Saving Seafood

MAINE: Elver season opens, but action is slow

March 30, 2017 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Elver fishing season opened on March 22 but, while Downeast stream banks are blossoming with fyke nets, at least so far, the juvenile eels that can fetch $2,000 per pound or more when the market is hot have been pretty scarce.

“Everyone set their nets to save their spots,” Darrell Young, an elver harvester from Franklin, said Monday morning. “The water’s too cold. I haven’t even started fishing yet.”

According to Young, fishermen with nets in the Union River have been landing only a few eels at a time.

“I spoke to one girl,” Young said. “She had 50 eels in her net.”

That’s not many, considering that it takes about 2,000 elvers to total a pound.

The few elvers that fishermen have been taking haven’t been of very good quality either.

“They’re weak. They don’t want to buy them,” Young said.

Weak or not, the few elvers that have been coming to market are fetching a reasonably good price.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Plan to reopen Maine shrimp fishery in the works

March 30, 2017 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Interstate fishing regulators are sending a plan to try to fix New England’s shuttered shrimp fishery to the public for a series of June hearings.

The northern shrimp fishery has been shut down for more than three years because of a collapse in population. The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has been considering new ways to save the fishery for the shrimp, which were a popular winter seafood item in New England.

The commission’s working on a plan that includes options such as changing the way the quota system is managed.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Central Maine

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Heritage Center presenting an evening of stories and verse from Down East Maine

March 30, 2017 — The public is invited to what organizers promise is sure to be an entertaining evening with Brian Robbins and Bob Quinn.

Bob Quinn grew up lobstering and fishing with his father and uncle, learning seamanship aboard the herring pumper Beryl.

Quinn has been steeped in the lore of coastal Maine since he was a child. His Uncle Bonney wrote nautical poems with a humorous bent and it is his recitations of these poems, along with his colorful commentary, for which he is best known. Quinn eventually moved to Eagle Island and assumed the caretaking of the family homestead. He has recorded two dozen of his uncle’s poems, and spends many evenings regaling neighbors and guests at the farmhouse with Uncle Bonney’s poems and his own salty stories.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section Approves Public Hearing Document on Draft Amendment 3 for Public Comment

March 29, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Arlington, Va. — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Section (Section) releases Draft Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northern Shrimp for public consideration and input. The states of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have scheduled their hearings to gather public comment on the Draft Amendment. The details of those hearings follow.

Maine Department of Marine Resources

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 at 6 PM

Maine Department of Marine Resources

Conference Room #118

32 Blossom Lane

Augusta, Maine

Contact: Terry Stockwell at 207.624.6553 

Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 6 PM

Ellsworth City Hall Conference Room

1 City Hall Plaza

Ellsworth, Maine

Contact: Terry Stockwell at 207.624.6553

New Hampshire Fish and Game

Tuesday, June 6, 2017 at 7 PM

Urban Forestry Center

45 Elwyn Road

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095

Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries

Monday, June 5, 2017 at 6 PM

MA DMF Annisquam River Station

30 Emerson Avenue

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Contact: Kelly Whitmore at 978.282.0308

The Section initiated Draft Amendment 3 with the intention of considering a limited entry program to address overcapacity in the fishery. In the 2010 and 2011 fishing seasons, increased fishing effort and untimely reporting resulted in early season closures and an overharvest of the total allowable catch (TAC). The 2012 fishing season was further restricted, resulting in a 21-day trawl season and a 17-day trap season. In the 2013 fishing season, despite the fact that only 55% of the TAC was harvested, the fishing mortality rate (0.53) was estimated above the target (0.38). In December 2013, the Section established a moratorium for the 2014 fishing season due to recruitment failure and a collapsed stock. The moratorium was maintained each year, through 2017, in response to the continued depleted condition of the stock.

