Saving Seafood

Northeast groundfish: Some popularity for pollock as market sorts out from covid

August 10, 2021 — In 2019, Maine’s total commercial groundfish landings were valued around $4 million. In 2020, fleets in Maine landed just 58,730 pounds of cod, averaging  $2.55 per pound at the dock valued at $149,844, whereas 15.2 million pounds had been landed a decade before.

A 2021 NOAA status update reported that in New England, 13 commercial species are currently considered “overfished” including: Atlantic cod (considered collapsed), yellowtail flounder, Atlantic halibut, winter flounder, and Atlantic herring. 

“One problem is that there are so many dogfish out there, and they’re having trouble getting groundfish, over the whole Eastern Seaboard,” says George Parr, a longtime fishmonger at Upstream Trucking in Portland, Maine. In recent years, dogfish have been showing up earlier and earlier in the Gulf of Maine. While dogfish rarely prey on Atlantic cod, studies have looked into whether dogfish populations may be limiting cod, by competition or predation.

“For every hundred pounds of [other] fish they bring in, they bring in 500 pounds of dogfish,” says Parr. “They get 10 cents a pound for it.” 

At the Portland Fish Exchange in Portland, Maine, large haddock was $2.26 per pound, while pollock was averaging $1.69 for small, $2.54 for medium and $2.66 for large in early July.

“But right now, large pollock is getting around $3 for whole fish,” adds Parr. “Twenty years ago, you’d be lucky to get 40 cents per pound.” Early July average auction prices for cod were $3.01 for market size and $5.10 for large.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Electronic tracking considered for offshore lobster fishery 

August 10, 2021 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering requiring electronic tracking for the lobstermen who fish in federal waters.

The commission’s American Lobster Management Board initiated a draft addendum last week with the goal of collecting spatial and effort data from lobster and Jonah crab fishermen.

“In my opinion, this is the single most important thing the American Lobster Board can do to ensure the viability of the American lobster fishery,” said Dan McKiernan, the board’s chairman. “Through the proposed action, the Board seeks to significantly improve our understanding of stock status, identify areas where lobster fishing effort might present a risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales, and provide important information to help reduce spatial conflicts with other ocean uses, such as wind energy development and aquaculture.”

The management board has expressed interest in implementing these types of requirements over the last few years and has supported efforts to look into the systems and technology that would be needed to collect the data.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Right whale advocates’ billboard asks if lobster is “whale-safe” 

August 10, 2021 — As drivers head through Massachusetts to Vacationland on their way to scenic Mount Desert Island and the wonders of Acadia National Park, they may see a sight that would get a lobsterman’s blood boiling.   

Mainers Guarding Right Whales, a nonprofit organization that says its mission is to help save the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from extinction, has launched a new campaign with a billboard that asks, “Is your lobster whale-safe?”   

Readers are prompted to text a number that tells them that there is no certification program that ensures Maine lobster is “whale-safe” and that the organization calls for the implementation of “ropeless” fishing, a technology that takes vertical ropes out of the water column. The technology has not made its way to wide commercial use.    

“We believe if we can educate and inform travelers about the near extinction of right whales and the cause, they will take action and help protect the whales,” said Barbara Skapa, the founder and executive director of Mainers Guarding Right Whales. “The fishing industry in Maine has a long history of adapting to change in the face of new challenges, and we believe with the right support it will do just that. The biggest challenge is that ropeless technology is costly and requires sustained governmental subsidization to equip Maine’s lobster fisheries.”  

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Warm waters further threaten depleted Maine shrimp fishery

August 9, 2021 — Maine’s long-shuttered shrimp fishing business has a chance to reopen in the coming winter, but the warming of the ocean threatens to keep the industry shut down.

Maine shrimp were once a winter delicacy, but the fishery has been shut down since 2013. Scientists have said environmental conditions in the warming Gulf of Maine are inhospitable for the cold water-loving shrimp.

An interstate regulatory board is scheduled to make a decision this fall about whether to extend a moratorium on the shrimp fishery that is slated to end this year. Scientists have not seen a lot of good signs that suggest reopening the fishery is a good idea, said Dustin Colson Leaning, a fishery management plan coordinator for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates the business.

“Looking at recent data hasn’t been very encouraging, and as you know, the ocean temperature isn’t cooling,” Leaning said. “On the environmental side, it doesn’t seem to be encouraging.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Herring fishing in Gulf of Maine to shut down for about 2 months

August 9, 2021 — Commercial fishing for herring will all but shut down in the inshore Gulf of Maine for about two months to help conserve the species.

Atlantic herring are an important bait fish that are harvested extensively off New England. The fishery has been limited by new restrictions in recent years because of concerns about the health of the fish’s population.

Interstate regulators said herring fishing will essentially be shut down in inshore areas off Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire until Sept. 30. They said that’s because fishermen are approaching their limits for the quota of the fish.

