Saving Seafood

Maine 2019 statewide baby eel harvest value exceeds $20M for second straight year

June 3, 2019 — For two consecutive years, Maine baby eel fishermen have netted more than $20 million statewide and earned an average price of more than $2,000 per pound.

With a preliminary total value of $20.1 million, Maine’s 2019 baby eel harvest as the fourth-most lucrative ever, and as the second-most since a statewide annual catch limit was imposed in 2014. The average statewide price of $2,093 ranks as the third-highest such average that fishermen have earned for the lucrative baby eels, also known as elvers.

The 2019 elver fishing season effectively ended this past week. As of Thursday, May 23, just shy of 99.7 percent of the statewide catch limit of 9,636 pounds had been harvested, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Maine’s annual season begins each year on March 22 and runs either until the quota is reached or on June 7, depending which comes first.

Last year, when Maine had $21.7 million worth of landings and an average price of $2,366, was the first time the value of the statewide catch exceeded $20 million and elver fishermen were paid on average more than $2,000 per pound. The 2018 average price is the highest annual average ever in the fishery.

The elver fishing season last year was cut short, however, when state officials found out that some fishermen were illegally selling eels under the table to dealers for cash in an attempt to avoid having those eels count toward the statewide catch quota. Despite some arrests, there were no reports of widespread illegal activity in the fishery this year.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine’s Atlantic salmon prognosis remains grim despite all-time low harvest and more adult returns to North American rivers

May 31, 2019 — On Thursday, as national delegations prepare to meet in Norway to discuss Atlantic salmon conservation, there’s a mixed bag of news for those who are passionate about salmon and salmon angling.

The headline on an Atlantic Salmon Federation press release, in fact, sounds downright cheery, as it announces that harvest of the fish in the North Atlantic is at an all-time low, and adult returns to North American rivers increased from 2017 to 2018.

That’s the attitude the ASF is taking heading into the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, at least.

In an accompanying report, “State of the North American Atlantic Salmon Populations,” a more sober picture begins to emerge.

According to that report, salmon returns to U.S. rivers in 2018 met only 3 percent of the conservation limit for fish that had spent two winters at sea. And what’s a “conservation limit?” That’s defined as the number of spawning adults below which populations are unable to sustain themselves, and begin to decline.

And that pretty much defines the Atlantic salmon situation here in Maine; the fish is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Fishing for Atlantic salmon here is not allowed, and the population that does exist is almost entirely dependent on the annual stocking of hundreds of thousands of hatchery fish.

In 2018, according to the ASF, the Penobscot had 480 large salmon and 289 small salmon return. That run of 769 fish was lower than 2017’s 849 returning salmon.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Weighing in on whales: Maine’s delegation asks for accuracy

May 31, 2019 — Maine’s congressional delegation issued a letter this week to NOAA’s acting director in an effort to clarify the agency’s mission and goals for right whale protections.

Maine’s lobster industry stakeholders have concerns about the federal data tool used to establish levels of risk, varying standards for risk reduction, and sharing the burden of whale protection by enlisting Canadian fisheries to adopt similar management measures.

Following an April meeting of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, Maine lobster officials agreed to reduce vertical trap lines by 50 percent and overall risk to right whales by 60 percent, with the understanding that other state-run fisheries would make the same commitment to overall risk reduction.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative creates promotional “Content Hub”

May 30, 2019 — The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative has announced the creation of a new tool for retailers, distributors, and more to promote lobster, the state’s most valuable seafood product.

The Content Hub, located on the MLMC website, contains logos, infographics, fact-sheets, videos giving details about the industry, high-quality photos, and more. The hub, according to MLMC Executive Director Marianne LaCroix, is intended to aid anyone buying or selling the product and journalists looking for information.

