Saving Seafood

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

What Happens After Dam Removals

June 8, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Maine’s Penobscot River has more than 100 dams, many of which are aging and no longer serve their original purpose. Removing dams is becoming more common, with the purposes of addressing hazards posed by these aging dams, returning natural river flow and function, or both.

For Atlantic salmon and other species of sea-run fish, the last 200 years of dammed rivers and disconnected streams have, combined with historic fisheries and lower marine survival, spelled decline, and for Atlantic salmon, disaster. The storied Atlantic salmon runs had fish returning by the thousands to Northeast rivers. They are now limited to just a few rivers in Maine, with fewer than 2,000 fish returning each year. These runs are heavily reliant on hatchery-raised fish. The Penobscot River is home to the largest remaining population of endangered Atlantic salmon in the United States. Dams have been identified as one of the primary factors in the decline of Atlantic salmon.

Over the last decade, researchers have been studying whether removing two Penobscot River dams in 2012 and 2013 improved ecosystem conditions for salmon and other aquatic species. So far, results are promising.

Read the whole story on our website.

Read the full release here

Federal plan to save whales could mean big changes for lobster industry

June 7, 2021 — Federal officials recently released plans to all but eliminate risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, but Maine lobster industry leaders fear the plan will only shift the risk of the extinction from the whales to the lobstermen.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its final biological opinion May 27 – a requirement under the federal Endangered Species Act. This document becomes the basis of rule-making surrounding the specific species, in this case, the North Atlantic right whale.

Officials found that, provided they meet the reduction targets in the implementation framework, none of the 10 fisheries included in the document, among them the lobster fishery, were “likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the North Atlantic right whales.”

Patrice McCarron, director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, fears the industry can’t sustain that level of change.

“If you look at the changes we’ve made over the last 25 years, there’s not a lot left to give,” she said.

By the final phase, “I don’t see how we would even have a fishery. There’s not a lot of obvious ways we could do this and still have our fleet intact,” she said. “It’s really hugely concerning.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: ‘Next-gen’ tech or industrial destruction? Salmon farm proposal advances, but groups protest

June 2, 2021 — The Department of Marine Resources has accepted applications for consideration of two lease sites in Frenchman Bay where a Norwegian company wants to grow Atlantic salmon.

But the applications from American Aquafarms were immediately met with opposition from several groups of local residents.

“We are opposed to growing 30,000 metric tons of salmon annually, covering over 100 acres of Frenchman Bay,” Kathleen Rybarz, president of Friends of Frenchman Bay, said in a news release.

“One cannot overstate the destructive impact of this large-scale proposal on a bay that already strives to balance multiple fisheries, heavy recreational use, cruise ship visitors and increasing ocean warming.”

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Attention Federal Lobster Permit Holders: ROV Inspections

June 2, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Throughout the year, the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement will be inspecting lobster gear in federal waters off New England and the mid-Atlantic using remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs). The purpose of these inspections is to check lobster gear for compliance with federal requirements related to trap tags, gear markings, weak links, sinking ground lines, escape vents, ghost panels, and other conservation measures.

Please ensure you are familiar with the regulations governing lobster gear: Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan regulations and American Lobster Fishery Management Plan regulations. For a summary of lobster gear requirements, go to our American lobster webpage, and refer to the management and commercial fishing tabs. You should also explore the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan compliance guides and Maine Department of Marine Resources’ recent updates to gear marking requirements for Maine fishermen. These guides may assist you in understanding the current requirements, but are not a substitute for the regulations.

Federal lobster gear requirements ensure a sustainable lobster fishery and protect endangered whales from entanglements. When these requirements are ignored or willfully violated, it threatens important marine resources and puts law-abiding fishing businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is committed to protecting our shared marine resources and ensuring a level playing field. If you fail to comply with federal gear requirements, your gear may be seized and forfeited, your Federal fishing permits may be suspended or revoked, and monetary penalties may be imposed upon you. Please take this opportunity to ensure that your gear is in compliance.

For more information about our ROV operations read our web story.

Read the full release here

River herring, once eyed for endangered list, grow in counts

June 1, 2021 — A small fish that has been the subject of conservation efforts for years appears to be growing in number in the rivers of the East Coast.

River herring are critically important to coastal ecosystems because they serve as food for birds and larger fish. Regulators have described the fishes’ population as nearing historic lows because of dams, pollution, warming waters and other factors.

But years of effort to save them appear to be paying off. Preliminary counts of the fish from Maine to South Carolina in 2019 showed 2.7 million more fish than in 2015, according to documents provided by the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The 2019 counts found more than 6.5 million fish.

The river herrings include two species of schooling fish, alewives and blueback herring, that have been fished in East Coast rivers for millennia. Harvesters of the fish said conservative management of the fishery in recent years, coupled with conservation efforts such as dam removal, have helped the fish spawn and grow in number.

“You’ve got to get the parents in the bedroom so the kids can go to school,” said Jeff Pierce, a longtime alewife fisherman and the president of Alewife Harvesters of Maine.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

‘Troubling’ impact on lobster fishery seen in federal study of right whale population

June 1, 2021 — The federal government on Thursday released a new report saying the lobster fishery poses a risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale population.

The assessment, conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, is expected to have a severe impact on the fishery. The long-term ramifications “remain troubling,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement.

The assessment calls for the fishery to reduce the potential for serious injury and death to right whales by 60% over the coming decade. Based on periodic evaluations during that time, the risk reduction target could be increased to 87% in 2030.

“The lobster fishery as we know it will not exist if this is fully implemented,” the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said in a statement. Maine is home to the nation’s largest lobster fishery, and brought in a catch of over $400 million last year despite the pandemic.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

REP. BILLY BOB FAULKINGHAM: Time to hit the brakes on offshore wind

June 1, 2021 — In 2017, offshore wind generation appeared to be a dead issue in Maine. The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) had just completed an extensive study that deemed it too expensive for ratepayers. Now it is moving again at the speed of light.

In 2019, eighty percent of Maine’s electricity generation came from renewable energy sources. Maine leads New England in wind power generation. We rank sixth in the nation and wind provides 24 percent of our net generation. I point this out to say that Maine is a leader. I see many people advocating offshore wind development portraying Maine as being in the back of the pack on renewables, which is far from the truth.

What I would like to know is, why haven’t we started an independent study on the environmental impacts of offshore wind development? We have been told that we need to move quickly given the Governor’s ambitious goals. I have heard this repeatedly and from many people in the Legislature, the bureaucracy, special interest groups and from high-paid lobbyists working for foreign corporations. Where did these goals come from, and why are we using these goals as a target?

Read the full opinion piece at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Mussel farm sees potential in scallops

June 1, 2021 — In mid-May, Alex de Koning climbed down into the hold of the Stewardship, the former military landing craft that he and his family have used for years to help grow mussels in Frenchman Bay, and sat at what looked like a giant sewing machine.   

He grabbed a pair of scallops that had just been pulled out of the farm’s nets, lined up the small notches near the bivalves’ hinge and stepped on a foot pedal.  

A drill bit dropped down and pierced through both shells. When the bit pulled up, a black pin followed back up through the holes and attached the scallops to a rope. Then a claw pulled the rope a few inches, setting up a spot for another pair of scallops to be attached.   

This small three-act play took only a couple of seconds but could revolutionize the industry in Maine and cement scallops alongside its more famous farmed counterparts in the state.   

What the machine does is quite simple, but it mechanizes what would otherwise be an incredibly labor-intensive process. It also speeds up the farming to a point where it could become more economically viable for sea farmers as well as other members of the working waterfront who might be looking to diversify their work during turbulent times.  

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander