Saving Seafood

Maine reviewing federal dredging project in Blue Hill area

January 11, 2021 — Authorities in Maine are collecting public comments about the potential impact to the fishing industry of a proposed federal dredging project in the Blue Hill area.

The Army Corp of Engineers and town of Blue Hill want to create a federal navigation channel in Blue Hill Harbor. It would be an 80-foot wide channel from deep water to the town landing, documents state.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is collecting comments about the potential impacts of the dredging until Jan. 25. The marine resources department will provide an assessment of the fishing industry impacts to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Read the full story at the Caledonian Record

MAINE: Final Penobscot salmon estimate for last year drops by nearly 200 fish

January 7, 2021 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has reduced its estimate of Atlantic salmon returns to the Penobscot River by nearly 200 fish, but the final estimate for 2020 — 1,440 salmon — is still the highest annual return since 2011. In November, state fisheries scientists announced an estimated 1,603 Atlantic salmon had returned to the Penobscot River.

Jason Valliere, a marine resource scientist for the DMR, said each of his regular reports filed since July have included a disclaimer explaining that the official year-end estimate of returning fish was subject to change. Those counts are adjusted after data becomes available, taking into account individual fish that are captured, returned to the river to free-swim to spawning grounds, then re-captured by fisheries staffers at the Milford Dam.

The 2020 total was up from 1,152 in 2019, and is the largest run of salmon since 3,125 salmon returned to the river in 2011. The average run for the eight years from 2012 to 2019 was just 708 salmon per year.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NOAA Fisheries Science Helps Maine’s Pioneering Sea Scallop Farmers

January 7, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

A trait fishermen and scientists share is adaptability: the trait required to think on your feet, be comfortable with uncertainty, and repurpose resources when necessary.

“Adaptable” is a word that perfectly describes Marsden Brewer, a third-generation commercial fisherman, who is also a scallop farmer and owner of PenBay Farmed Scallops. Brewer’s business is the result of his 20-year effort, as well as techniques learned through Maine’s enduring friendship with its sister state, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. His three-and-a-quarter acre Stonington, Maine, farm is the first of its kind in Penobscot Bay.

“Princess” Scallops: A New England Locavore’s Delight

The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is one of the most valuable in the United States. While wild caught scallops have shells four inches across or larger and you only eat the adductor muscle, Brewer sells a smaller, whole-animal product. He offers three sizes:

  • “Princess” scallops are two inches across and can be grown in just 18 months
  • Medium scallops are about 2.75 inches and take 2 years
  • Large scallops are about 3 inches and take 3 years to grow.

Whole scallops are a delicacy prepared by chefs at restaurants in Maine and as far away as Colorado and Arizona. Brewer is not competing with the wild scallop fishery, but bringing a new local seafood to market. He has led other fishermen to farm scallops as a way to diversify their income in a changing environment.

Read the full release here

NOAA proposes new round of whale protections

January 6, 2021 — A proposed rule released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Dec. 30 aims to lower North Atlantic right whale entanglements in commercial fishing lines. Its release follows two years of research, public meetings and comment.

Federal regulators found the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) proposal submitted last January to be lacking — by 8 percent.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service seeks a 60 percent risk reduction to whales while the Maine DMR plan would only achieve a 52 percent reduction, NOAA informed Maine DMR in January 2020. Both proposals increase the number of traps per trawl line to reduce the number of vertical lines in the ocean, allow for gear marking to identify which state a whale fatality occurred in, require weak links in lines that would allow an entangled whale to break free and provide for seasonal closures in one lobster management area (LMA).

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: With $500K award, Local Catch Network will grow ‘boat-to-fork’ market

January 5, 2021 — The Local Catch Network, based in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, was founded in 2011 as a nonprofit network of seafood harvesters, researchers and community organizations across North America.

Today, the network has more than 200 members, including 12 in Maine. It promotes “boat-to-fork” systems of local and regional seafood distribution, such as community supported fisheries.

Last month, the Local Catch Network received a $499,463 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers Market Promotion Program to accelerate the local distribution model and fund “Scale Your Local Catch,” the first nationwide training and technical assistance program to catalyze direct-to-consumer seafood operations.

In all, the organization has raised $624,331 for the program, including a 25% match from the University of Maine System. Expecting to recruit its first cohort this summer, the program will help fishing communities gain marketing, social media, pricing and permitting skills through workshops, networking, mentorships and digital tools to link consumers with producers in their local areas.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

High Court Finds Aquaculture Worker Covered by Workers’ Comp

December 31, 2020 — An aquaculture worker who got hurt tending to salmon raised in offshore pens is covered under state law, but not under the federal law that defines some of the rights for mariners, Maine‘s supreme court ruled.

