Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Awards Bycatch Reduction Grant Funding

October 24, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries has awarded $1.1 million in funding for seven New England and Mid-Atlantic projects through the Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program.

The awards support key partners in research and development of innovative approaches and strategies for reducing bycatch, bycatch mortality and post-release mortality.

The New England Aquarium was awarded $125,000 for a project to study whale release ropes as a large whale bycatch mitigation option for the lobster fishing industry.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries received $176,572 for a bycatch reduction of red hake project in the Southern New England silver hake trawl fishery.

There were also a few projects related to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, which only number around 400.

Maine Department of Marine Resources was awarded $198,018 for a project to assess the feasibility of Time Tension Line Cutter use in fixed gear fisheries to reduce entanglement risk for right whales.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MAINE: DMR floats new gear regs to protect whales

October 23, 2019 — As the battle over how best to protect endangered northern right whales continues to escalate, the Department of Marine Resources is proposing a new set of requirements for lobster gear that the department believes will help reduce injury to the whales without imposing severe, and some say dangerous, restrictions on fishermen.

Last week, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher announced that after “rigorous scientific analysis,” the department had come up with a new draft plan to address “both the risk to right whales and concerns of fishermen” that is “in keeping with the real risk the Maine fishery presents.”

Last March, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that the risk of injuries to right whales in the Gulf of Maine had to be reduced by at least 60 percent.

To meet that goal, a group of fishermen, scientists and conservation group representatives known as the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team recommended that NMFS require Maine lobstermen to reduce the number of vertical lines used to connect their traps to the surface marker buoys by 50 percent.

The NMFS proposal was based on a scientific model that ostensibly showed the restrictions to be necessary to meet the 60 percent risk reduction goal.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

German utility sets sights on New York Bight offshore wind

October 23, 2019 — The EnBW Group, a German utility company and offshore wind developer, is preparing to bid on an anticipated next round of federal energy leases in the New York Bight, and joined a partnership with commercial fishing advocates.

Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, joined EnBW North America as its fisheries liaison, the company announced Wednesday.

Casoni is well known in the Northeast industry, where she has served on the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, seafood marketing boards, and herring advisory panels to the New England Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Her job is to get fishermen’s input “on offshore wind related issues and developments and conveying to them timely information about EnBW North America’s offshore wind planning and future on-water activities,” according to a statement from the company. “Among other duties, Casoni will inform and develop best management practices and strategies that support the coexistence off offshore wind and fishing.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: Whole Oceans gets submerged land leases for Bucksport salmon farm

October 22, 2019 — The state has granted two submerged land leases to Whole Oceans LLC, which will allow the Portland-based aquaculture company to begin underwater work on a salmon farm at the former Verso Paper mill site in Bucksport.

While the company owns the 104-acre site, the state owns the adjacent submerged land, so the leases are necessary for Whole Oceans to begin underwater work on the site. The leases, administered by the state Bureau of Parks and Lands, allow existing structures, like outfall and intake pipe, below the mean water line to be maintained and repaired.

The leases are in effect for the next 25 years, and under state law can be renewed.

Whole Oceans has a lease on 4,488 square feet of riprap along the shore and a little more for an outfall pipe. The total area of the submerged lands lease for While Oceans is 6,348 square feet, with some of that owned jointly with Bucksport Mill LLC. That portion covers a second outfall pipe that is used by both entities, according to Jim Britt, spokesman for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, which oversees the bureau.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Maine to hold lotteries for entry into scallop fishery

October 21, 2019 — Maine is holding lotteries for licenses to participate in one of the most lucrative fisheries in the state.

The state is home to a near-shore scallop fishery that was worth about $6 million last year. The volume of the fishery is much smaller than Maine’s famous lobster fishery, but the scallops are typically worth more to fishermen on a per-pound basis.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources said there will be two license lotteries. One will be for six licenses to operate a drag boat for scallops and the other will be for four licenses to dive for scallops. Most scallops in the state are harvested via boat.

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

Tension thaws over whale plan between lobstermen, feds

October 21, 2019 — A group representing Maine’s lobstermen says it’s now willing to work with the federal government on a plan to protect right whales after withdrawing its support for the plan this summer.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is one of the key stakeholders in an effort to better protect the North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 400 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. A federal plan that’s being developed to help save the whales would remove miles of lobster trap rope from the waters off Maine.

The lobstermen’s association issued a public statement on Oct. 11 saying it appreciates that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service has offered a “constructive response” to its concerns about whale protection.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

New Maine Proposal to Protect Whales, Spare Lobster Fishing

October 17, 2019 — Maine fishery regulators are unveiling a new right whale protection plan they feel will satisfy federal requirements while also preserving the state’s lobster fishery.

A federal team has called for a reduction of the vertical lobster trap lines in the Gulf of Maine to reduce risk to the whales, which number about 400. Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher says his department’s new proposal would remove 25 percent of the lines beyond an exemption line for inshore fishermen.

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

Maine lobstermen to NOAA: Whale rules need more work

October 16, 2019 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has volleyed back at NOAA Fisheries, saying it will continue pursuing “critical points” from its analysis of data used by the federal fishery regulator to determine causes of injuries or deaths to North Atlantic right whales.

The MLA’s statement also makes clear the lobster stakeholder remains committed to the take reduction team process, as well as developing a management response within the Maine fishery. This, despite withdrawing its support on Aug. 30 of the risk allocation agreement approved in April by the Large Whale Take Reduction Team.

“MLA’s goal has been and will continue to be a right whale recovery plan built on the best available science that effectively addresses all known risks to right whales from U.S. commercial fisheries and all other human causes,” the MLA stated. “Going forward, MLA will continue to insist on a science-based process informed by best available data to ensure rigorous accountability for risk to endangered whales from across the spectrum of human interactions with them.”

The statement, which follows NOAA Fisheries’ response to the initial MLA data analysis, said the lobster group will continue to push for NOAA Fisheries and other elements of the take reduction team process to address “the outsized role of Canadian fisheries in recent right whales’ serious injury and mortality.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

MAINE: Scallop license lotteries now available

October 15, 2019 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has opened two license lotteries: one for scallop drag licenses and one for scallop dive licenses. Based on licenses retired in 2018, the department is making available six scallop drag licenses and four scallop dive licenses for the 2019-2020 scallop season.

The license lotteries will remain open until 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 8.

Applicants may apply online at maine.gov/scalloplottery or may complete a paper application at the DMR offices in the Marquardt Building, 32 Blossom Lane, Augusta. The department will not accept paper applications through the mail.

Read the full story at Village Soup

Another outside crab species turns up in Maine waters

October 15, 2019 — A scientist with an environmental group says she has found what she believes is the first recorded appearance of a potentially damaging species of crab in Maine waters.

Marissa McMahan of the Massachusetts-based group Manomet said she located the smooth mud crab this month on a research trip. The crabs are typically found south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They can pose problems for aquaculture businesses because they prey on young oysters — a species of high economic value that is grown in Maine.

McMahan collected the single specimen, and it’s still alive. She said it’s too early to know how the animal ended up in the New Meadows River in West Bath, but it’s important to monitor for more of them.

Read the full story at the Associated Press