Saving Seafood

Endangered status of Atlantic sturgeon up for review

March 27, 2018 — Federal fishing regulators say they are conducting a five-year review of threatened and endangered populations of Atlantic sturgeon.

Populations of sturgeon are listed as threatened in the Gulf of Maine and endangered in New York Bight, the Chesapeake Bay and off the Carolinas and South Atlantic.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the Endangered Species Act requires the agency to conduct the review to ensure the listings are still accurate. The listings are intended to be based on the best available scientific data.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said last year that a sturgeon stock assessment indicated the population is still very low compared to its historical abundance. They face threats such as climate change, ship strikes and fishing.

Sturgeon suffered overfishing in the 20th century when it was harvested for eggs for caviar.

Shortnose sturgeon are listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as an endangered species throughout their range. Atlantic sturgeon are listed as five distinct population segments with those that hatch out in Gulf of Maine rivers listed as threatened, and those that hatch out in other U.S. rivers listedas endangered.

Once thought to number less than 100 in the Merrimack, the river’s shortnose sturgeon population has been on the rebound, researchers have said. Atlantic sturgeon are also found in the Merrimack, up to the Essex Dam in Lawrence.

Two distinct groups of adults, numbering more than 2,000, inhabit the river. One group includes fish born in Haverhill’s spawning grounds, while the other consists of fish born in Maine rivers such as the Kennebec and Androscoggin, which migrate to the Merrimack.

Researchers say that for much of the year, sturgeon are looking for food in the lower part of the Merrimack — from Amesbury to the Joppa Flats in Newburyport — and live there from November to March.

Haverhill is the only place in the river where sturgeon lay their eggs, and that happens in the spring.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Fishermen suit against Atlantic marine monument moves ahead

March 27, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Organizations suing to eliminate the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean have gotten the OK to proceed with a suit designed to reopen the area to commercial fishing, which environmentalists fear could jeopardize preservation efforts.

The fishing groups sued to challenge the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument created by President Barack Obama in 2016. It’s a 5,000-square-mile area off of New England that contains fragile deep sea corals and vulnerable species of marine life such as right whales.

The fishermen’s lawsuit had been put on hold by a review of national monuments ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration in April 2017. Court filings at U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia say the stay was lifted in mid-March and the litigation can proceed.

Marine national monuments are underwater areas designed to protect unique or vulnerable ecosystems. There are four of them in the Pacific. The Northeast monument, the only one off the East Coast, is also an area where fishermen harvest valuable species such as lobsters and crabs.

“To lose a big area that we have historically fished has quite an impact on quite a lot of people here,” said Jon Williams, a New Bedford, Massachusetts, crabber and a member of plaintiff group Offshore Lobstermen’s Association. “It’ll raise attention to it a little bit, which it needs.”

The court ordered the federal government, which is the defendant in the case, to respond by April 16. A spokeswoman from the federal Department of Commerce declined to comment.

The lawsuit’s ability to move forward will hopefully prod the federal government to make a decision about the future of the monument, which is unpopular with commercial harvesters, Williams said. But a coalition of environmental groups is also intervening in the case in an attempt to keep the monument area preserved.

Read the full story at the AP News

 

Decision To Allow More Baby Eel Fishing Pushed Back Months

March 27, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — A decision whether to allow fishermen to harvest more of the baby eels that are highly prized in Asian aquaculture has been put off for a few months.

Maine has the only significant fishery for baby eels, called elvers, in the country. The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering allowing the fishery a higher quota in future years.

A spokeswoman for the commission says action on the idea has been deferred until August. It was possible for a decision as soon as May, but instead states will hold hearings from May to July about the issue.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

 

Elvers Price Highest Ever For Fishery

March 27, 2018 — The price of elvers in the first few days of the season, is being reported as the highest ever for the fishery.

Maine has the only significant fishery for the young eels, also called elvers, in the country. The Elver season started Thursday March 22, and the Maine Department of Marine Resources is reporting they’re currently selling for just over $2,800 a pound.

The previous height was reported in 2015, at just under $2,200 a pound. Elvers are by far Maine’s most valuable fishery by pound, but the elver catch is limited by a quota, so in absolute terms it’s one of the least valuable in the state.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

US Says New Protections Will Help Build Cod Population

March 22, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government is touting new protections for young cod as a way to help rebuild the population of the fish.

The population of cod has plummeted off of New England, which was once home to a much larger fishery for the species. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says new fishing management rules include a Habitat Area of Particular Concern designation to help juvenile cod.

The zone stretches along the coast from Maine to Rhode Island and includes areas of rocky or vegetated habitats, as well as sandy areas nearby. NOAA says these areas need extra protection because they provide shelter from predators for young cod.