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

Belfast, Maine plans to use eminent domain to end Nordic Aquafarms land dispute

August 6, 2021 — City councilors in Belfast, Maine, U.S.A. are considering the use of eminent domain to seize a piece of disputed property and end a protracted land dispute that has held up progress on a project planned by Nordic Aquafarms.

On 3 August, the council voted unanimously to pursue the takeover of an intertidal area that has been the subject of a court battle over ownership, Maine Public reported. The lawsuit over the intertidal area was first filed in 2019 by Jeffrey R. Mabee and Judith B. Grace, who allege that they are the true owners of intertidal land that Nordic plans to run inflow and outflow pipes through.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

JESSICA HATHAWAY: Bad bait: Right whale group gets it wrong

August 6, 2021 — Can a marine animal rights group do its best work from the side of the highway? One thing that’s sure is Mainers Guarding Right Whales’ new billboard campaign is garnering some attention this week. The downside is that the spotlight is coming with a big helping of side eye.

The campaign is aimed at tourists heading to Maine, ostensibly to inform them that “lobster dinners at seaside harbors come at a steep price to North Atlantic right whales,” according to the organization. The Maine-based group posted roadside signs in Massachusetts to launch the campaign, because billboards are not legal in Maine. It also recommends buying lobster from divers, which also is not legal in the state.

Once again, the target of a group proclaiming a goal of “guarding” the dwindling North Atlantic Right Whale population zeroes in on Maine lobstermen for no apparent reason.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman

An uptick in industrial aquaculture in Maine has some lobster – and fishermen hot under the collar

August 6, 2021 — With international and domestic corporations aiming to set up in its waters, the state of Maine is bullish on aquaculture’s potential.

And no wonder, considering that it’s managed to triple its annual aquaculture sales revenue between 2007 and 2017, to almost $138 million.

High-profile privately funded ventures have lately been converging on this corner of the North Atlantic. Millions in Shopify dollars and venture capital are backing Running Tide, a Portland, Maine-based oyster operation, in its bid to figure out how to use kelp as a carbon offset. Norwegian-owned American Aquafarms wants to raise 120 acres of salmon in Frenchman Bay, and other large Canadian and Dutch finfish aquaculture companies are moving into the region. Maine is collaborating with several states to build a national seaweed hub and, with $1.2 million from a 2019 NOAA Sea Grant, is opening its own aquaculture hub to support various sea-based farming industries.

This bustle, though, has raised the hackles of lobstermen and -women represented by grassroots Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation (PMFHF) organization. They say large-scale aquaculture corporations are intent on “privatizing” the public ocean, in the process displacing locals who’ve fished these waters for years and endangering their livelihoods. They feel considerably less optimistic about the burst of interest in aquafarming in their local waters—and in particular, about the expanded terms of the leases that accommodate these operations; a single entity can now hold 1,000 acres, up from a limit of 300 in 2006, and the duration of those leases doubled, from a decade to 20 years, in 2017.

Read the full story at The Counter

MAINE: Waldoboro eel farm wants to raise at least 2 million eels a year for American tables

August 5, 2021 — Ground has been broken on Maine’s first land-based eel aquaculture operation in Waldoboro.

Sara Rademaker, founder and president of American Unagi, said when it’s complete, the 27,000-square-foot facility will be able to grow and process at least 2 million eels and perhaps take back a tiny portion of an industry that’s been dominated by Asian markets.

“Right now, we have this really valuable glass eel fishery. The entirety of that fishery is being exported mostly to China, they’re grown on farms there, and then we’re importing them back into the US,” Rademaker said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

A Ropeless Future for Lobster Fishing

August 4, 2021 — Motoring out of Bar Harbor recently, a small boat slowly navigated a field of colorful buoys before hitting the open water. It hooked around Bar Island, passed the Porcupines and slowed up on the leeward side of Ironbound, a mostly undeveloped private island. Had a person been standing on the rocky cliffs then, they would have seen the crew on the boat dump a lobster trap into the water and watch it sink, then motor off to a short distance away, from which the dozen people aboard watched the spot where the trap went down. Some time later, a bundle of floats would appear at the surface and the boat would circle back and snag it with a boat hook. By now the observer would have pulled out some binoculars to get a better view, and would see that the float was attached to the lid of the lobster trap, and that from the lid, a rope disappeared into the water, by which the rest of the trap was soon retrieved.

The object thrown overboard was not in fact a trap but a ropeless fishing system deployed in a demonstration for passengers on the boat, including a film crew, a reporter and three people who study or advocate for right whales.

Zack Klyver chartered the boat and arranged the demonstration. Through his consultancy, Blue Planet Strategy, he has been working as an intermediary between manufacturers, whale advocates and lobstermen, who find themselves on various sides of a regulatory survival equation as the federal government moves to protect endangered right whales.

In ropeless fishing, Klyver sees a potential win for everyone involved, but getting there may take time and a fair amount of persuasion.

Ropeless fishing is still in its infancy. Only a handful of companies make the gear, and as Maine law requires lobster traps to be marked with a buoy, it’s not even legal to use here yet.

Read the full story at The Free Press