Due to the uncertainty about if and when the resource would rebuild and the fishery reopen, the Section shifted the focus of Draft Amendment 3 to consider measures to improve management of the northern shrimp fishery and resource. Proposed options in the Draft Amendment include state-by-state allocations and accountability measures to better manage effort in the fishery. The Draft Amendment also explores the mandatory use of size sorting grate systems to minimize harvest of small (presumably male) shrimp, as well as reporting measures to ensure all harvested shrimp are being reported. 

Fishermen and other interested groups are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Amendment either by attending public hearings or providing written comments. The Draft Amendment can be obtained at http://www.asmfc.org/files/PublicInput/NShrimpDraftAmd3_PublicComment.pdf or via the Commission’s website, www.asmfc.org, under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on June 21, 2017 and should be forwarded to Max Appelman, FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St, Suite A-N, Arlington, VA 22201; 703.842.0741 (FAX) or at mappelman@asmfc.org (Subject line: Northern Shrimp). For more information, please contact Max Appelman at mappelman@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Maine’s Scallop Season Nearing End for 2016-17

March 28, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s scallop season’s winding down as dragger boat operators are entering their final week in some parts of the state.

This is the last week of fishing for draggers in the state’s central and eastern coasts. The only open days from the Penobscot Bay area to far eastern Maine are Monday and Tuesday. Limited parts of far eastern Maine are open on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Monday is also the last day of the year for people who dive for scallops in far eastern Maine.

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

Lobster boat captain charged in crewmen’s deaths arrested after reported overdose

March 27, 2017 — A Cushing captain accused of causing the deaths of two crew members when his lobster boat sank in a storm is behind bars again after he reportedly overdosed on heroin.

Christopher A. Hutchinson, 28, was arrested Thursday by the Maine Marine Patrol after U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby issued an arrest warrant for him Wednesday.

Hutchinson was in the Cumberland County Jail on Friday night after being transferred from the Knox County Jail in Rockland.

He is scheduled to go on trial later this year on two counts of seaman’s manslaughter for the deaths of Tom Hammond, 27, of Rockland and Tyler Sawyer, 15, of St. George and Waldoboro. The two were crew members aboard his lobster boat No Limits, which sank on Nov. 1, 2014.

Hutchinson was arrested Dec. 19 on the seaman’s manslaughter charges and released three days later on $10,000 unsecured bail. The court imposed conditions that Hutchinson not use or possess illegal narcotics.

But on March 13, Waldoboro emergency medical services and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an unresponsive man at a residence in Friendship, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland.

Officials found Hutchinson unresponsive, not breathing and with a faint pulse, according to the report. Two doses of the drug Narcan were administered to Hutchinson, who then regained consciousness.

Hutchinson refused to be taken to the hospital and claimed he had been working long hours and had not eaten. He also said he was a diabetic.

Read the full story from The Courier Gazette at The Portland Press Herald 

Maine lobstermen figured out how to make more money off their catches

March 27, 2017 — A lobstermen-only fishing organization has purchased a local lobster wholesale business, extending the reach of its members further down the distribution chain and giving them a greater share of the profit off their catch.

The Maine Lobstering Union, formed in 2013 in the wake of a sharp drop in prices paid to lobstermen by dealers, is buying Seal Point Lobster Co., a wholesale lobster distribution firm owned by the Pettegrow family. The Pettegrows also own the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound restaurant, which is not part of the sale.

A representative for the group declined to disclose the sale price, but according to media reports the MLU is paying $4 million for the business.

Joel Pitcher, an organizer with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the purchase of the wholesale business is in keeping with the mission of the lobstering group, which is to promote and protect the financial interests of lobstermen. Maine Lobstering Union Local 207 is a chartered chapter of IAM.

“It’s about putting lobstermen in a better position in the value stream on the shore side of the industry that they’ve never had access to,” Pitcher said recently.

The sale came about, Pitcher said, after Warren Pettegrow, who oversees the family businesses, started talked to MLU officials about ways that fishermen could secure a greater stake in the industry’s distribution chain. Attempts Thursday and Friday to contact Warren Pettegrow were unsuccessful.

