Saving Seafood

MAINE: DMR seeks nomination

February 7, 2017 — The Department of Marine Resources is seeking recommendations from fisheries associations and individuals for Gov. Paul LePage’s nomination of a person to fill an at-large seat on the New England Fishery Management Council currently held by a Maine resident.

Recommendations should be submitted to this department by Feb. 20 to provide nominees with adequate time to complete the required paperwork. Call 624-6553, fax 624-6024 or email your recommendations to Amy Sinclair at amy.sinclair@maine.gov.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Committee to hear marine worm, elver bills

February 8, 2017 — The Legislature is in full swing and next Monday, the Marine Resources Committee will hold a public hearing on a controversial bill that could significantly alter two Maine fisheries.

Rep. Robert Alley (D-Beals) is offering a bill (LD 115) that would ban dragging for mussels in any Washington County river and close Maine intertidal flats to worm harvesting from Dec. 1 through March 31. Last week, the Independent Maine Marine Worm Harvesters Association sent a mailing to all marine worm license holders soliciting their opinions on the proposal.

Judging from responses posted on the association’s Facebook page and elsewhere online, there is little support for a closed season and a divided opinion on the dragging ban.

A few harvesters commented on Facebook that a four-month closure could cost Maine diggers the opportunity to ship worms to the busy European bait market during the winter. When digging resumed in the spring, they said, there would be little incentive for European buyers to come back into the Maine worm market. That could leave harvesters and dealers with an oversupply of worms for the domestic market, and that could reduce prices.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Lobsterman cleared of unlicensed fishing

February 8, 2017 — Every once in a while, a case comes along that serves as a reminder that Maine courts, like the state’s many law enforcement agencies, are a part of what is loosely called the justice system and that most of the people who work in the courts and law enforcement agencies want to see justice done.

Last week, Trenton lobsterman Jacob White found himself before Superior Court Justice Robert E. Murray facing a civil violation of the state’s marine resources laws for fishing without a lobster license last October. Also before the court was the state’s seizure of 156 pounds of lobster White landed at the Seal Cove wharf on the day Marine Patrol Officer Jeff Turcotte issued the summons for unlicensed lobstering.

White decided to fight the case, and, perhaps a surprise, he won.

“I take pride in being a good fisherman and an honest fisherman,” White told the judge.

Murray evidently agreed, dismissing the unlicensed fishing charge and ordering the state to pay White for his seized lobsters. Neither Turcotte nor his supervisor, Sgt. Troy Dow, seemed dissatisfied with the result.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Crab bycatch rule set

February 7, 2017 —  The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s American Lobster Management Board approved Addendum II to the Jonah Crab Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The addendum establishes a coast-wide standard for claw harvest and a definition of bycatch, based on a percent composition of catch, in order to minimize the expansion of a small-scale fishery under the bycatch allowance.

The lobster board is in charge of Jonah crab management, as the fisheries are linked in many states. Many fishermen fish for both species with the same gear.

Some crab fishermen keep only crab claws and throw back the rest of the crab. Under a provision in the 2015 FMP, only fishermen from New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia who have a history of claw landings prior to June 2, 2015, were allowed to harvest claws. All other fishermen were required to land whole crabs only.

The commission discovered that there also were fishermen in New York and Maine who had a history of claw landings but they were required to land whole crabs under the provisions of the FMP.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: DMR sets scallop closures

February 6, 2017 — The Department of Marine Resources has imposed immediate “emergency” closures of several scallop fishing areas that became effective this week “due to the risk of imminent depletion and unusual damage” to the resource.

The closed areas are located in: the Chandler Bay/Head Harbor Island area Downeast; Lower Blue Hill Bay and Jericho Bay; the Mid-Penobscot Bay area; around North Haven; the Upper Damariscotta River; and Casco Bay.

Announcing the closures, DMR said that it is concerned that unrestricted harvest during the remainder of the 2016-2017 fishing season in those specific areas may damage sublegal scallops that could be caught during future fishing seasons, as well as reducing broodstock essential to a recovery.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Researchers help salmon farmers confront threat to their industry

February 3, 2017 — It’s a mystery that has puzzled University of Maine assistant professor of marine biology and aquaculture Heather Hamlin and the salmon farming industry in New England: the decline in egg survival.

