Saving Seafood

MAINE: Lobstermen, politicians rally in Stonington to protest whale rules

July 23, 2019 — The sun was blazing hot, but tempers were moderate Sunday when hundreds of lobstermen gathered at the Municipal Fish Pier at noon for a rally to protest proposed federal rules aimed at protecting right whales.

The rules would force Maine fishermen to cut by 50 percent the number of lines in Gulf of Maine waters that connect lobster traps on the sea floor to their marker buoys on the surface.

Sunday’s rally drew perhaps 300 fishermen, family members, other supporters and politicians to Stonington. Some came from as far away as Corea and Winter Harbor and other Downeast ports, others from as far away as Harpswell. Many came by boat.

“This Governor has your back,” Gov. Janet Mills told an assembled crowd that was adamant in its opposition to the rules.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Rally over whale rules planned

July 19, 2019 — It was almost 45 years ago when a fictional news anchor named Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch in the film “Network,” shouted out to listeners “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!”

Last week, Stonington lobsterman Julie Eaton, speaking for most members of her industry said just about the same thing in a posting on Facebook announcing plans for a rally on the Stonington Fish Pier at noon this Sunday to protest a proposed NOAA Fisheries rule that would force Maine lobstermen to remove half their buoy lines from the Gulf of Maine to reduce the risk that endangered right whales might become entangled in the fishing gear.

“It is official,” Eaton wrote. “We are holding a Lobstermen’s Rally … on the Stonington Commercial Fish Pier.”

Last March, NOAA Fisheries announced that the risk of harming right whales in the Gulf of Maine had to be reduced by 60 percent. Not long afterwards, the regulators adopted a “consensus” recommendation by a stakeholder group including representatives from the Department of Marine Resources, other state and federal fisheries regulators and several conservation organizations — the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team — that to reach the risk reduction target, Maine lobstermen would have to reduce the number of vertical buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine by 50 percent even though evidence showed that Maine fishing gear was not the primary cause of most of the right whale deaths over the past several years and that the vast majority of recent whale mortalities had occurred in Canadian waters.

According to Eaton, Sunday’s gathering is emphatically not a protest of the whale rule proposal but is intended “to inform the public that we are not killing whales in Maine, voice our concerns about the proposed whale regulations and how they will not only affect our own futures and safety but the future of our children and our coastal communities.”

Read the full story at The Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: State deals setback to opponents of aquaculture lease on Maquoit Bay

July 19, 2019 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has rejected a citizens petition that requested a moratorium on aquaculture leases of over 10 acres.

The petition was submitted March 20, with 189 signatures, by a group called Save Maquoit Bay. The petition was drawn up in response to an application by Mere Point Oyster Co. for a 40-acre lease in the bay, off Brunswick, in order to cultivate Eastern oysters, bay scallops and sea scallops.

Although the proposed moratorium targeted one project, it would have applied statewide.

In its decision, the department wrote that it doesn’t see a basis for a moratorium.

“The Legislature has limited the size of any single lease to no more than 100 acres,” the decision reads. “Leases of greater than 10 acres may be appropriate and suitable in some areas and for certain aquaculture activities, just as leases of less than 10 acres would be required in others. The department can adequately deal with the size of a lease requested under the current lease decision criteria.

“Lease applications greater than 10 acres have been found to meet the decision criteria and have been granted, and other lease sites have been reduced in size by the department’s lease decision where the proposed sites were found to be unreasonable. Further, a 10-acre limitation on lease size may have the unintended effect of causing applicants to apply for multiple leases, as opposed to one single lease of a size that is suitable to meet their needs.

“Without further justification, a moratorium on leases of greater than 10 acres is arbitrary, and the department will not implement such a moratorium.”

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Menhaden reopening eases Maine bait worries – for now

July 19, 2019 — A two-week hiatus in the Maine menhaden fishery ended with the Atlantic States Fisheries Management Commission granting an additional 4.7 million pounds of quota, quelling worries about an impeding shortage of lobster bait.

