Saving Seafood

Maine extends deadline for scallop license lottery

November 4, 2020 — Fisheries regulators in Maine are extending the period to apply for a scallop fishing license until the end of the week.

The state holds lotteries for licenses to harvest scallops by diving or by drag boats. The deadline to apply for a place in the lottery is Friday at 4:30 p.m.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources said it extended the deadline by a week because of concern that the lotteries might not have been as widely publicized as intended.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

On Election Day in the US, much hangs in the balance for the seafood industry

November 3, 2020 — Tuesday, 3 November is Election Day in the United States, and the results of the national election could have a significant impact on the nation’s seafood industry and the global economy.

Thus far, the tenure of U.S. President Donald Trump – who is up for reelection to a second and final four-year term – has been marked by both positives and negatives for the seafood industry. The Trump administration instigated an ongoing trade war with China by placing tariffs on Chinese goods in July 2018, a move that China reciprocated by placing its own tariffs on U.S. goods – including seafood. Those tariffs had drastic impacts on certain parts of the seafood industry, such as Maine’s lobster industry, which saw an 84 percent drop in exports to China. Total estimates of the impact in 2018 found the trade war cost U.S. seafood exporters USD 350 million (EUR 299 million) that year alone.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine extends deadline for scallop license lottery

November 3, 2020 — Fisheries regulators in Maine are extending the period to apply for a scallop fishing license until the end of the week.

The state holds lotteries for licenses to harvest scallops by diving or by drag boats. The deadline to apply for a place in the lottery is Friday at 4:30 p.m.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources said it extended the deadline by a week because of concern that the lotteries might not have been as widely publicized as intended.

Read the full story from the Associated Press from the Caledonian Record

Gulf of Maine Research Institute launches new aquaculture knowledge portal

October 29, 2020 — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) has announced the launch of a new online portal, “The Maine Aquaculturist,” designed to help aquaculture operations in the U.S. state of Maine access resources in the state.

The new portal was created in response to the growing number of aquaculture operations that are either already in business or are planning to establish locations in the state, according to GMRI. In the past few years, companies including Whole Oceans, Nordic Aquafarms, The Kingfish Company, Aquabanq, and American Aquafarms have all announced proposals for either land-based or net-pen aquaculture operations in various locations throughout the state. Those primarily finfish operations are additions onto the existing – and growing – shellfish aquaculture operations in the state, farming oysters in locations up and down the coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Right whale estimate plummets while Maine lobstermen await restrictions

October 29, 2020 — A new scientific estimate has found the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population is declining.

The estimate, from the National Marine Fisheries Service, comes as the lobster fishery awaits a draft of new federal restrictions that aim to reduce the potential for fishing gear to entangle the whales.

The number of right whales worldwide has declined from just over 400 to about 360, new data is showing.

Oceana, an ocean conservation nonprofit in Washington, D.C., is calling on the service to take immediate action to save the species from extinction.

“The new estimates that only about 360 North Atlantic right whales remain underscores the need for immediate action to protect this critically endangered species,” Oceana campaign director Whitney Webber said in the release.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

How aquaculture’s pivot to direct distribution could go beyond pandemic

October 28, 2020 — Like wild fisheries, Maine’s aquaculture industry felt an enormous impact early in the pandemic with the shutdown of restaurants, the industry’s largest market and the setting where most seafood, wild and farmed, is consumed.

Mainebiz asked Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association in Hallowell, how the industry is faring now and what the outlook is going forward.

Here’s an edited transcript.

Mainebiz: How has the pandemic impacted the aquaculture industry?

Sebastian Belle: The impact was enormous, particularly when the restaurant sector shut down. It was a big shock to everybody, how quickly that impacted sales.

MB: What have seafood farmers done since then?

