Saving Seafood

Proposal Would Build 16-Square-Mile Wind Farm Off Maine Coast

November 23, 2020 — Gov. Janet Mills on Friday announced an ambitious, state-led effort to build as many as 12 floating wind-energy turbines off Maine’s coast.

Mills is on the hunt for a location for the array, in partnership with the University of Maine and the big-money investors behind the pioneering Aqua Ventus turbine experiment near Monhegan Island. But that’s got some fishermen worried.

The effort to win a so-called research lease from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will be led by Dan Burgess, director of the Governor’s Energy Office.

“The opportunity to work with these developers using the Maine-made, Maine-developed floating technology is just a really significant opportunity for the state and for us to continue to take a national and even global leadership position for floating offshore wind,” he says.

The Mills administration is pitching the project as small scale, needing “only” 16 square miles of ocean as compared to lease areas ten times as large for wind projects off southern New England. Still, with as many as 12 turbines running at a capacity of 10 megawatts each, Burgess says they could provide enough energy for 70,000-100,000 homes.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MAINE: Lobster industry hopes for stability after tumultuous Trump era

November 23, 2020 — President Donald Trump positioned himself as a friend of New England’s lobstermen, but members of the industry said they are looking forward to something that has been lacking in the crustacean business: stability.

Trump’s trade war with China led to a rocky few years for the industry, which is based mostly in Maine. Trump, who campaigned hard in Maine and won an electoral vote in the state, touted economic aid and environmental reforms intended to benefit the business. The Republican Party even had Maine lobsterman Jason Joyce speak at he its national convention.

What the industry really needs is assurance that it will be able to sell lobsters to other countries without punitive tariffs, said Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Company, an Arundel, Maine, dealer. She and others said they are hopeful that assurance will arrive under Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.

“You can’t plan. You can’t live in chaos,” she said. “The trade war, was it going to last a week, was it going to last a month, was it going to last four years? How do you operate around that?”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

Nordic Aquafarms granted state permits for Maine RAS project

November 20, 2020 — Nordic Aquafarms Inc., the company planning a large salmon recirculating aquaculture system in Belfast, Maine, has been granted state-level permits via a unanimous vote by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP).

The acquisition of state permits is the result of nearly two years of work on the permitting process, which was marked by interruptions from local opposition. Local opponents filed multiple objections to the permitting process, before the permits were found to be complete in June 2019.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Struggling fishermen and hungry Mainers have found a way to help each other through the pandemic

November 19, 2020 — The first rays of yellow light slashed through the indigo gloom Monday morning while the city awoke and rubbed its eyes. All was still quiet up the hill in the business district, but down on the docks the day was already humming. By 6:30 a.m., a hardy, rubber-booted crew of workmen were on a smoke break after unloading their first boat of the day at the Fish Exchange. They still had two boats — and more than 10,000 pounds of ice-packed fish — to go.

It’s cold, hard, slimy work but they welcomed it. Business has been more than slow.

Under current pandemic pressures, the Portland Fish Exchange and the state’s groundfishing fleet are struggling to survive. Fish prices have bottomed out, forcing some boats to stay docked. At the same time, droves of newly hungry Mainers are facing coronavirus-induced economic hardships and asking their local food pantries for help. With uncaught fish at sea and famished people on land, the situation is a mismatched, ironic tragedy.

But the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association has a plan to help.

Armed with an anonymous, $200,000 grant, it’s buying fish before it hits the auction and donating the catch to local schools and food banks. The move helps keep auction prices steady while also making hard-to-find, healthy protein available to folks who need it most.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine’s booming seal population concerns local fishermen, biologists

November 19, 2020 — There’s a lot of debate recently about the seal population in New England, specifically off the coast of Maine.

Once nearly extinct, experts are now seeing a rapid increase in the number of seals in the Gulf of Maine due to decades of legal protection.

Biologists say there are three points to consider: While the increase in harbor seals is creating a healthier ecosystem for the gulf of Maine, it’s also creating problems for local lobstermen who say they’re a threat to their livelihoods, and it’s drawing new and potentially dangerous fish into our waters at a rate the state has never seen before.

“Here we have a pretty big population of seals,” Rusty Court, who’s been lobstering off the coast of Monhegan and Boothbay Harbor for 50 years, said.

Read the full story at WGME

Maine lobster industry applauds EU committee’s vote to eliminate tariffs

November 13, 2020 — A European Union committee has approved a trade deal that would eliminate import duties on Maine lobsters sold to Europe.

The European Parliament’s international trade committee voted 40-2 to approve the deal — which would assist the lobster industry across the United States — on Tuesday. It awaits a vote by the full European Parliament, as well as the more powerful European Council, before it can be enacted.