“The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative (MLMC) developed its new Content Hub to support the promotional efforts of Maine lobster distributors, foodservice operators, retailers, restauranteurs and anyone selling or promoting Maine lobster worldwide,” she said. “The digital library of assets aims to ensure those buying and selling Maine lobster have a cohesive, easy-to-navigate resource packed with the tools and information needed to both promote and make informed decisions about lobster products.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine’s congressional delegation asks feds to reduce impact of right whale protections on lobster industry

May 30, 2019 — Maine’s congressional delegation wrote Tuesday to federal officials to express concern that ongoing efforts to decrease the death of right whales will have a significant impact on Maine’s lobster industry.

The delegation asked National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration leaders to ensure that decisions made by the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team are based on “sound” and “comprehensive” science, that risk reduction standards are equitable across the United States and Canada, and that the lobster industry is consulted throughout the decision-making process, according to a release from Maine’s four members of Congress.

The new efforts to protect right whales are driven by the federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Because of the current endangered status of right whales, if Maine fails to come up with a plan to protect the whales, NOAA will determine what action is taken, according to Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The task force set a goal of reducing right whale mortality by 60 percent to 80 percent, and met last month with a group of approximately 60 fishermen, scientists and conservationists joining state and federal officials to discuss ways to further reduce serious injury and mortality of endangered North Atlantic right whales caused by trap/pot fishing gear.

They hope to agree on measures that would reduce serious injuries and deaths of right whales caused by fishing gear in U.S. waters from Maine to Florida to fewer than one whale per year, the level prescribed by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, according to NOAA.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Fishermen face another quota cut, could hit lobster prices

May 28, 2019 — Fishermen already dealing with a dramatic reduction in the amount of a key bait fish they are allowed to harvest will likely face an additional cut next year that could drive up the price of lobster for consumers.

Regulators on the East Coast are contending with a drop in the population of herring, a key forage fish species that has been used as lobster bait for generations. Cuts in catch quota this year will mean the total haul for 2019 will be less than a fifth of the 2014 harvest, which was more than 200 million pounds (90 million kilograms).

A fishery management board is due to make a decision about the 2020 catch limits in early June. The options include maintaining this year’s levels or reducing them further, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said in public documents.

The agency wants to avoid overfishing at a time when a scientific assessment has shown a below-average number of young herring are joining the population. Scientists have said it’s not clear why that’s the case, but two possibilities they’ve cited are climate change and an abundance of predators.

The lobster industry has enjoyed large hauls in recent years, but it’s dependent on bait to load traps. A spike in the price of bait could ultimately be felt by consumers in restaurants and fish markets.

For lobster fishermen, another cut to the quota will mean finding new sources of bait, said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. It’s possible there won’t be enough to go around, and prices are sure to be high.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

Growth of Maine oyster farming prompts debate, disputes about aquaculture

May 23, 2019 — A short line of black floating tubes comes into view rounding Hopkins Island in Cundy’s Harbor. While they’re large enough for passing boaters and fishermen to spot, they don’t rise out of the water much higher than a lobster buoy. This is one of Peter Rand’s aquaculture leases.

He’s among the hundreds in Maine getting involved in the burgeoning aquaculture industry that has pumped millions into the state’s economy, but is under fire from lobstermen who compete for the same fishing grounds and homeowners who don’t want to see aquaculture sites from their waterfront properties.

With the situation coming to a head,  the Department of Marine Resources began the process at a meeting Wednesday of examining whether it should amend its rules to limit the size and location of aquaculture lease sites.

In March, the Department of Marine Resources received a petition with 189 signatures seeking an immediate moratorium on aquaculture leases larger than 10 acres. The petition also sought to create a new rule requiring that regulators consider alternate locations before approving aquaculture leases.

The petition triggered a rule-making process that began with Wednesday’s hearing.

In 2017, Maine aquaculture brought in 2.8 million pounds of oysters – a nearly fivefold increase since 2011 – and had an estimated $13.6 million economic impact.

