Saving Seafood

Gulf of Maine Research Institute receives $790K grant to study impact of warming ocean on key species

March 6, 2019 — The National Science Foundation awarded the Gulf of Maine Research Institute a $789,659 grant to examine the impact of a warming climate on growth and population patterns in cod and lobster in the Gulf of Maine.

The study will also document marine habitat shifts across the northwest Atlantic caused by rising temperatures, according to a March 4 news release issued jointly by the offices of U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine.

The funding will aid the institute in its work to better understand and mitigate the impacts of changing ocean conditions on Maine communities, marine ecosystems and economy, King and Collins said in the release.

The grant was awarded through the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

 

Lobster landings post turnaround, Maine’s fisheries’ overall value second highest on record

March 5, 2019 — Maine’s lobster harvesters had a strong year in 2018, landing 119.64 million pounds.

That was an increase of nearly 8 million pounds over 2017’s figure of 111.9 million pounds, according to a Department of Marine Resources news release.

The landings peak was in 2016, when 132.6 million pounds were harvested, after four years in the range of 122 million to 127 million pounds, according to the agency’s data.

Last year was the seventh time in history that landings exceeding 110 million pounds.

At $484.544 million, the value of Maine’s lobster fishery climbed by more than $46 million over 2017 on the strength of a boat price that increased from $3.92 per-pound in 2017 to $4.05 in 2018.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, during a visit to Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport over the weekend, took the occasion to commend the work of the men and women in Maine’s fishing industry, “whose hard work drives the economy and helps support families and communities up and down the coast.”

But he also highlighted in a news release the threat to Maine’s lobster fishery posed by climate change and the increasingly warmer temperatures in the Gulf of Maine that are causing lobsters to migrate northward to cooler waters.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Impending whale protections worry fishermen

March 5, 2019 — With the majority of American lobsters caught in Maine, the state’s lobster fishermen could bear the brunt of changes in federal fishery regulations to save the endangered right whale.

At the March 1 Fisherman’s Forum update on the threat of extinction for the North Atlantic right whale, it became clear regulators believe changes to fishing gear will be announced sometime this year.

Much of the presentation focused on changes to the vertical lines that attach buoys floating on top of the water to the lobster traps down on the ocean floor. The colored buoys identify the owner of the traps and their location, and the line is used to haul the heavy traps out of the water

In 2009, a whale protection regulation required fishermen to eliminate the floating rope they used to connect strings of lobster traps, and replace it with rope that lies on the ocean floor. That process took five years and a rope buyback program to accomplish, according to Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, who was in the audience. Switching out vertical lines cannot be done in one year, she said.

Read the full story at The Camden Herald

Value of Maine scallop landings dropped by 37 percent last year

March 4, 2019 — Maine’s 2018 scallop harvest fell by 37 percent in value and by 30 percent in volume from the prior year, according to state officials.

Despite the dropoff, the fishery continues to be relatively productive and lucrative compared to its poor condition in the 2000s.

Maine scallop fishermen netted 563,000 pounds of scallop meat with a cumulative dockside value of $5.9 million in 2018, continuing a streak of six straight years in which the fishery has produced nearly half a million pounds or more of scallop meat and at least $5 million in statewide landings value.

The 2018 drop can be attributed to exceptional numbers the fishery had in 2017, when it hit a 20-year high in volume and its highest value in nearly 25 years. Maine fishermen harvested more than 800,000 pounds of scallop meat in 2017 and cumulatively earned $9.4 million in gross revenue for their efforts.

The fishery’s peak success occurred in 1981, when Maine fishermen earned $15.2 million off a harvest of 3.8 million pounds of scallop meat. Catches dropped off by the mid-1980s and from the late 1990s through the early 2000s, fell even more. In 2004 and again in 2005, the annual harvest fell below 55,000 pounds and $300,000 in value.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Vote Coming Soon on New Rule to Prevent Baby Eel Poaching

March 4, 2019 — A state committee is scheduled to make a decision this week about whether to tighten controls in the Maine baby eel fishery to prevent poaching.

Baby eels are one of Maine’s most valuable marine resources. They almost always sell for more than $1,000 per pound to dealers. The Maine Department of Marine Resources wants to add a requirement that baby eel exporters in the state notify the Maine Marine Patrol 48 hours before preparing to pack and ship the eels.

The DMR Advisory Council is expected to vote on the proposal on Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Augusta.

