Saving Seafood

MAINE: Record number of Atlantic salmon eggs reported in Washington County river last year

January 6, 2020 — A record number of Atlantic salmon eggs were laid in the East Machias River last year, an indication that an eight-year effort to restore the endangered species in the river is paying off.

Biologists counted 61 redds, or nests that fish build for spawning, buried in several inches of river gravel spread between Crawford and East Machias. That’s six times the number of redds counted in the East Machias River since the Downeast Salmon Federation began tracking salmon egg nesting patterns there 20 years ago, said Dwayne Shaw, the federation’s executive director.

“This is just huge,” Shaw said. “A number like this hasn’t been seen in the river in decades.”

The federation counted 12 redds in 2016, four in 2017 and 10 in 2018. Over the past 20 years, the East Machias River on average has yielded about 10 redds a year.

With each redd containing about 4,000 eggs, the 61 redds are carrying about 240,000 eggs — enough, given the rigors of nature and the presence of predators, to produce about 2,000 salmon that will survive in the river over the next two years and become smolts, fish mature enough to go to sea, Shaw said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine Plan Aims to Reduce Lobstering Impact on Right Whales

January 3, 2020 — Maine‘s proposal for protecting endangered right whales from entanglements in lobster gear would maintain the status quo for inshore waters where most traps are located while reducing the number of trap lines farther offshore, officials said Friday.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources submitted the proposal to the federal government, which plans to issue new rules in the spring or summer for protecting North Atlantic right whales. The whales number only about 400 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear.

The proposal would make no change to an inshore area that comprises more than two-thirds of state waters, while total trap lines would be reduced farther offshore.

The proposal would also set requirements for “weak” points in trap lines that would allow an entangled whale to break free and require unique color markings to differentiate Maine lobster lines from trap lines used by fishermen from other states.

The rules come at a time when lobstermen are concerned about a drop in the catch of the state’s signature seafood.

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

Maine finalizes right whale protection plan for lobster industry

January 3, 2020 — Maine has finalized a proposal to protect endangered right whales from entanglement in lobster fishing gear, but it also gives state regulators the freedom to adopt alternative protections to keep lobstermen and their regional fishing practices alive.

The heart of the state plan is similar to one panned by the lobster industry last fall – cutting the number of buoy lines that could entangle a whale by setting a minimum number of traps fished on each line and requiring the use of lines with weak points to help entangled whales break free.

New to the plan is Maine’s bid to get federal approval for flexibility to allow alternative forms of fishing restrictions in cases where the statewide application of federal whale protections would put lobstermen in physical danger or run needlessly afoul of regional fishing practices.

That flexibility is the cornerstone of Maine Department of Marine Resources’ plan, said Commissioner Pat Keliher. Careful use of alternative protections that achieve the same conservation benefit could help protect whales, fishermen and the state’s $485 million a year industry, Keliher said.

“We want to develop a process that would allow us to mix and match regulatory changes to achieve the same risk reduction for whales while taking into account fishermen safety, traditional fishing practices, and fleet diversity,” Keliher said. “It would be a blend of giving and taking that achieves the same goal.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Facing new threats, lobstermen take hard line against right whale protections

January 3, 2020 — Their catch this year has plummeted, while their exports to China have been gutted by the trade war. The government has imposed strict quotas on their primary bait. And they’re facing serious lawsuits that could affect how they fish.

Now, the region’s lobstermen are facing a new, imminent threat, one that could drastically change how they’ve operated for generations: regulations to protect North Atlantic right whales.

With a population that has dwindled by 20 percent over the past decade to about 400, the critically endangered species is at risk of extinction, largely because of hundreds of thousands of buoy lines that extend from the surface to the seafloor in the Gulf of Maine.

As a result, federal regulators are considering rules that could cut as many as half those lines, the leading cause of right whale deaths.

But lobstermen here say such limits could devastate an industry that contributes an estimated $1.5 billion to the state’s economy, and their opposition has been building for months, with the support of their state’s leaders.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Forecast calls for warmer oceans, fewer lobsters in Maine

January 2, 2020 — Maine lobster landings, which have been over 100 million pounds every year since 2011 seem to be in for a period of decline, and probably won’t get back to that 132.6 million in 2016 or 2018’s 119.6 million pounds, according to scientists, many of whom blame rising ocean temperatures.

The Gulf of Maine lobster fishery is in one of the more rapidly warming regions of the world’s oceans. Recently two scientific journal articles, both written by University of Maine scientists, look at the role of warming temperatures and differences in local bottom and oceanography conditions and their role in affecting lobster populations.

Read the full story from National Fisherman at Seafood Source

$110M fish farm would mean changes for Jonesport, but locals hope not too many

December 31, 2019 — Big changes could be in store for a quiet, lobster-fishing community in Washington County if a European firm ends up building a $110 million land-based fish farm on a largely undeveloped property overlooking Chandler Bay.

But Jonesport and its companion town of Beals, connected by a 1,000-foot arched concrete bridge over Moosabec Reach, already have been experiencing major changes in recent decades that have been more subtle, more gradual and less welcome. The towns have grappled with lackluster development, declining populations and school enrollments, and the effects of the opioid addiction crisis that has hit Washington County especially hard and led the FBI to Jonesport and Beals this past spring to raid three suspected drug houses in the community, as well as others in the county.