That number is dwarfed by the landings value of Maine’s most famous shellfish – lobsters. Maine lobster landings were valued at a $484 million in 2018.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

From Carp to Pig-Hide: Bait Shortage Means Change for Lobsters’ Diet

May 23, 2019 — Gulf of Maine lobstermen are casting around far and wide for new kinds of bait, now that federal regulators have cut herring quotas by 70 percent. Possible solutions range from the mass importation of a nuisance fish from the Midwest, to manufactured baits to pig hides.

Fisheries managers estimate a 50-million pound “herring gap” in Maine over the next year. To help close it, they are turning to colleagues in Illinois.

On a rainy fishing day in the Illinois River, state invasive species coordinator Kevin Irons oversees the capture of dozens of fish — all freshwater carp, which were introduced to the Mississippi Basin decades ago. They have proliferated at an epic scale, crowding out native fish and damaging ecosystems.

“The big-head, the silvers and the grass carp, you also see some of the common carp — I like to call them Grampa’s carp, they’ve been around a long time,” says Irons. “You’ve got four different species of invasive fish here.”

Read the full story at Maine Public

Where Did the Right Whales Go?

May 23, 2019 — Something happened to the population of North Atlantic right whales in the last decade, as their numbers shrank and fewer calves were born.

Scientists had long speculated that a change had occurred in the whales’ sources of food. By 2017, only 411 animals were counted, down from 482 in 2010. A paper published this month in the journal Oceanography, links warming in the Gulf of Maine with the life cycle of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus, a tiny shrimplike creature that forms the foundation of the right whale diet.

Although it is hard to prove cause and effect, the paper’s lead author, Nicholas Record, said the study connected “the big ocean-scale climate changes” in the North Atlantic with the water coming into the Gulf of Maine and the whale’s food resources.

“All of these pieces lined up together really well,” said Dr. Record, senior research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, a nonprofit institute in Boothbay, Maine. “It was really kind of stunning.”

An influx of warm water near the ocean floor in 2010 significantly reduced the abundance of the shrimplike creature in the Gulf of Maine that summer and fall. Warmer water would have brought in fewer Calanus and also meant that more died and were eaten earlier in the season, Dr. Record said, leaving less food, “right when right whales need their last big meal before winter.”

The whales followed the Calanus populations elsewhere, including to Cape Cod Bay and to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in northern Canada. Their shift in location may have created even bigger problems for the overall population, when they might have been hungry and moved to places with heavy shipping traffic.

Read the full story at The New York Times

MAINE: Belfast lobstermen fear Nordic Aquafarms’ discharge pipes will harm fishery

May 22, 2019 — Some Belfast lobster fishermen told the local Harbor Advisory Committee that they were concerned that dredging for installation of Nordic Aquafarms’ discharge and intake pipes along submerged lands could release mercury in the ocean sediment and pose a hazard to navigation.

Mercury contamination has closed lobster and crab fishing in part of Penobscot Bay in recent years.

The Belfast Town Council heard about the concerns at its May 7 meeting.

“The fishermen have concerns,” advisory committee member Dan Miller told the council. The committee doesn’t have any purview over Nordic Aquafarms’ proposal, he noted. “Our place is to ask you to make sure those concerns are in some way addressed by the appropriate agency.”

Miller said “a handful of fishermen” voiced concerns that dredging for installation of the pipes could stir up mercury. He noted that some testing for mercury has been performed in the area. Further testing would likely identify whether it’s a valid concern, he said.

“We would suggest that, if we run into mercury during the [installation] process, we would stop the process and look again,” Miller said. “But we won’t know until we get there, short of considerable testing.”

The committee also heard concerns that pipe operation could increase water temperature in the surrounding area and affect lobster fishing, he said.

With regard to the possibility of mercury being stirred up through dredging, “Is this something that we as a city should contact the state to have them address?” Councilor Paul Dean asked the city’s director of code and planning, Wayne Marshall.

Read the full story at MaineBiz