The “episodic event fishery” that started July 15 won’t solve what has become a regular element of suspense for the industry. State officials reopened the season with additional effort controls, and reducing the weekly allowance from four trucks to three.

The harvest is restricted to state waters Monday through Thursday. The Department of Marine Resources had ordered a halt to the fishery June 30, after monitoring showed the fleet had exceeded the Maine annual quote of 2.4 million pounds by 1.5 million pounds – an overage of about 62 percent.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

BANGOR DAILY NEWS: Finding the right way to protect right whales

July 18, 2019 — Last week, Gov. Janet Mills’ administration made it clear that Maine does not support proposed federal regulations aimed at protecting endangered right whales. The issue is not whether right whales are worth protecting — they certainly are and are required to be under the Endangered Species Act — but instead how the federal proposal looks to reduce risk to the whales in part through a significant reduction in underwater lines used by Maine lobstermen.

All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation have also asked President Donald Trump to intervene on the proposed regulations, and together with Mills, have taken heat from environmental groups as a result. One wildlife advocate went as far as to say that Mills’ decision to have Maine pursue its own risk reduction plan amounts to playing “an active role in the right whale’s extinction.”

That’s strong stuff. But let’s be clear: justified concern about the impact of proposed rules on Maine’s lobster industry, and the incomplete data and largely unproven modeling underlying it, doesn’t make Maine officials unsympathetic or complicit to the undisputed plight of the right whale. It makes them appropriately skeptical representatives voicing concerns of their state, and one of its significant industries.

The worrisome decline of the Atlantic right whale has been well-documented in recent years. A once-growing population has dropped to an estimated 411 total whales. Data relative to whale mortality, however, is much less conclusive in terms of the role that Maine’s lobster fishery has played in that recent and troubling dip.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NOAA Fisheries Sets 2019 Management Measures for Northeast Groundfish

July 18, 2019 — We are approving Framework 58 and implementing new catch limits for seven groundfish stocks for the 2019 fishing year (May 1, 2019 – April 30, 2020), including the three stocks managed jointly with Canada. These revised catch limits are based upon the results of stock assessments conducted in 2018.

In 2019, commercial groundfish quotas increase for four stocks from 2018: Georges Bank cod (+15%), Georges Bank haddock (+20%), Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder (+31%), and Acadian redfish (+2%); and decrease for three stocks: Gulf of Maine haddock (-5%), Georges Bank yellowtail flounder (-50%), and American plaice (-7%).

Framework 58 also:

  • Exempts vessels fishing exclusively in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Regulatory Area (i.e., in international waters) from the domestic groundfish fishery minimum fish sizes to allow them to better compete in the international frozen fish market.
  • Extends the temporary change to the scallop accountability measure implementation policy for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder to provide the scallop fishery with flexibility to adjust to current catch conditions while still providing an incentive to avoid yellowtail flounder.
  • Revises or creates rebuilding plans for five stocks: Georges Bank winter flounder, Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder, witch flounder, northern windowpane flounder, and ocean pout.

In this rule, we are also announcing:

  • Reductions to the 2019 commercial quota for Gulf of Maine cod by 29.2 mt because the quota was exceeded in 2017.
  • A permanent extension of the annual deadline to submit applications to lease groundfish days-at-sea between vessels from March 1 to April 30 (the end of the fishing year); and
  • Changes to the regulations to clarify that vessels must report catch by statistical area when submitting catch reports through their vessel monitoring system.

Read the final rule  as filed today in the Federal Register and the permit holder bulletin available on our website.

Read the full release here

MAINE: State rejects group’s petition to change aquaculture lease process

July 17, 2019 — The Department of Marine Resources rejected a petition to change the criteria for aquaculture lease applications on the basis that the request was “not realistic,” “arbitrary” and could have a “perverse outcome” for some applicants.

