Saving Seafood

Collins proposes reforms to support Maine lobster industry, protect whales

September 23, 2019 — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) proposed changes to federal reforms that would protect whales and support the Maine lobster industry.

Sen. Collins joined her congressional colleagues from Maine in jointly responding to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) call for input to develop modifications to the proposed regulations developed by NOAA’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (TRT).

In a letter sent on Tuesday to the NOAA TRT team, the delegation recommended measures that would help reduce right whale fatalities without threatening the lobster industry, including more Maine-specific gear markings, improved monitoring, support for the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ proposal to preserve the current regulatory exemptions line, and the state’s plan to improve data collection.

Read the full story at The Ripon Advance

Maine Fishermen Prepare For Losses And Gains In A Climate-Changed Ocean

September 23, 2019 — In 30 years, the Gulf of Maine will have been transformed by climate change. Its waters will inexorably grow warmer, and the species that flourish there will be those that can adapt. The same might be said for the Mainers who make their living from the sea. The future of the state’s marine economy may well belong to those who can adapt.

A little over a year ago, reporter Fred Bever visited a small estuary on the far side of Chebeague Island, where lobsterman Jeff Putnam was working on a little side-business.

“These are oysters that I started just this year,” Putnam said at the time.

Putnam established the Sandy Point oyster farm to add a new revenue stream to his business, and, he says, provide future options for his children.

“Hopefully the lobster resource will still be strong when they grow up, and that will be there and that will be an option but there’s certainly no guarantee that’s the case,” he said. “So I wanted to show them there is another way to make a living.”

With the state’s lobster harvest now appearing to fall off from recent record levels, Bever called Jeff this week to see how the oysters are coming along.

Read the full story at Maine Public

UMaine Orono receives $1.6M grant for sustainable aquaculture

September 20, 2019 — The University of Maine at Orono received a $1.6 million grant to advance sustainable aquaculture in Maine.

According to a release from the university, Maine Sea Grant researchers at the University of Maine were granted the money from the NOAA National Sea Grant to lead four projects in collaboration with the aquaculture industry, management, and community partners.

“Thousands of Mainers rely on marine industries for their livelihoods, and aquaculture is a promising area for growth,” said U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King.

According to NOAA fisheries, the United States imports 85% of its seafood, which has resulted in a $14 billion trade deficit- leading to new opportunities in aquaculture to meet demands of seafood consumption.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

3 charged with breaking herring fishing laws in Maine

September 20, 2019 — The Maine Marine Patrol says it has cited three men for violating laws designed to protect an economically important species of fish.

The laws protect Atlantic herring, a bait fish that has been the subject of deep fishing quota cuts in recent years. The marine patrol says it has charged fishing boat captain Glenn Robbins of Eliot with exceeding the weekly limit of 160,000 pounds of herring and failing to file accurate reports.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Maine Aquaculture Association’s Sebastian Belle forecasts bright future for industry in state

September 20, 2019 — In 2017, the governor of Washington State ordered all agencies to ban salmon farming in state waters after a net-pen failure at a Cooke Aquaculture-owned Atlantic salmon farm caused a fish escape into the surrounding Pacific.

That event in the Northwest became an obvious opportunity for the Northeastern U.S. state of Maine, which was once home to an Atlantic salmon fishery. While the wild fishery has been nonexistent for years due to wild populations of Atlantic salmon being deemed endangered in the state, aquaculture operations continue to see results.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine gov, delegation: Whale rules must protect lobstermen

September 19, 2019 — Maine’s most prominent politicians are calling for the federal government to take a new approach to saving an endangered species of whale so protections don’t threaten the state’s lobster industry.

The four members of Maine’s congressional delegation sent recommendations to federal fisheries regulators late Tuesday about how to protect the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers about 400. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, also called on the government Wednesday to protect whales in a way that keeps lobstering viable.

Read the full story at Sea Coast Online

The Gulf Of Maine’s Temperature Was ‘Normal’ This Year — Which Is The New Cool

September 19, 2019 — It’s often reported that the Gulf of Maine’s waters are warming faster than 99 percent of the largest saltwater bodies on the planet. But scientists will tell you the trend can be volatile. This year, for instance, surface water temperatures in the Gulf have been their coolest since 2008. That may be providing some relief for some of the Gulf’s historic species, but ongoing climate change means that long-term prospects are still uncertain.

Lobsterman Seth Dube fishes 400 traps from his boat, the Alison Nicole, out of Camp Ellis in Saco.

“Off and on most of my life, and my father did it and my grandfather and now me, hopefully my boy,” Dube says.

This has been a good decade for Dube and the rest of Maine’s lobster fleet, with record catches most years since 2010. But this year, the beginning of the big summer harvest – when lobsters molt, shedding their old hard shells to reveal new, soft shells – was slow. Lobstermen and some scientists associate that with cooler water temperatures earlier this year.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Maine regulators to meet with lobstermen again about new whale rules

September 18, 2019 — Maine regulators are working on a new slate of meetings with the state’s lobstermen to discuss potential new whale protection rules that could impact the fishery.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is developing a proposal for the federal government about how to better protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. It had scheduled several meetings with lobstermen about the proposal for this month, but has temporarily put them on hold.

Department spokesman Jeff Nichols said a revised schedule will be out after regulators have had a chance to develop a proposal that reflects “another review of all data.”

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

Atlantic Herring Days Out Call Information and Notice of Spawning Closures for Western Maine and Massachusetts/New Hampshire in Effect September 23 through November 3, 2019

September 18, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set effort control measures for the Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery via Days Out meetings/calls. These members are scheduled to convene via conference call on October 2nd from 9:30 to 11:30 AM to consider fishery specifications for Quota Period 4. The details of the call are as follows:

Meeting webinar: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/239062933

Join the conference call:

Phone: 1.888.585.9008

Passcode: 853-657-937

Spawning Closures

The Atlantic Herring Area 1A fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine, and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. The Atlantic Herring Management Board approved a forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal states III-V, to trigger a spawning closure. However, if sufficient samples are not available then closures will begin on predetermined dates.

Read the full release here

Maine lobsterer group calls Rep. Seth Moulton to task

September 18, 2019 — The head of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association countered comments Monday by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, saying Moulton mischaracterized the organization’s motives and actions when it withdrew its support for the federal plan for increased protections to the North Atlantic right whales.

“Contrary to the congressman’s characterization, the MLA remains engaged in the (take reduction team) process and will continue to work with the agency and our members to identify measures to the risk that the Maine lobster industry poses to right whales,” Patrice McCarron wrote in an email to the Gloucester Daily Times. “However, the MLA cannot support the Northeast lobster fishery being singled out as the sole source of entanglement risk.”

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association on Aug. 30 withdrew its support for the most current plan devised by the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team because of what it described as questionable data from NOAA scientists and an unfair portrayal of the industry’s culpability as a primary cause of injury or death to the right whales. It also criticized the rule-making process as rushed.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times