The court ruled unanimously on Tuesday in a Workers’ Compensation Board appellate division decision involving a woman who was injured while working for Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon operation off the coast of Eastport.

The woman, Darla Potter, slipped and hurt her knee while caring for salmon, which were raised in cages located less than a mile offshore.

Great Falls Insurance Company contended that the Workers’ Compensation Board lacked jurisdiction because Potter should be considered to be a “seaman” under federal admiralty law known as the Jones Act.

The Supreme Judicial Court said the closest analogy to an aquaculture operation is an offshore oil platform, and it noted that oil platform workers have never been found to fall under the Jones Act jurisdiction.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Research reveals diverse community benefits of small-scale fisheries

December 22, 2020 — Marine fisheries provide many benefits to coastal communities. Fisheries generate food, provide employment and economic profit through the supply chain, and play an important role in a sense of community and individual identity.

University of Maine researchers Heather Leslie and Kara Pellowe are studying the diverse benefits provided by fisheries in partnership with harvesters and other local experts in multiple regions, including Maine and Mexico.

Pellowe, a former UMaine postdoctoral scholar now at the Stockholm Resilience Centre in Sweden, and Leslie, director of the UMaine Darling Marine Center in Walpole, contend that the benefits provided by fisheries are more diverse than is often accounted for in fisheries management.In a recent study published in the scientific journal Ambio, Pellowe and Leslie study the diverse benefits that small-scale fisheries provide to coastal communities. The research indicates that non-fishing families recognize the diverse benefits associated with coastal fisheries. The study specifically investigated how these benefits were recognized in the community of Loreto in the northwest region of Mexico, where both fisheries and tourism play important roles in the local economy, much like the Maine coast.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

MAINE: Fishing industry grapples with state’s offshore wind array plan

December 18, 2020 — The state’s plan to install an array of wind-energy turbines off Maine’s southern coast for research purposes has prompted concerns among fishermen.

“You’re shutting down habitat that we fish now so you’ll be displacing a lot of guys who are fishing out there,” said Portland lobster fisherman John Bisnette.

His observations came during an informational webinar hosted Tuesday by the Governor’s Energy Office and the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The Governor’s Energy Office is the lead agency in the array’s development. The webinar was one of three the agency was holding this week and next to get input from the fishing industry about potential siting and impacts of the array.

“The state has initiated a collaborative process that gives fishermen and other stakeholders direct influence in the development of the proposed project,” according to the meeting announcement.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

If you recently bought Maine seafood online, 2020 might be the reason why

December 16, 2020 — Though 2020 will be remembered for many things, it also may be remembered as the year when online, direct-to-consumer sales of Maine seafood took off.

In a year that saw continued wrangling over foreign trade agreements — which hampered overseas sales of Maine lobster, the state’s dominant seafood product — and a severe drop in restaurant sales due to precautions aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19, many seafood harvesters and producers have sought to connect directly with consumers to stay afloat.

A new marketing initiative launched this month by the state — created with $1 million in COVID-19 federal relief funds — is the latest effort geared toward making it easier for consumers to buy Maine seafood directly from distributors and retailers. A website borne of that initiative, SeafoodfromMaine.com, follows suit with other sites such as Localcatch.org and Lukeslobster.com that aim to connect consumers and sellers directly online, or to guide consumers to retailers that sell locally sourced seafood.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Two new promotions seek to shore up Maine’s seafood industry

December 15, 2020 — Two new initiatives are underway to support Maine’s seafood industry through the downturn it has experienced this year.

The state has launched a promotion aimed at home cooks, who have been one of the bright spots for seafood sales this year.

And on Dec. 16, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland will hold “Split the Seafood Bill Day,” an initiative that will cover half the cost of meals that include seafood sourced from the Gulf of Maine at any of 20 participating restaurants for the first 200 diners.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources, with support from Gov. Janet Mills, launched the branding and promotion initiative last week with a $1 million investment from $20 million in CARES Act relief funds allocated for Maine’s commercial fishing and seafood industry.

The largest wholesale markets for Maine seafood traditionally include restaurants and food service. With those industries shut down or sharply curtailed, marketing shifted to retail sales aimed at home cooks.

Read the full story at MaineBiz