Saving Seafood

MAINE: 2024 Maine pogy season makes its set

June 19, 2024 — Mainers know it’s pogy season when you’re boating along the coast and see a dark underwater cloud with quick shimmers of scales flashing near the surface. Not only are striped bass, tuna, and seals happy, but Maine lobstermen are also happy when they know fresh bait will be available in the near future.

The commercial fishery opened for Atlantic menhaden yesterday in the state, while the non-commercial fishery opened on May 1. A species that occupies coastal waters from Nova Scotia down to northern Florida is believed to consist of a single population, and during mid-June, there seems to be no shortage of them along Maine’s coast.

The preliminary allocation of the Atlantic menhaden quota for the 2024 fiscal year is 24,464,561 pounds. However, this allocation is expected to decrease significantly due to an overage in 2023, when the commercial fishery landings for the species reached 20,036,403 pounds. Despite this, the small-scale fishery continues with open harvest days on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with a daily limit for harvester vessels set at 5950 pounds, according to the Maine DMR.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gulf of Maine & Norwegian fishermen voice wind concerns

June 17, 2024 — Gulf of Maine fishermen are feeling stressed as the plan for hundreds of offshore wind turbines continues to move forward. Eight leases will be held in the large area that has been fished for many generations off the New England coast. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) recently released the eight proposed areas that will be auctioned this fall.

If the area gets totally developed, it would be nearly 1 million acres. The project addresses large-scale environmental concerns regarding the power and uncertainty of fish species in the area. According to Global Seafood, while the process of developing widely supported offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Maine has been years in the making- and another decade could pass before any floating wind turbines become operational- simply entering the lease auction phase has some commercial fishermen fearing the worst.

Jerry Leeman, a former commercial fisherman and the CEO of the New England Fishermen Stewardship Association (NEFSA), told Global Seafood, “There’s not enough data to support the areas that have been chosen for wind development. As now laid out, the plan could take away valuable fishing grounds from New England’s fishing fleet, post navigational hazards, and create new environmental threats.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

North American East Coast cod stocks facing “very dire situation”

June 14, 2o24 — Recent assessments of Atlantic cod stocks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Gulf of Maine present a dire portrait of their commercial future.

In the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, which touches the Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, an assessment conducted in February 2023 by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has found much higher levels of mortality than what is needed for the population to recover from the collapse in the stock’s population that has occurred driven by overfishing in the 1990s.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US states of Maine, Rhode Island fund efforts to market seafood

June 12, 2024 — The governments of the U.S. states of Maine and Rhode Island are providing grant funding to help promote and market the states’ seafood – adding to growing efforts to create marketing bodies promoting seafood consumption.

A grant from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development’s Domestic Trade Grant Program – which was funded by the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan signed by Maine Governor Janet Mills and the American Rescue Plan Act signed by U.S. President Joe Biden – will help establish a new Maine Seafood Promotional Council. The council, which is being led by FocusMaine and guided by input from the seafood industry, recently launched and is gearing up for a two-year pilot phase, FocusMaine said in a press release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: World weighs in on fate of 4 Maine dams blocking passage of endangered salmon

June 10, 2024 — The fate of four dams in Maine that are hindering the migration of wild Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish has drawn international attention after federal regulators gave preliminary approval in March to relicense one dam and require all four to improve fish passages, moves that will allow the dams to operate for several more decades.

The stakes couldn’t be higher, pitting the potential survival of a species against business interests. Maine is the only U.S. state where wild Atlantic salmon have survived in a few rivers, including the Kennebec and Penobscot. That is forcing parties involved to weigh whether the dams are producing enough electricity to justify ongoing operations now that alternative energies including solar and wind are coming online.

