Saving Seafood

Maine seafood business stuck in limbo due to shutdown

January 23, 2019 — The ongoing partial shutdown of the U.S. government, which is entering its second month, has caused headaches for Leslie Harlow, the owner of Hancock, Maine-based Sullivan Harbor Farm Smokehouse.

Harlow, who is seeking to reopen the salmon smoking operation after it closed several years ago, is awaiting licensing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after a final inspection took place in December.

“Our final paperwork is sitting on the desk of an FDA inspector, who currently is not working due to the shutdown,” Harlow said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Maine Fisherman Says ‘Sea-To-Table’ Is Path To Sustainability — For Oceans And His Business

January 22, 2019 — It’s tough to be an independent commercial fisherman, and regulations designed to manage fish populations are part of the reason why.

The government has imposed a quota system: fishermen have to pay to catch certain kinds of fish, like cod. Cod is deemed to be in low supply. So, fishermen are only allowed to catch a limited amount of it. They can pay to lease someone else’s quotas, so they can catch more. But that’s expensive, and makes it harder to turn a profit.

One fisherman in Maine is trying to fish more sustainably — and make a living doing it.

“The average fish that you go and eat at an average seafood restaurant has been around for 10 days and traveled 7,000 miles. We beat that by about 99.9 percent,” says Tim Rider, who’s adopted a sea-to-table method that means consumers get fresh seafood just a few days — or even hours — after it was caught.

Instead of selling fish through wholesalers who control the price, Rider’s company New England Fishmongers sells fish directly to local restaurants and consumers.

Considering the strict regulations and fishing quotas that commercial fishermen face, Rider focuses on quality over quantity in order to compete with larger fishing companies. The fish are bled and gutted on the boat, which Rider says yields a higher quality product. This approach also proves to be less wasteful, he says.

Read the full story at WBUR

MAINE: Aquaculture rule changes

January 21, 2019 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources will hold a public hearing Thursday, Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. at Ellsworth City Hall on proposed changes to aquaculture leasing regulations.

This proposed rule would make a number of changes to clarify the aquaculture leasing regulations, including the elimination of redundant language.

It would also make several changes to the leasing procedures for standard and limited-purpose aquaculture leases, including the timing of scoping sessions, required information regarding an applicant’s financial capability and a prohibition on the siting of leases within a designated zone around a wastewater treatment plant.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Dreaming of a lobster license, but trapped on a waitlist

January 21, 2019 — Holly Masterson got her start in the lobster industry when she was 15, when her stepfather, David Horner, hired her to stock and clean up his boat at night.

Horner taught her how to lobster, fish for shrimp and scallops, and drag for haddock, monkfish and cod. When he lost his sternman, Masterson filled in. The Southwest Harbor resident hadn’t planned to become a fisherman, just help out her family, but she got hooked. At 24, Masterson entered the lobster apprenticeship program. In July 2008, after completing the program, Masterson was added to a list of area fishermen waiting for a state lobster license.

“I was so excited about the future,” Masterson recalled. “I knew I’d have to wait, but I thought it would be a couple years. Little did I know.”

Ten years later, after almost a quarter century in the business, the 38-year-old Masterson is still waiting. She still works for Horner, even though he and her mom are no longer together. She got her real estate license, and rents out a handful of vacation properties she has bought up over the years. But that’s just a side gig. She still dreams of getting that license, and the freedom that comes with being her own boss.

“Some years, nobody comes off the list,” Masterson said. “At this rate, my 9-year-old daughter, Eden, will be able to fish and sell her lobsters before I will.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine lobster landings up slightly in 2018; Canadian catch remains even

January 17, 2019 — Maine’s lobster harvest was up slightly in 2018, but didn’t match the total of the record-setting 2016 season.

Fishermen in Maine landed a little over 110.8 million pounds (50,258 metric tons – MT) of lobster in 2017, after landing an all-time high of nearly 131 million pounds in 2016. Data shared at the 2019 Global Seafood Market Conference revealed that the 2018 catch total finished at around 119 million pounds.

“It was a very, very healthy harvest rate from Maine this year,” Keith Moores, president of seafood supplier F.W. Bryce, said in sharing the data during his presentation.

Moores reported unofficial figures show the Canadian harvest was stable in 2018 at around 90,000 metric tons. In 2017, Canada caught 92,682 metric tons of lobster, or approximately 200 million pounds and In 2016, the catch was nearly identical, at 92,601 metric tons.

“As far as harvesting, there’s a very stable supply of lobster,” Moores said of the 2018 projections.

After a delayed start due to bad weather, the Canada’s current season has been steady, according to Owen Kenney, the sales and business development manager of Downeast Specialty Products, which has lobster operations in both Canada and Maine.

Because of several factors – most notably the trade war between the U.S. and China – live exports from Canada increased significantly in 2018, and even more so in the current season. That created what Kenney called a “different dynamic” for the sector, in which the processing sector had little to no access to raw material compared to the previous January.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

A calico lobster turned up at a Maryland fish market. The chances of finding one: 1 in 30 million

January 15, 2019 — He spared her life and named her Eve. Now instead of a lobster pot she’s going to live in an aquarium.

The owner of a fish market in suburban Washington was sifting through his daily seafood delivery from Maine in late December when he came across a curious find: a lobster with a speckled, orange-and-black shell. It turned out to be a rare calico lobster.

The odds of catching one are about one in 30 million.

The owner of the Ocean City Seafood market in Silver Spring, Maryland, who wants to be identified only as Nicholas, didn’t want to send the crustacean to a restaurant to become someone’s dinner. So he set her aside.

“He didn’t know why she was special,” said Rita Montoya, a spokeswoman for the market. “He just formed a bond with her.”

Read the full story at CNN

Aquaculture Rule Changes up for Public Comment in Maine

January 14, 2019 — Maine fisheries managers are looking to make a number of changes to aquaculture rules in the state, and are asking for feedback from the industry and the public about the potential changes.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is considering a proposal that would make changes to the leasing procedures it uses for farmers of seafood. The new rules would also clarify that an emergency lease could be used when the safety of consumers is threatened, and they would establish minimum lease maintenance standards.

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

Maine proposal would encourage more shellfish research

January 14, 2019 — Maine might be the site of more shellfish research if a proposal before a state legislative committee is successful.

Democratic Rep. Robert Alley of Beals has issued the proposal, titled “An Act To Encourage Applied Shellfish Research.” The bill proposes a tweak to municipalities’ shellfish conservation ordinances, which currently regulate possession of shellfish and where they can be taken.

Alley’s proposal would allow research entities to contact research in conjunction with the Maine Department of Marine Resources to support shellfish conservation. It would also require annual reports about research findings.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

MAINE: Scallop prices variable, but comparable to last year

January 10, 2019 — The price of scallops caught in Maine waters is comparing well with previous years.

The Ellsworth American reported that harvesters were receiving prices as high as nearly $14 per pound. But in some cases, harvesters received $8.75 to $10.75 per pound, depending on meat size.

That compares with the 2017-18 scallop season, which started off with prices that were down $2 to $3 from 2016-17’s average of $12.77.

In 2017, Maine scallop harvesters landed the most scallops since 1997, bringing ashore 793,544 meat pounds, a nearly 45% jump from 2016. At $9.3 million, scallop landings had the highest overall value since 1993.

The 2018-19 season began Dec. 1. By Jan. 4, the Maine Department of Marine Resources had begun implementing its emergency rulemaking authority to implement conservation closures along parts of the coast to protect the scallop resource from the risk of depletion of broodstock and seed scallop. Called “targeted conservation closures,” they’re determined by the marine resources commissioner based on depletion, seed, the presence of spat-producing scallops and other factors.

Read the full story at Maine Biz

MAINE: Whale rule changes coming on two tracks

January 9, 2019 — Maine lobstermen and their representatives, along with state fisheries regulators, continue in the trenches of debates about how much the Maine lobster fishery is implicated in the decline of the North Atlantic right whale.

Ongoing efforts to protect the whales from entanglement with fishing gear may result in two different new sets of regulations, Sarah Cotnoir, resource coordinator for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, told the Zone B Council last week.

The two sets of regulations come from parallel processes under two federal laws, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American