Maine Archives - Page 214 of 304

The Future of Lobstering May Mean Fishing by Computer

May 9, 2018 — The endangered North Atlantic right whale is facing extinction, with fewer than 450 left. The cause of the highest mortality is entanglement in fishing gear, including lobster trap lines. A lawsuit forcing the government to protect the whales may bring about a change in the way lobster fishermen have worked for more than a hundred years.

Lobster fishing used to be pretty straightforward. But there may be big changes ahead for fishermen in New England.

“First thing you have to remember is, you’re taking the lobster industry and flipping it around on its head and shaking it,” Mike Lane said, sitting on his lobster boat in Cohassett Lane. Lane is a life-long fisherman. His dad fished for lobster before him. He’s concerned about the proposals. “How are you going to teach 60-year old men that don’t use computers to use a computer?”

Pretty soon, Lobstermen may be asked to find their traps using computers, instead of buoys. New fishing technology is being developed to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale—it’s called ropeless fishing.

Read the full story at WCAI

Maine: Marine cleanup team tangles with 2 tons of ‘ghost gear’ off Cape Elizabeth

May 9, 2018 — A two-ton, decades-old ball of underwater marine debris measuring 15 feet in diameter was pulled from Dyer Cove off Cape Elizabeth on Tuesday, the biggest example of derelict fishing gear recovered from the Gulf of Maine in at least a decade, according to the lobster industry group that removed it.

“Look at it, it’s huge,” said Jim Buxton of Scarborough, the lobsterman and diver who helped raise it. “It has a little of everything. I see gill nets, trawl nets, lobster traps. Every fishery we’ve ever had here and more. Look there at the size of the mesh. That hasn’t been used in decades.”

The Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation has been ridding local waters of so-called “ghost gear” for a decade, culling state waters of more than 5,000 traps during that time, but it is usually done trap by trap, said Executive Director Erin Pelletier. This ball will likely top out at between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

New England Haddock, Pollock and Redfish Trawl Fishery Achieves MSC Certification

May 8, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has certified the New England haddock, pollock and redfish trawl fishery as sustainable.

Portland, Maine-based Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, who spearheaded the MSC certification efforts, confirmed the news on Monday.

“The MSC label is the gold star standard of certification and will assure our customers that these fish stocks are healthy and well managed,” Jim Odlin of Atlantic Trawlers said in a statement. “Our vessels – the Nobska, Morue, Harmony, Teresa Marie III and Teresa Marie IV – also use modified fishing gear to minimize the catch of other stocks, like cod, so we can maximize the catch of haddock, pollock and redfish.”

The MSC assessment concluded that the New England fishery management system is “robust and contains requirements that lead to the fulfillment of MSC principles.” The assessment also found that the fishery has extensive catch accountability and traceability systems, as well as strong science supporting the foundation for “rebuilding and maintaining abundant stocks of haddock and redfish, which were previously overfished.”

This story was originally published by Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

Lobster prices high, but dropping as summer approaches

May 7, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Lobster prices are high in the U.S. right now, but members of the industry expect them to come down soon as the Canadian catch creeps up and America’s summer haul gets going.

One-pound lobsters, which Mainers call “chicks,” are selling for about $12 per pound to consumers, which is a couple of dollars per pound more than six months ago. The U.S. lobster industry, based heavily in Maine, is in a slow mode as fishermen get ready to pull traps in the summer.

The lack of fishing effort and high prices have caused some in the seafood industry to raise the possibility of a shortage, but industry members say quite the opposite is true. Canada’s spring fishing season is just starting to heat up, which means prices already are starting to track back down, industry members said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

Monkfish are indeed fine as quota stays the same in 2018

May 4, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Michelle Wolf is right — the monkfish really are fine.

Federal fishing regulators are allowing fishermen to harvest the same amount of the ugly fish this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration allowed fishermen to catch about 33.8 million pounds of monkfish last year, and says the fishery’s sustainable enough that the number will hold in 2018.

They’re sought by fishermen from Maine to North Carolina and can be less expensive at markets than popular fish such as cod and flounder. Some industry members want to grow interest in monkfish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Raleigh News & Observer

Maine’s ‘grandfather of eel fishing’ to be sentenced for trafficking in poached elvers

May 3, 2018 — A Woolwich man credited with playing a key role in establishing Maine’s lucrative baby eel fishery is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday morning in Portland for buying and selling more than half a million dollars worth of baby eels he knew had been caught illegally.

William “Bill” Sheldon, 71, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Portland at 10 a.m. Thursday, to be sentenced for violating the federal Lacey Act by trafficking in poached baby eels, also known as elvers.