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

Maine Lobstermen Share Anxieties Over New Regulations In The Industry At Annual Forum

March 4, 2019 — At Maine’s annual Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport Friday, a historic $600 million harvest season coincided with a slight increase in lobster landings and lingering concerns over potential changes to gear rules around protecting endangered right whales. But looming over the forum are major cutbacks in the quota of crucial herring bait fish — which could ripple across the industry.

Patrice McCarron is executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA). She is worried about the severity of herring restrictions imposed by the federal government after the species failed to reproduce in sustainable numbers last year.

“It’s about as bad as we can imagine, but we don’t yet know what it’s going to translate to for the fishermen,” McCaroon says.

McCarron says that Maine fishermen face a shortage of some 50-million pounds of bait in the coming season.

Fisherman are used to catching the traditional lobster baitfish in Maine’s coastal herring fishery all summer and into the fall, but McCarron says that will change under the new quotas.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Time tension line-cutter could offer lobstermen a whale entanglement solution

March 4, 2019 — A Maine lobsterman and machinist believes he could have the solution to North Atlantic right whale entanglement issues in the state’s lobster fishery.

Ben Brickett of Blue Water Concepts presented – or more accurately re-presented – his idea for a “Time Tension Line-Cutter” at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum on 1 March. The technology, which he invented over a decade ago, provides a solution for whale entanglements that doesn’t compromise rope strength or require any electronics.

“I got started in this in 2003. A good friend of mine who works on an offshore lobster boat came by and was very concerned with having to put weaker lines on his gear,” Brickett said. The friend in question was fishing in deep water, with hauling tensions that can approach 10,000 pounds on large lobster trawls. “They wanted to know if we could put in some kind of timed weak link.”

Currently, the lobster industry in the Northeast U.S. is facing pressure after a number of entanglement-related deaths of North Atlantic right whales – an endangered species with just over 400 individuals left – occurred in 2018. Both NOAA fisheries and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council have been investigating methods to prevent potential entanglements by the lobster industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

At Maine Fishermen’s Forum, Sen. Angus King lauds fishing industry

March 4, 2019 — U.S. Senator Angus King commended the work of the men and women in Maine’s fishing industry at the Maine Fisherman’s Forum in Rockport today, listening first-hand to the priorities and concerns of Maine fishermen from around the state.

“Here in Maine, generations of families have made their living at sea, and they have helped shape the traditions, culture, and economy of our state,” King said, in a news release. “The Maine Fishermen’s Forum is a wonderful way to celebrate our rich fishing heritage and to come together to put Maine’s collective expertise in the industry to work. With the increased communication and mutual understanding we solidified today, the Maine fishing industry is better positioned to further it’s important role for our state. It was an honor to speak with so many Maine men and women today whose hard work drives the economy and helps support families and communities up and down the coast.”

This week, Senator King and the rest of the Maine delegation wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, calling on him to make the lobster industry a priority in the ongoing trade negotiations with the Chinese government.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Pilot

Maine fish farm foes ask legislators to let agriculture commissioner kill projects

March 1, 2019 — The debate over two land-based salmon farms in Penobscot Bay spilled inland to Augusta on Thursday during a public hearing on a proposed law that would affect the licensing of such projects.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jan Dodge, D-Belfast, would allow the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to refuse to issue or to revoke an existing license for a land-based aquaculture project if it alone or in combination with another project is found to present an unreasonable risk to native species or the environment.

Some of those who testified in favor of LD 620 are veterans of the fight over Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed land-based salmon farm in Belfast, which has consumed the community for more than a year. Another project, Whole Oceans, to be located in the former Verso paper mill in Bucksport, has received much less criticism locally, but has been challenged by some in Belfast and Waldo County.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine’s lobster catch, value grew last year, officials say

March 1, 2019 — Maine lobstermen brought more than 119 million pounds (54 million kilograms) of the state’s signature seafood ashore last year, an increase that helped to propel the total value of Maine’s seafood to the second-highest value on record, state officials said Friday.

The value of the 2018 lobster catch was more than $484.5 million, and the total value for all Maine seafood was more than $637.1 million, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The state is by far the biggest lobster producer in the United States, and the industry is in the midst of a multiyear boom. However, the catch and its value have fluctuated wildly in recent years.

According to updated department numbers, the 2017 lobster haul was a little less than 112 million pounds (51 million kilograms) and was valued at more than $438 million. That was a drop from the previous year.

Preliminary data from 2018 show that trend reversed, for the year at least. The productive year by lobstermen coincided with high demand from consumers and strong retail prices.

“The demand for lobsters will always stay strong,” Kristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said Friday to a packed audience at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, a trade show taking place in Rockport this week.

Read the full story at the Associated Press