Meanwhile, the company pitching a 40-acre oyster aquaculture lease on Maquoit Bay continues to await the department’s decision on its application, which is now two months overdue.

A group known as Save Maquoit Bay, composed of coastal property owners, lobstermen and fishermen, submitted a 189-signature petition asking officials to include a stipulation requiring the department to consider whether any other locations near a proposed lease site could “accommodate the proposed activities while interfering less with existing and surrounding uses of an area.”

The petition requested the actions to be imposed statewide, Mere Point Oyster Co.’s proposed 10-year, 40-acre lease has been mired in controversy. A marathon three-day hearing that spanned several months wrapped up in mid-January after waterfront property owners and lobster fishermen spoke out against what they saw as conflicting uses of the bay and the potential infringement on valuable lobstering grounds. Some of the lobstermen who spoke out against the lease also are members of Save Maquoit Bay.

The department had 120 days to make a ruling, which would have been May 15, but according to Jeff Nichols, communications director of the department of marine resources, “depending on the complexity of the application and the evidence, it may take longer.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Extra menhaden quota awarded to Maine as lobster bait shortage concerns heat up

July 17, 2019 — As the peak summer season begins to beat down on Maine’s lobster harvesters, state officials have stepped in to help ease some of the bait shortage burdens pressuring the sector as of late.

Last week, the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Management Council approved Maine’s request to reopen its recently closed menhaden fishery for an additional 4.7 million pounds of catch, according to a recent report from the Portland Press Herald. On 30 June, the state had to end its menhaden fishing season early after it determined that harvesters had exceeded the annual quota of 2.4 million pounds for the key bait species by 1.5 million pounds.

With the state’s fleet of more than 100 vessels seemingly docked for the summer, menhaden were still being found in abundance in Maine waters from Kittery to Penobscot Bay, prompting officials to petition the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Management Council for extra quota.

With their wish granted, state officials are hopeful that “landing the extra menhaden quota now that peak lobster season has started and bait demand is picking up will help ease fears of a shortage predicted as a result of a 70 percent reduction of landings for herring, Maine’s most popular lobster bait,” the Portland Press Herald explained. Prices were already rising when the herring season opened on Sunday, 14 July, noted a special bulletin issued by Maine.gov one day later.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine lawmakers say new rules will come at lobster industry’s expense

July 16, 2019 — Maine elected officials are pushing back with gusto against new federal measures to protect the imperiled North Atlantic right whales because of the impact of the new regulations on the state’s vital lobster industry.

The moves by Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who characterized the whale protection measures as “foolish” and an “absurd federal overreach,” and the state’s congressional delegation ultimately could have repercussions on Massachusetts’ lobster industry.

Or not. No one seems to know right now.

“The actions by Maine were a bit of a surprise, but nothing has been determined yet,” David Pierce, director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said Monday. “At this point, we don’t know what the federal government is going to do in response. There will be upcoming meetings and discussions, but right now it’s really wait and see.”

On Friday, Mills penned an open letter to the Maine lobster industry in which she said federal regulators have not provided specific evidence that the nation’s largest commercial lobster fleet is a primary threat to the remaining stock of North Atlantic right whales, now estimated at about 410.

“There is a disturbing lack of evidence connecting the Maine lobster industry to recent right whale deaths,” Mills wrote in the letter. “The Maine lobster industry is not the primary problem for right whales.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

More Bait Fish Expected to Help Maine Lobstermen With Crunch

July 16, 2019 — The reopening of the fishery for a species of schooling fish could boost Maine‘s lobster industry during a season in which its favored bait might be hard to come by.

The Portland Press Herald reports regional fishing managers have approved Maine’s request to reopen the fishery for menhaden. That could make available a few million pounds of the bait fish, which are also called pogies.

The most popular lobster bait in Maine is Atlantic herring, but that fishery has been subject to deep quota cuts in recent years because of concerns about the stability of its population.

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