Nobody expects a major employer moving into town to solve all the challenges the towns face, even if the yellowtail aquaculture company Kingfish Zeeland does what CEO Ohad Maiman says it plans to do — hire 70 people up front, establish a job-training program with the local high school and Maine colleges, and possibly expand production later. But local officials and residents say the development could help boost and diversify the area’s economic prospects without sacrificing the rural, hard-working character of what has been a fishing town for more than 200 years.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Why climate emergency declarations matter for Maine

December 18, 2019 — On the evening of Dec. 2, the Brunswick Town Council joined Bar Harbor, South Portland, and Portland in declaring a state of climate emergency. Compared to the climate rally that followed on Dec. 6, this was a quiet affair — but a resounding one nonetheless. With unanimous approval, council members passed a resolution drafted by members of Bowdoin Climate Action, naming the urgency of the climate crisis and committing Brunswick to developing an action plan to potentially eliminate carbon emissions by 2030.

At first, such municipal action might seem nominal or unnecessary. Why bother to come out with a statement or engage with a massive, global issue on the scale of local government?

As it turns out, Maine’s towns are hardly the first to make the move. As early as December of 2016, the city of Darebin, Australia, a Melbourne suburb, declared a state of climate emergency. Since then, more than 1,200 local governments in 25 countries have followed suit, translating to nearly 800 million people globally represented by governments that have declared a climate emergency. Eight hundred million — that’s a lot, and it’s a number that will only continue to grow.

Let’s face it: in a time of crisis, where 2019 marks the end of the warmest decade on record and the number of billion-dollar climate disasters each year continues to rise, our federal government has effectively chosen to ignore this. We have no choice but to build power from the bottom up, tackling the climate crisis from our hometowns and city halls. A municipal climate emergency declaration isn’t an empty statement — it’s a bright red flag on the map. Enough of these, and state governments would be hard put to ignore the demands of their constituents.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine Lobstermen Skeptical Of Proposal To Tie ‘Whale-Safe’ Seafood Label To Use Of New Fishing Gear

December 17, 2019 — A movement is emerging among conservation groups to create a “whale-safe” seal of approval for lobster caught with new types of gear designed to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. But it could be a tough sell in Maine, where some say the iconic fishery is already sustainable.

A specific “whale-friendly” or even “whale-safe” brand would likely apply to lobster harvested from traps with weak, breakaway rope or remote-controlled “ropeless” gear systems.

Scientists and conservationists say such gear changes, while still in the developmental stage, could reduce or even eliminate the risk that whales will be injured or killed by entanglements.

“That’s really important, that fishermen willing to test this gear, and certainly those fishermen fishing with ropeless gear should be rewarded,” says Erica Fuller, a lawyer at the Conservation Law Foundation, one of several organizations suing the federal government for stronger protections of the roughly 400 North Atlantic right whales remaining on the planet.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MAINE: Green Plate Special: Selling seafood that helps the fish – and the fishermen

December 16, 2019 — It’s an environmental idea that has taken off in recent decades. You can’t help an ecosystem if you don’t also account for the humans who rely on it. A new Portland-based company called Gulf of Maine Sashimi exemplifies the point. In order to help the ocean’s threatened fish populations, it works to help the fisherman, too.

To that end, a handful of Gulf of Maine fishermen supply the wholesale operation with fish species such as Acadian Redfish, flounder, Atlantic mackerel, haddock and white hake. The company’s niche is to wholesale pristine versions of these normally less valuable and more populous fish, so they can fetch better prices than they otherwise would. Then it passes along the extra revenue to the fishermen.

To ensure their catch makes the grade, the fishermen who sell whole fish to Gulf of Maine Sashimi employ two important measures: First, they use a Japanese technique for killing fish at sea called ike jime. A spike inserted quickly and directly into a fish’s hindbrain kills it instantly. Next, they submerge the fish in a slurry of seawater and ice to quickly bring its temperature to just above freezing and keep it there.

These measures combine to stem the flow of adrenaline, lactic acid and blood into the flesh of the fish, Gulf of Maine Sashimi CEO Jen Levin said, which preserves its pristine quality, improves its taste and increases its shelf life. The careful handling also ensures that the fish are not battered and bruised in sea transit, she said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Customers might have to shell out for scallops in 2020

December 16, 2019 — The good times of heavy shellfish hauls for the American scallop fishing industry are likely to continue into next year, though prices could rise for seafood lovers.

The industry has been experiencing strong years recently thanks to high demand from consumers and heavy catches from the fleet. U.S. scallops were worth $532.9 million to fishermen at the docks in 2018, the third most profitable year in recorded history.

The New England Fishery Management Council predicted Wednesday that new rules for the 2020-21 fishing season will yield about 52 million pounds of scallops. That would be a reduction of more than 10 million pounds from the current season, but still a strong number compared to the middle part of the decade.

The shellfish typically cost $20 to $25 per pound to consumers, who have had easy access to them at stores and restaurants. Members of the industry “see the 17% reduction in supply putting upward pressure on scallop prices,” said Peter Handy, president and chief executive officer of Bristol Seafood in Portland, Maine.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post