SB: You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand we have to figure out a way to get seafood to consumers. The pandemic has forced an evolution of some of the industry’s distribution channels at an accelerated rate. Those changes were happening anyway, but the pandemic sped it up. Historically, the farmer sells to a local wholesaler, which then ships to a regional wholesaler, then to wholesaler in another region, then to a retail outlet. We saw individual farmers being very innovative in terms of figuring out other ways to sell their product. In particular, I’m thinking about direct distribution to consumers and retail.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

MAINE: Zone C lobster council OK’s trawl limit plan

October 27, 2020 — With the National Oceanic Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) under a fast approaching, court-imposed deadline to develop new whale protection rules, the Zone C Lobster Management Council held a special meeting on the internet in late September to get an update on the situation from Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher and consider a zone-specific plan for gear modifications that will likely be required by NMFS.

On Aug. 19, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg gave NMFS nine months to craft new rules to protect endangered right whales from entanglement in lobster fishing gear. In April, Boasberg had ruled that NMFS violated the federal Endangered Species Act in 2014 when it adopted new rules governing the lobster fishery by failing to adequately consider the risk right whales might face if they become entangled in the vertical lines that connect lobster traps on the sea floor to marker buoys on the surface.

The judge vacated the NMFS “biological opinion” required by the ESA, which allowed continuation of the lobster fishery as it is currently practiced.

In August, the judge gave NMFS and the lobster industry until May 31, 2020, to come up with a new biological opinion and new lobster fishing regulations. He ordered NMFS to submit progress reports to the court every 60 days beginning Sept. 30.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Study finds lobster population healthy off Maine, poor in southern New England

October 26, 2020 — The American lobster population is in decent shape off of Maine and Canada, but continues to decline in southern New England, according to an assessment by an interstate regulatory group.

The stock assessment released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Board lines up with previous analyses of the lobster fishery. Lobster fishermen pulled in record catches of the crustaceans off Maine in the last decade, but the catch collapsed off more southern states such as Connecticut.

Environmental changes have made the more southern waters less hospitable for lobsters, scientists have said. Warming temperatures off southern New England have made it difficult for them to grow and reproduce.

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

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting Scheduled for October 30

October 23, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet on October 30, 2020 from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m., to consider changes to days out measures for the 2020 Area 1A fishery (inshore Gulf of Maine) in Season 2 (October 1 – December 31). This meeting will be held via webinar. The call and webinar information are included below:

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting
October 30, 2020
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.

You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/199957885. If you are new to GoToMeeting, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) and be ready before the meeting starts. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at +1 (571) 317-3122 and enter access code 199-957-885 when prompted. The webinar will start at 8:30 a.m., 30 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.

The sub-annual catch limit (ACL) for the 2020 Area 1A fishery in Season 2 was originally set at 914 metric tons. The fishery opened Sunday, October 11 for Maine and Monday, October 12 for New Hampshire and Massachusetts with three consecutive landings days per week. The fishery moved to two consecutive landing days per week in the second week. At the October 16 Days Out meeting, preliminary estimates indicated approximately 445 metric tons of the original Area 1A sub-ACL remained available for harvest; however, NOAA fisheries recently transferred 1,000 metric tons of the Management Uncertainty Buffer to the 2020 Area 1A sub-ACL due to low landings in the Canada weir fishery. The new Area 1A sub-ACL is 4,214 metric tons with an estimated 1,369 metric tons remaining, which accounts for the fact that the Area 1A fishery closes when 92% of the sub-ACL is harvested.

Please contact Max Appelman, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 or mappelman@asmfc.org for more information.

The meeting announcement can also be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/AtlHerringDaysOutMeetingNoticeOct23_2020.pdf

Coast Guard tows Gloucester vessel 60 miles

October 23, 2020 — A Gloucester-ported fishing vessel suffered disabling mechanical problems on Wednesday and had to be towed 60 nautical miles over 19 hours by the Coast Guard before making it into Gloucester on Thursday under its own power.

The 77-foot Sea Farmer II, owned by Sandler Fisheries out of South Hamilton, contacted Coast Guard Sector Northern New England watchstanders at 1:45 p.m. and requested assistance after becoming disabled about 65 nautical miles off Kennebunk, Maine.

The Coast Guard dispatched the 110-foot cutter Sitkinak out of Portland, Maine, and a 47-foot life saving boat out of Station Gloucester on Harbor Loop.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times