through 11:59 p.m. on October 9, 2020. Eastern Maine spawning area includes all waters bounded by the following coordinates:
Maine coast 68° 20’ W
43° 48’ N 68° 20’ W
44° 25’ N 67° 03’ W
North along the US/Canada border
The same 2,000 pounds incidental bycatch allowance applies for non-directed fisheries that are fishing within the Eastern Maine spawning area during a spawning closure.
For more information, please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or mappelman@asmfc.org.
Judge: Lobstering can proceed until new right whale protections are finalized in May
August 20, 2020 — A federal judge refused to ban lobster fishing in a large right whale feeding ground south of Nantucket on Thursday, but warned federal regulators they would meet with considerable disfavor if they fail to meet a new May 2021 deadline to publish a final rule to protect this endangered species from deadly entanglement in lobster fishing gear.
The environmental groups suing the National Marine Fisheries Service said U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg’s Thursday night ruling is important because it will force the federal government to move quickly to establish more right whale protections in the U.S. lobster industry. The groups claim federal regulators and lobstering states have been stalling.
“This order puts an end to that inaction, demanding that the government implement new protections that will help the right whale come back from the brink of extinction,” said attorney Jane Davenport of Defenders of Wildlife, one of the groups suing on behalf of the whale.
Maine delegation steps up pressure on Trump administration to release lobster industry aid
August 20, 2020 — Maine’s congressional delegation wrote a letter to a federal agency on Wednesday asking it to act immediately on aid recommended by President Donald Trump for the lobster industry, which has been struggling under the effects of tariffs and the coronavirus pandemic.
The group asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to act before Monday’s deadline. In his June 24 memo, which came three weeks after he visited fisheries experts in Maine, the president urged Perdue to consider taking appropriate action “to provide assistance to fisherman and producers in the U.S. lobster industry that continue to be harmed by China’s retaliatory tariffs.”
Since then, the administration has been largely silent about any firm actions it might take. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, in early July inserted language into a 2021 spending bill that would require the USDA to act swiftly on the aid.
Lobstermen catch break on diesel engine standards
August 20, 2020 — Lobster fishermen are getting a temporary reprieve from federal diesel engine emissions standards because the cleaner running engines needed to power today’s bigger, faster fishing vessels farther and farther offshore have yet to hit the commercial market.
During a visit to Maine on Thursday, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is expected to announce that lobster and pilot boat builders will have another two to four years to meet low particulate, low nitrogen oxide emissions standards written into the national marine diesel program in 2008. The cleanest engines were to be used in all new large lobster boats by 2017.
“This relief gives boat builders and operators flexibility to meet EPA standards during the next several years,” Wheeler said in a prepared statement. “The larger market for diesel engines can’t build new models quickly enough for marine users – putting these operators in potential violation of pollution rules through no fault of their own.”
MAINE: Growing aquaculture industry looks to workforce training
August 19, 2020 — Maine’s aquaculture industry is small, compared with seafood farming elsewhere in the nation and the world.
But it’s becoming increasingly diversified and industry experts see opportunity for expansion in various sectors.
That means more jobs are on the horizon, according to a new economic report produced by Portland’s Gulf of Maine Research Institute in partnership with the Maine Aquaculture Association and Educate Maine, with support from FocusMaine.
Currently, Maine’s aquaculture workforce exceeds 600 direct employees, plus auxiliary services and supported trades, according to the report.
Lobster Industry: Challenges Facing Maine’s Iconic Fishery & How They Might be Overcome
August 19, 2020 — Last year, Maine’s lobster fishery brought in almost $500 million to the state, and even more when you count the economic benefits to dealers, processors and restaurants. Now, with the pandemic hindering the market for lobsters locally and around the world, this signature industry has been impacted severely. We will talk about how the industry is facing challenges, and what efforts are underway to find new ways to market lobsters and connect with consumers.
The Last Lobster Supper?
August 17, 2020 — Mark Ring has been fishing the Stanley Thomas for nearly 30 years. With its red hull, the sturdy boat is the watercraft incarnation of Ring himself—a burly guy with permanently ruddy cheeks just above the hairline of his Vandyke beard. It is his second boat. It is also his last. Ring started lobstering when he was a teenager. Back then, he recalls, he didn’t have to go far from shore to set his traps. He’d head out and, barring thick morning fog, he could see the coastline and hundreds of lobster buoys bobbing in the waters before him. “You could drop your cages and hear them hit the bottom,” Ring says in a steep North Shore accent, leaning against the Stanley Thomas’s worn center console while remembering the old days. He’d haul his yellow traps up from the sea floor, the ropes slimy with algae, the cages bursting with lobsters aggressively clawing to get out. After a typical nine-hour day, Ring would return to the marina, hoist his traps onto the wet deck, and offload 2,000 lobsters.