Environmentalists and others are advocating for removal of the four dams on the Kennebec River to give the best chance for wild Atlantic salmon, which are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, to repopulate. Their numbers have dwindled from about 200,000 before the dams were built to fewer than 2,000 now.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

A fast-warming Gulf of Maine is rising faster than ever

June 6, 2024 — The fast-warming Gulf of Maine is rising faster than ever, with average monthly sea levels in Portland, Bar Harbor and Eastport breaking record after record over the last two years and driving storm surges and king-tide flooding higher and farther inland.

“The rate of sea level rise is increasing,” said Maine State Geologist Steve Dickson. “It’s no longer an inch per decade. It’s more. The tides now are about 7 to 8 inches above what they were when my grandfather was a kid playing on the shores of Jonesport.”

On Wednesday, during a Maine Climate Council briefing, Dickson said that future generations will be dealing with a few more feet, not inches. It was the third in a series of scientific updates in advance of the second edition of “Maine Won’t Wait,” the state’s climate action plan.

About 90% of global warming is occurring in the ocean, causing the water’s internal heat to increase, according to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Heat stored in the ocean causes the water to expand, which is responsible for one-third to one-half of global sea level rise.

The last 10 years were the ocean’s warmest decade since at least the 1800s, and 2023 was its warmest recorded year, according to NASA. In the Gulf of Maine, sea surface temperatures in 2021 and 2022 were the warmest on record. The Gulf of Maine was in a marine heat wave for 97% of 2022.

Read the full article at Yahoo News!

The Whales Have Returned To The New England Region For Summer

June 6, 2024 — When the summer season comes around in New England, it also means that our many nautical neighbors or whales, have made their way up to New England waters for the warmer months.

Thousands of whales will call the Gulf of Maine home for the summer, and they all have names too! They get their names from a thumbprint like pattern on the back of their tail, which is known as a fluke.

WBZ NewsRadio had the opportunity to meet Sedge, one of the whales over at Cape Ann’s Whale Watch, and she said that Sedge must eat a million calories a day while he’s here.

“A million calories is about 1,776 big macs, and to meet that equivalent they are going to have to eat about 2 to 3,000 pounds of fish every single day they’re up here.”

Read the full article at WBZ News

MAINE: Grant applications open for storm recovery efforts

June 4, 2024 — After the coast of Maine was left devastated by dual storms shortly into the new year, many individuals within the fishing community have been looking for where to turn. Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA) welcomes applications from property owners who serve commercial fishing businesses to apply for the MCFA Storm Recovery Fund, which is expected to make 25-30 grants of $5 thousand. The deadline for applications is June 14.

If you have struggled to find funding from other sources and are a more discreet working waterfront business, MCFA may be able to help. They hope to prioritize smaller properties that may not qualify for other funding assistance within the state.

In addition to MCFA, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), Maine Emergency Agency, Island Institute, and many other fishing groups have helped support the community through the past months of cleanup and rebuilds. The Maine legislature also took a significant step by including $60 million in aid to Maine communities and businesses for the fiscal year 2024-2025.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: The plans for Maine’s floating wind port, explained

June 3, 2024 — The Maine Department of Transportation recently announced that it had applied for a $456 million federal grant to build a wind port on Sears Island.

The announcement marks another step in what will be a years-long effort by state officials to build out Maine’s third port, one that can support a nascent floating wind industry.

And though Maine has been discussing the possibility of a wind port for several years, a clearer picture of the plans is now beginning to form.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Nordic Aquafarms files complaint challenging Maine city council’s eminent domain decision

June 2, 2024 — Nordic Aquafarms has filed a complaint in Waldo County Superior Court seeking to reverse a Belfast City Council decision that closed its eminent domain bid to secure land needed for its planned recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Belfast, Maine, U.S.A.

The Belfast council originally voted on 7 May to vacate the company’s condemnation order that would have seen the city use eminent domain to give Nordic access to a key piece of intertidal land. That land was subject to a lawsuit launched by Jeffrey R. Mabee and Judith B. Grace, which included the Maine Supreme Judicial Court finding that Nordic Aquafarms did not have sufficient right, title, or interest to the land.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource