Saving Seafood

Nine Mainers win a new elver license out of over 3,600 applicants

March 4, 2020 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources announced that it has officially awarded nine elver licenses that were available to eligible residents of the state, out of more than 3,600 applicants to the license.

The massive number of applicants is likely thanks to high price that elvers – the juvenile form of eels – has commanded in recent years. Last year, the season starting on 22 March kicked off with values of over USD 2,500 (EUR 2,237) per pound, with the season-long average sitting at USD 2,000 (EUR 1,790) per pound.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Nordic Aquafarms completes permit hearings

March 3, 2020 — Nordic Aquafarms (NAF) has completed the last hearing for state-level permitting required for the company to complete its planned USD 500 million (EUR 447.9 million) salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Belfast, Maine.

The hearings, which occurred on 2 March, were for a state-level permit for the removal and disposal of subtidal excavation material and the company’s plans to ensure local fisheries aren’t impacted. The removal of material is part of the company’s plan to locate inlet and outlet pipes for the facility in the nearby Penobscot Bay.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Dozens weigh in on proposed land-based salmon farm in Belfast

March 3, 2020 — More talk about Nordic Aqaufarms’ permit application regarding the DEP Monday night in Belfast.

The company wants to build a land-based salmon farm in the town capable of producing millions of pounds of fish per year.

Some officials with the Department of Marine Resources listened to comments and concerns about the proposed facility’s potential impacts on not only fishing activities but also the fishing industry.

All public comments will be passed along to Maine DEP.

Some are worried about possible environmental concerns and sediments too.

“To disturb the bottom sediments in this area for the Nordic Aquafarms project, would cause a few contaminations problems,” explained Lobsterman David Black.

“We’ve been talking about a lot of different parts of the project for a long time, but we think we are getting really close. We’ve told our case and we feel that all the information is out there for a decision.,” Edward Cotter, Nordic Aquafarms, Senior Vice Pres. Projects said.

Cotter added if they get all the approval they need to build the proposed facility, they’d like to start construction in the summer or fall.

Read the full story at WABI

MAINE: Herring hearing

March 2, 2020 — Atlantic herring, which is the fish used for bait by most Maine lobstermen, was expensive and hard to come by in 2019.

In 2020, the catch limit set by interstate fishery regulators will be even lower than last year, but the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is working on ways to provide more flexibility in how the quota is allocated.

A hearing on Draft Addendum III for the herring fishery management plan is planned for March 9 at 6 p.m. at the Maine Department of Marine Resources Augusta office.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative announces its 2020 strategy

February 28, 2020 — The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative (MLMC) has released its 2020 strategic plan, which is focused on “promotion, protection, and partnership.”

The MLMC is funded via fees paid by the state’s lobster industry, based on a bill approved by the state’s legislature. The organization’s mission is to promote the U.S. state of Maine’s lobster brand in the media and restaurant business.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Scientists weigh in on whale risk tool

February 27, 2020 — The word is out, almost, on what a panel of independent scientists thinks about the controversial “decision support tool” used by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service last spring when it drafted proposed rules aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales and other large marine mammals from entanglement with fishing gear.

When the fisheries service made its decision last spring on how best to reduce the risk to whales, it relied on a “decision support tool” based on a poll of Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (TRT) members, rather than extensive data collected over the years, as to where the whales are found and how much interaction there has been between them and Maine lobster gear. The team includes fishermen, scientists, representatives of conservation organizations and fisheries management officials from the federal government and from every state along the Atlantic Seaboard from Maine to Florida.

Data collected by NOAA show that, since the beginning of 2017, seventy percent of right whale deaths attributable to human-related causes (21) have occurred in Canadian waters while 30 percent (nine) occurred in U.S. waters. Not all of those deaths were clearly attributable to entanglement with fishing gear. Despite the disparity, NOAA insisted that U.S. interests must take steps to reduce the risk to right whales by 50 percent and is calling on Maine lobstermen to reduce the number of vertical lines that connect traps to surface buoys they use by half.