Read the full story at The Bangor Daily News 

Cod Fishing Catches Plummet in Waters off New England

March 24, 2017 — ROCKPORT, Maine — The cod isn’t so sacred in New England anymore.

The fish-and-chips staple was once a critical piece of New England’s fishing industry, but catch is plummeting to all-time lows in the region. The decline of the fishery has made the U.S. reliant on foreign cod, and cod fish fillets and steaks purchased in American supermarkets and restaurants are now typically caught by Norway, Russia or Iceland in the north Atlantic.

In Maine, which is home to the country’s second-largest Atlantic cod fishery, the dwindling catch has many wondering if cod fishing is a thing of the past.

“It’s going to be more and more difficult for people to make this work,” said Maggie Raymond, executive director of the Associated Fisheries of Maine.

State records say 2016 was historically bad for cod fishing in Maine. Fishermen brought less than 170,000 pounds (77,110 kilograms) of the fish to land in the state last year.

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

Lobster exports to China boom

March 24, 2017 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — A trade war with China may be somewhere on the horizon, but the Maine lobster industry is hoping that the horizon is a distant one.

According to the figures published by the National Marine Fisheries Service, in 2016 China imported more than $108 million worth of lobsters from the United States. That’s a reported 14-fold jump from 2010, when lobster imports were about $7.4 million.

More than 80 percent of U.S. lobster imported to China comes from Maine.

The price of lobster was high last year, but so was demand. Published trade figures show that, in 2015, China imported about 13 million pounds of lobster from the United States. Last year, imports of American lobster topped 14 million pounds.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Maine fishermen see warning signs in lobster surge

March 23, 2017 — After Maine’s lobster industry set sales records for a second straight year, area fishermen are enjoying the boom while the water is warm.

Literally.

Rising sea temperatures are benefiting Maine’s iconic crustacean, leading to an increase in population while other marine species, such as soft-shell crabs, have suffered a decline, according to fishermen who spoke at a March 16 Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association panel.

But the factors for today’s success may portend tomorrow’s economic and cultural disaster, according to some area fishermen.

“We’re going to start going down when it gets warmer,” Maine Lobstermen’s Association President Dave Cousens told the audience at the Frontier Cafe.

Cousens was joined by MCFA President Gerry Cushing, of Port Clyde; Chebeague Island fisherman Alex Todd, and lobsterman Steve Train of Long Island.

Between July and October 2016, Cousens said, the ocean temperature was 60 degrees where he fishes in South Thomaston – a rise of three degrees since he began hauling traps three decades ago.

If temperatures rise three more degrees, he said, “lobster larvae will not survive. That’s what we’re facing.”

Last year, Maine fishermen hauled a record $130 million pounds of lobster, and the industry saw its value rocket $30 million, according to the Department of Marine Resources.

But the panelists warned the boom will be temporary.

“You don’t have to look too far south to see what’s coming,” Cousens said, noting the sharp demise of lobster populations off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York.

“That line’s just moving north,” Scott Moody, owner of Moody’s Seafood in Cundy’s Harbor, agreed the next day over the phone.

Moody, a fourth-generation lobsterman, fished in Harpswell for 30 years before starting his wholesale business, which includes five retail locations along Maine’s coast.

He buys directly from lobstermen and shellfish harvesters, and sells their product mostly to a distributor in Boston.

“In shellfish, we’ve seen a big turn,” Moody said last week. “I used to buy about $1 million in soft-shell (clams) in the Harpswell location,” at 337 Cundy’s Harbor Road.

“Since the climate change, I’m doing ($750,000) in hard-shell and only $250,000 in soft-shell,” he said.

Years ago, waiting to unload at his Boston distributor, “I’d be sitting behind five or six trucks of soft-shell clams,” he recalled. “They started to disappear. Then I’ve see guys bringing in hard-shell.”

He explained how warming waters increased the number of predators, such as Japanese green crabs, that can smash a clam’s soft shell.

Read the full story at The Forecaster