The trade deal cements an agreement between the EU and the U.S. from August that would decrease European tariffs on American lobster products by 8 percent to 12 percent. In return, the U.S. would reduce tariffs on prepared meals, ceramics, lighters and glassware.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Q&A: CEO of Portland seafood startup is out to show Maine can produce premium fish

November 12, 2020 — Gulf of Maine Sashimi in Portland is the first company launched by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s business development group, Gulf of Maine Ventures.

Funded by a mix of contributions from individual donors, the wholesale distributor launched in June 2019 to create a market solution to the persistent problem of low prices and diminished landings for locally harvested Gulf of Maine fish. By training harvesters in specialized handling practices, the company has created a market for the high-quality, sashimi-grade, sustainable fish.

The company has since grown to cover a range of wild and farmed species. The number of harvesters has grown to more than two dozen, most from Maine.

Gulf of Maine Sashimi recently issued a $1 million convertible note to support its growth over the coming 12 to 18 months and is currently speaking with a number of interested investors.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Maine’s scallop fishery poised to open

November 12, 2020 — Hancock County residents can look forward to feasting on freshly harvested sea scallops when the 2020-21 scallop fishing season kicks off in coming weeks. Maine’s scallop fishery landed 415,818 pounds of scallop meats worth $4.359 million in 2019, making it the state’s 10th most lucrative seafood.

On Nov. 5, the Maine Department of Marine Resources announced finalized dates for the 2020-21 scallop fishing season and its three fishery management zones. In Zone 2, which stretches from eastern Penobscot Bay to Quoddy Head in Lubec, licensed scallop divers can commence harvesting Monday, Nov. 23, with their season ending April 24. Scallop draggers’ season gets underway Tuesday, Dec. 1, and closes March 31.

In Zone 3, encompassing Cobscook Bay and the St. Croix River — Maine’s richest scallop fishing grounds — divers can start fishing for the prized bivalves on Dec. 3, with their season closing March 27, while draggers can fish there starting Dec. 1 and ceasing March 24. In Zone 1, from western Penobscot Bay to the New Hampshire border, diving is allowed starting Nov. 17 and wraps up April 24 while dragging runs from Dec. 7 through March 18.

In zones 1 and 2, daily scallop meat possession will be limited to 15 gallons per boat. In Zone 3, ten gallons of shucked scallops will remain as the daily limit. The same limits apply to divers and draggers. For more details, the adopted 2020-2021 season regulations are posted at https://www.maine.gov/dmr/laws-regulations/newly-adopted-regulations.html.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

EU votes in favor of removing tariffs on US lobster

November 12, 2020 — European Union lawmakers have voted in favor of a trade deal that would see the bloc’s tariffs on U.S. lobsters removed.

The approval came via a 40–2 vote by the E.U. parliament’s trade committee, and follows up on a deal struck in August between U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan. That deal would remove tariffs of 8 to 20 percent on imports of lobsters to the E.U., while the U.S. would half duties on imports of certain glassware, ceramics, disposable lighters, and prepared meals.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Portland nears a plan to face changing climate, rising sea level

November 11, 2020 — It’s not just the rising temperatures that should have Mainers concerned, according to experts. Kathy Mills, a scientist with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, last week said there are major concerns for local wildlife and the economy that depends on it.

“What we’re looking at is trying to understand how species shift on the east coast,” said Mills, who specializes in ecosystem changes and how New England fisheries are impacted by climate change.

For Portland, she said, there’s “not great news” ahead in terms of the impacts climate change will have.

“Portland is dependent on lobstering and groundfish fisheries,” Mills said, “and for those species as weather warms, we expect to see declines.”

Groundfish, which includes species like cod and haddock, are expected to decline as a local economic staple, she said. Mills said this doesn’t mean the fish are necessarily in danger of dying out, but rather are being forced into deeper, colder waters, where local fishermen are likely not going to follow.

Likewise, she said GMRI expects the lobster industry to see up to a 30 percent decline in the coming years as waters continue to warm. Herring, another staple of the fishing economy, is also expected to enter a decline.

“These are not necessarily declines in the stock overall, but in the fishing footprint,” Mills said.

But while the traditional fishing staples may disappear, Mills said the warming waters may result in fish not typically seen in Maine coming up the coast from the south. For example, she said they expect to see more Atlantic mackerel, sea scallops, summer flounder, black sea bass, and squid now found in the mid-Atlantic region.

“So there is an opportunity for other commercially valuable species,” Mills said.

She said fishermen here are already seeing black sea bass and squid, and they are expected to become more abundant in the coming years.

“Another species I was surprised to see is the striped bass,” Mills said. “This is a really popular recreational species, so will that become more prominent for the needs on the waterfront?”

Part of GMRI’s role, she said, is to provide information about what species will be relevant to fisheries in the area, and what the needs of local waterfronts might be. For example, she said, perhaps Portland should brace for fewer lobster traps and counter that with more midwater trawl nets.

Read the full story at the Portland Phoenix