The agency says protection of the habitat is intended to try to give the cod a better chance to grow to maturity.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at US News

 

Scallop fishermen near end of season

March 21, 2018 — PEMBROKE, Maine — The Maine scallop fishing season opened during the first week of December and now, with two weeks or less remaining, reports on how good a season it has been are decidedly mixed.

On the good side of the ledger, there seemed to be plenty of scallops, often in places where none have been seen for years, Melissa Smith, who coordinates scallop management for the Department of Marine Resources, said last week.

With the season ending for draggers on March 29 along the Downeast coast (divers get six more days between March 30 and April 14), Smith said, only one of the seven rotational management zones that were open to fishing at the start of the season has been fully closed to fishing. Last year as the season ran down, only two of the seven rotational areas open at the season’s start remained fully open at its end.

“While emergency closures are still occurring each season,” Smith said in an email, “we’re observing that more harvestable area is remaining open during the season.”

The extended openings and “the expansion of harvestable scallops back to traditional beds,” she said, are indicators of the growth of the growth of the scallop resource in inshore waters.

According to Portland scallop dealer and former resource manager at DMR Togue Brawn, “they’re finding some nice pockets of big stuff still, which is a good indicator that the measures we put in place years ago are working.”

Without the closures and limits, the little “bump” in scallop population that occurred naturally “would have been just that. Guys would have found some nice patches and wiped them out. Now we’ve got something that could last.”

If there are more harvestable scallops around, their abundance may not be benefiting the pocketbooks of Maine’s fishermen.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

NOAA Update for Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery: Default Measures in Place for Start of the Fishing Year

March 16, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region:

Effective Date: April 1, 2018

Please note that we will not have Framework 29 in place by April 1, the start of the Atlantic Sea Scallop fishing year. Therefore, the default measures published in 2017 will take effect on April 1. We do expect to have Framework 29 finalized in April, which will likely adjust scallop allocations for the 2018 fishing year.

Please read the permit holder letter on our website for the Framework 29 proposed allocations so you can consider these adjustments when planning your fishing activity between April 1 and the implementation of Framework 29.

We separated the Northern Gulf of Maine Measures from Framework 29 to ensure that these measures would be in place before April 1, and are on track to do so.

We will be sending a separate bulletin describing those measures once we publish the final rule.

Learn more about NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region by visiting their site here.

 

Maine’s Scallop Season Nearing End With Grounds Still Open

March 15, 2018 — LUBEC, Maine – Maine’s scallop fishing season is nearing its final weeks with many scallop fishing grounds still open for harvesting.

The Maine scallop season begins in December and runs until April 10 this year. The state’s regulators use targeted closures to protect scallops from succumbing to overharvesting.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources says no emergency actions or closures are currently pending. The department says it’s continuing to monitor the health of scallops through surveys and industry updates.

Maine fishermen harvested nearly 800,000 pounds of scallops last year, the most since 1997.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public 

 

Fishermen of baby eels expect high price as stocks dry up

March 12, 2018 — ROCKPORT, Maine — Members of Maine’s baby-eel fishing industry are expecting high prices for the tiny fish this year because of a shortage on the international market, and sushi lovers could end up feeling the pinch.

Maine is the only U.S. state with a significant fishery for baby eels, or elvers. The tiny, translucent eels are sold to Asian aquaculture companies to be raised to maturity for use as food. They’re a key piece of the worldwide supply chain for Japanese dishes such as unagi, and some eventually make it back to the U.S.

The eels sold for about $1,300 per pound at the docks last year, about on par with an ounce of gold, and are already one of the most lucrative fisheries in the country on a per-pound basis. Fishermen in Asia are seeing a poor harvest this year, and European eel fisheries are cracking down on poaching, said state Rep. Jeffrey Pierce, a Dresden Republican and consultant to the elver fishery.

That means Maine’s elvers will be in higher demand, and prices could be higher for consumers.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Post

Low Numbers of Endangered Whales Sparks Debate About Whether Lobster Industry Threatens Species

March 9, 2018 — The population of the endangered North Atlantic right whale took a big hit last year with a record number found dead in Canadian waters from ship strikes and entanglements. With this year’s calving season ending and no new births observed, an ongoing debate over whether Maine’s lobster industry poses a mortal threat to the species is gaining new urgency.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Mark Baumgartner says that to help the whales survive much longer, the ropes Maine lobstermen use to tend their traps have to be modified or even eliminated. And it’s not just for the whales’ sake.

“I feel the industry is in jeopardy,” Baumgartner says.

Baumgartner was at the Fishermen’s Forum in Rockland late last week to detail the whale’s plight. If the lobster industry doesn’t respond effectively, he says, the federal government will step in.

“As the population continues to decline and pressure is put on the government to do something about it, then they’re going to turn to closures, because that’s all they’ll have,” he says.

There were about 450 North Atlantic right whales estimated to be alive in 2016. There were only five calves born last year, and a record 17 deaths caused by entanglement or ship strikes.

Read the full story at Maine Public