Sheldon is one of the most influential fishermen in Maine and has been described by national news media as “Maine’s elver kingpin” and “the grandfather of eel fishing.”

He is one of 21 men, 12 of whom live in Maine, charged in four states with participating in a scheme to illegally catch and sell elvers. In all, the defendants caught, sold and transported more than $5.25 million worth of poached elvers in nine East Coast states from 2011 through 2014, according to prosecutors.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Hearings Coming About Increase in Baby Eel Fishing Quota

May 3, 2018 — BREWER, Maine — A proposal to allow Maine‘s elver fishermen to catch more of the baby eels will be up for a public hearing in the state next month.

Fishermen harvest elvers in rivers and streams in Maine so they can be sold to Asian aquaculture companies for use in Japanese food after they’re raised to maturity. Maine’s the only state in the country with a significant fishery for elvers, and fishermen are limited to 9,688 pounds per year.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering increasing that total to 11,749 pounds per year. The eels are currently worth more than $2,000 per pound at docks so the increase would mean access to millions of dollars in revenue.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at US News

Feds closing part of New England scallop fishery

May 2, 2018 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Federal regulators are closing a key scallop fishing area off of New England for nearly 11 months.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration says it is closing the northern Gulf of Maine to a class of fishermen who fish under a federal permit starting Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. The closure will last until March 31, 2019.

NOAA says the vessels will not be allowed to fish for, possess, or land scallops from the area, which is off of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The agency says regulations require that it closes the area once it projects that all of the quota has been harvested.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times

Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery; Closure of the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area for Limited Access General Category Vessels

May 2, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) Scallop Management Area is closed to all federally permitted Limited Access General Category (LAGC) scallop vessels effective 0001 hr, on May 2, 2018, except as exempted below. The scallop regulations require that we close this area once we project that 100 percent of the 2018 LAGC total allowable catch for this area will be taken. This closure is effective through March 31, 2019.

LAGC vessels that have declared a trip into the NGOM Scallop Management Area using the correct Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) code, and have crossed the VMS demarcation line before 0001 hr, May 2, 2018, may complete their trip and retain and land scallops caught from the NGOM Scallop Management Area. Except for vessels that have met these trip completion requirements, no LAGC scallop vessel fishing under federal scallop regulations subject to this closure may fish for, possess, or land scallops in or from the NGOM Scallop Management Area.

This closure does not apply the Limited Access (LA) fleet. The LA TAC will be harvested solely by vessels who are participating in the 2018 scallop Research Set-Aside Program and have been issues letters of authorization to conduct compensation fishing activities.

Exemption for Maine and Massachusetts Vessels Fishing Exclusively State Waters

Vessels issued a Limited Access General Category (LAGC) NGOM (LAGC B) or Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) scallop permit (LAGC A) may continue to fish in the Maine and Massachusetts state waters portion of the NGOM Scallop Management Area under the State Waters Exemption program provided they have a valid Maine or Massachusetts state scallop permit and fish only in that states waters.

Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Vessel Owners Please Note: An IFQ scallop vessel must have scallop IFQ allocation to fish for scallops at any time or place. For vessels fishing under an (IFQ) scallop permit (category LAGC A), all scallop pounds landed, including scallops caught under a state waters only trip, will be deducted from the vessel’s IFQ allocation.

Read the full bulletin at NOAA Fisheries

Why Maine Is The Only State In The US With A ‘Significant’ Elver Fishery

May 1, 2018 — If you’ve ever read a story in the news about elver fishing season, you’ve probably seen some variation of this line: “Maine’s the only state in the U.S. with a significant fishery for elvers.”

Maybe you thought that’s because elvers don’t exist in large numbers outside of Maine — that would be a reasonable assumption. But the real reason is somewhat more complicated.

Let’s start at the beginning, in the Sargasso Sea. Although it sounds romantic, the Sargasso Sea is actually just an area of the North Atlantic that’s full of Sargassum, a kind of seaweed that floats in the ocean rather than existing close to land.

It’s a unique marine environment, and the Sargasso Sea provides a cozy place for many species to spawn or start out life, including baby turtles and some types of fish.

It’s also where the life cycle of the American eel both begins and ends. They’re born there, and after a few decades — eels are incredibly long-lived animals — they swim back in, spawn and die.

Outside of that, eels’ life cycle isn’t that well understood, but we know they start out there as tiny leptocephali, or larvae, which look like nothing more than a transparent willow leaf.

Read the full story at Maine Public