That’s all changed now. The days are longer and the haul is harder won. When Ring motors out predawn from the backshore Gloucester marina where he’s docked the Stanley Thomas for years, he must power out farther to deeper, colder water. “The lobsters are just not settling in 6 feet of water like they did 15 years ago,” he says. “They want to find the optimum temperature. And that temperature is at 20 feet.” When Ring heads back in at the end of a long day, the lobsters in his traps have far too much legroom. He is netting less than half of what he used to.
In the face of climate change, throughout New England, the American lobster is vanishing, and the lobsters that remain are quickly heading farther out to sea in search of colder waters. Rising pH levels in the waters closer to shore have also contributed to weaker shells, which reduce the chances the lobsters will make it to market alive. More often than not, lobstermen are tossing this weak-shelled catch back into the ocean. Such factors help explain why lobstermen across New England are seeing the weight of their landings continue to dip; last year, Maine’s landings dropped by 21 million pounds, to about 100 million, the lowest in more than a decade.
That’s a steep decline, but it’s nothing compared to what will become of the industry if the self-coronated “Prince of Whales,” New Hampshire’s Richard “Max” Strahan, has his way. He has all but made it his mission to end lobster fishing in order to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale—and, as a result, the future of the beloved lobster roll as we know it is looking pretty bleak. His adversaries have a different nickname for him: Mad Max.
A career endangered-species activist, Strahan sports an overgrown mustache, a floppy fisherman’s hat, and a smug grin. He’s filed more lawsuits than he can practically count on behalf of the right whale, and never eats seafood. “I’ve ruined more than a few clambakes,” he says. “Just try to put a lobster in a pot in front of me!” He has been arrested multiple times, and his frequent outbursts have earned him a police escort at most meetings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, where he shows up to advocate for whales and also trade insults with lobstermen. For very good reasons, his only listed contact is a post office box.
Dam Impact Analysis Model Helps Researchers Assess Atlantic Salmon Survival
August 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries Atlantic salmon researchers have found that Atlantic salmon abundance can increase as more young fish and returning adults survive their encounters with dams. Also, progress in rebuilding the population will depend heavily on continuing stocking of hatchery fish raised especially for this purpose. This information is based on a life history model and new information on changes in the Penobscot River watershed.
The remaining remnant Atlantic salmon populations in the United States are located in Maine, with the largest population in the Penobscot River. Numerous factors play a role in salmon recovery — from predation and habitat degradation to pollution and climate change. The two most influential factors are survival of fish as they navigate dams in the river, and survival during the marine phase of their life. Atlantic salmon are born and remain in fresh water for 1-3 years and migrate downriver through estuaries into the sea. Then they spend 1 to 2 years at sea before returning to the river where they were born to spawn.
“Our findings indicate that Atlantic salmon abundance can increase as survival at dams from the lower to the upper watershed increases. Hatchery supplementation will be necessary to sustain the population when survival is low in egg-to-smolt and marine life stages,” said Julie Nieland, a salmon researcher at the science center’s Woods Hole Laboratory in Massachusetts and lead author of the study. “Increases in survival during both of these life stages will likely be necessary to attain a self-sustaining population, especially if hatchery supplementation is reduced or discontinued.”
For New England lobstermen, resilience in ‘a season of uncertainty’
August 13, 2020 — “Gimmie a Hulla” motors across the glassy harbor, backed by the silhouettes of trees and the rocky shoreline. Yvonne “Beba” Rosen is heading out to haul her lobster traps at 5:30 a.m., as she does five days a week, April through November.
This is a tough season so far for Ms. Rosen, but over her 15 years of lobstering off Vinalhaven, Maine, she’s always been a better fall fisherman, she says. This season is like no other – the lobsters are slow to appear, but more than that, the coronavirus has caused trade to plummet and tourists to stay home.
Ms. Rosen squints into the sun, now sitting just above the horizon, and half shouts over the guttural diesel engine. “Tourists come to Maine to eat lobster. That’s what they do,” she says grimly, hands on the wheel.
Without the regular influx of tourists, and with restaurants across the country closed entirely or open with limitations, lobstermen in Maine and Cape Cod have gotten creative to keep operating their boats, exercising the resilience for which the industry is known.
A slow spring is not unusual, although this one was difficult because “markets were really feeling the brunt of the supply chain,” says Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
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