The TRT members from Maine objected to the use of the decision support tool because it had not been subject to the “peer review” process in which an independent panel of experts determines the adequacy of the data and methods to, in this case, form the basis for new management rules.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: Fishermen, harbor pilots, cruise industry work to minimize gear loss from ships

February 27, 2020 — There’s a lot going on in the few square miles of ocean around Mount Desert Rock, the offshore island about 20 miles south of the entrance to Frenchman Bay.

College of the Atlantic operates a research station there. The rocky ocean bottom near the island is a prime spot for lobsters and has become more and more popular in recent years.

There is shipping traffic in the area, tankers going to and from Searsport, Portland and Portsmouth, according to harbor pilot Skip Strong of the Penobscot Bay Pilots.

And there are cruise ships. This year, 197 ship visits to Bar Harbor are scheduled, the bulk of them in September and October.

On their way into Frenchman Bay and Bar Harbor, the ships pass near Mount Desert Rock. Until recently, the recommended channel for large ships entering Frenchman Bay started about five miles north of Mount Desert Rock.

But enough fishermen were losing money and equipment when buoy lines were cut by a passing ship (or an underwater stabilizer sticking out from the side of a ship, or an underwater tow wire between a tug and barge), that they got to talking.

The conversation had some added urgency beginning in 2018, when the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) changed the rules for gear configurations in the area. Many fishermen used to use strings, or trawls, of 15 traps with a surface buoy at either end, in the area. Now, with more fishermen working in the same area, a 5-trap maximum is in effect. That means if a buoy line is cut, the whole trawl is lost.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

New tech helps scientists detect right whales off Maine’s coast

February 24, 2020 — New acoustic monitors off Maine’s coast have detected the presence of North Atlantic right whales this winter. Scientists are trying to gather new data on the endangered animals’ whereabouts.

In mid-December, scientists put a set of underwater drones in the Atlantic Ocean. One of them is charting a zigzag course to and from Maine’s coast, starting Down East and working its way southwest. It’s currently heading eastward off Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

During its cruise, the glider’s electronic ears have heard dozens of calls from finback and humpback whales and, on seven occasions, the call of the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

“We usually figure about a 10 kilometer of five-mile radius is on average where we can hear them,” said Genevieve Davis, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Davis is a coordinator for the project, which also includes researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Gulf of Maine Longline Survey in Rocky Habitats Now in Sixth Year

February 21, 2020 — For fisheries managers around the world, trawl gear is an efficient way to sample species inhabiting the sea floor or the benthic column above. Depending on the size of the net, grid surveys will capture enough of the animals in the area at the time to compile data used in abundance models that go into stock assessments.  Unless the fish swim out of the net before it is hauled. Or unless the sea bottom is rocky or pinnacled.

In those areas, longline gear can help fill in the blind spots for regional surveys. Longline gear can be lain across rock piles, and retrieved without destroying the gear itself. It differs from a trawl net in several ways: the longline has baited hooks distributed evenly across its length, it is stationary, anchored to the sea floor with location buoys at the sea surface at each end, and it can be deployed by smaller vessels.

Read the full story at Seafood News

MAINE: Union-owned Lobster 207 gets “Fair Trade” certification

February 21, 2020 — Lobster 207, the wholesale and retail cooperative owned by the Maine Lobstering Union, can now market its lobsters with the trademarked “Fair Trade” seal after certification by the nonprofit Fair Trade USA.

Based on compliance with the organization’s extensive, 105-page Capture Fisheries Standard, the certification confirms that lobstermen selling their catch to the co-op, and the co-op itself, have met the rigorous standards set by Fair Trade for environmental stewardship, social responsibility and fair labor practices. According to a statement released by Lobster 207, more than 4,500 fishermen around the world have been certified under the Fair Trade Capture Fisheries Standard. Lobster 207 represents the only group of lobstermen worldwide who have received the certification.

The Fair Trade certification can have significant benefits for marketers. Among them, Lobster 207’s catch may be sold with the “Fair Trade Premium” that allows a percentage of the sale proceeds to be returned to the lobstermen’s community.

“With our Fair Trade Premium, a portion of every pound of Fair Trade lobster sold will go into a community development fund,” Mike Yohe, CEO of Lobster 207, said in a statement. “This money will go right back into our communities to improve the livelihoods of our lobstermen and their families.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American