The survival rate of fertilized salmon eggs had been as high as 80 percent. But beginning in 2000, salmon embryos began dying in large numbers and the average survival rate fell to around 50 percent.

Previous studies have shown that a range of factors can negatively impact egg quality and production, including nutrition, stress, temperature and the endocrine status of the female. Until recently, businesses such as New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture, which runs farming operations at several sites in Maine, knew little about why some of its eggs were dying and others were surviving, despite having come from same strain females, cultured under similar conditions.

Now a UMaine study has found that two hormones may play significant roles in achieving an 80 percent embryo survival rate. Hamlin and LeeAnne Thayer, a UMaine Ph.D. candidate in marine sciences, wrote about their findings in the journal Aquaculture Research.

Read the full story at Phys.org

MAINE: Legislature eyes lobster, crab laws

February 6, 2017 — Two Hancock County lawmakers have drafted several bills that would affect the lobster and crab fisheries should they reach the floor of the Maine Legislature.

State Rep. Brian Hubbell (D-Bar Harbor) has drafted a concept bill (LD 149) that proposes several ways to make changes to limited-entry lobster and crab zones.

“It is a laundry list of possible solutions to the grievances I’ve heard from fishermen in Zone B,” Hubbell said.

Tensions between commercial lobster license holders in lobster management zones B and C have been running high since last summer and flared in a dramatic fashion last fall with the report of a trap-cutting war that resulted in gear losses estimated at $350,000 or more by the Marine Patrol.

Those tensions stem from the fact that Zone C had been an open zone and lobstermen from there can fish up to 49-perecent of their traps in Zone B.

Some Zone B fishermen believe it’s unfair that Zone C lobstermen are using their second zone tags and crowding waters where entry is limited.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American. 

Maine’s coastal waters are unhealthy from carbon, acidity. Are seaweed gardens the answer?

February 6, 2017 — Seaweed cultivation has been promoted in recent years in Maine as a way to produce local nutritious food and to boost the coastal economy.

Now, seaweed harvesters say their industry provides yet another benefit: environmental protection, in the form of improving water quality.

A new study from Bigelow Laboratory for Marine Sciences in Boothbay indicates growing and harvesting seaweed may be an antidote for increasing carbon and acidity levels in the ocean, which is harming a variety of marine life.

Since January 2016, the lab has been studying the effect of kelp growth on surrounding carbon levels at the Ocean Approved seaweed farm off Great Chebeague Island in Casco Bay.

The early results indicate that sugar kelp absorbs carbon from the surrounding water as it grows. This is prompting the lab to expand its research on kelp and to conduct a separate study on the carbon-absorption abilities of wild-grown rockweed.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine legislature eyes lobster, crab laws

January 31, 2017 — Augusta, MAINE — Area lawmakers have drafted several bills that would affect lobster and crab fisheries should they reach the floor of the Maine Legislature.

State Rep. Brian Hubbell (D-Bar Harbor) has drafted a concept bill that proposes several ways to make changes to limited-entry lobster and crab zones

“It is a laundry list of possible solutions to the grievances I’ve heard from fisherman in Zone B,” said Hubbell.

Tensions between commercial lobster license holders in Lobster Management Zones B and C have been running high since last summer and flared in a dramatic fashion last fall with the report of a trap-cutting war that resulted in an estimated $350,000 loss of gear.

Those tensions stem from the fact that Zone C had been an open zone and lobstermen there can fish up to 49 percent of their traps in Zone B.

Some Zone B fishermen believe it’s unfair that Zone C lobstermen are using their second zone tags and crowding waters where entry is limited.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

New England effort to research declining shrimp is underway

January 29, 2017 — Portland, Maine — A group of fishermen selected to help study New England’s declining commercial species of shrimp is beginning its work.

The states of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire tapped eight shrimp trawlers and five shrimp trappers to collect shrimp to provide biological data about the fishery.

 The fishery has been shut down for four years in a row, and scientists say the Northern shrimp species has been hit hard by warming waters.

Fishing regulators say some of the trawlers began their work in the middle of January. The trappers and some more of the trawlers are scheduled to begin during the week that starts on Monday.

Read the full story at The Daily Progress