Saving Seafood

Maine fishermen want scallop harvest to stay the same

August 29, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Maine’s fishing managers are proposing that fishermen be allowed to catch about the same amount of the state’s beloved scallops in the coming winter fishing season as they did this year.

Maine divides the coasts into three scallop fishing zones. The state Department of Marine Resources says next year fishermen in the zones covering southern and midcoast Maine should be allowed to possess up to 15 gallons of scallops per day.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Central Maine

Maine looks to allow similar scallop harvest this winter

August 29, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Maine’s fishing managers are proposing that fishermen be allowed to catch about the same amount of the state’s beloved scallops in the coming winter fishing season as they did this year.

Maine divides the coasts into three scallop fishing zones. The state Department of Marine Resources says next year fishermen in the zones covering southern and Midcoast Maine should be allowed to possess up to 15 gallons of scallops per day.

Fishermen in the Cobscook Bay zone would be allowed to possess up to 10 gallons per day. Those limits are the same as 2015-16.

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

Lobstermen in Maine’s historically open zone vote to close their waters to newcomers

August 26, 2016 — The lobstermen of Stonington and Vinalhaven, the busiest lobster ports in Maine, have voted to close their waters to additional fishermen, preferring that newcomers wait for others to leave before dropping traps there.

Almost three of every four local lobstermen who voted in a referendum this summer supported the adoption of a waiting list system. The majority included many of the small island communities that had previously opposed making newcomers wait for lobster licenses out of fear that it would discourage people from moving to their far-flung communities.

Of the nine districts within the regional lobster zone, only one, the district that includes Matinicus and Criehaven, voted against making newcomers go on a waiting list. Results show that local lobstermen of all ages, license types and business size support the closure.

The election results now go to the local lobster council for consideration Sept. 8. If the council approves the closure, its recommendation will go to the commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources, Patrick Keliher, who makes the final determination.

Approval would make permanent a temporary closure implemented in June, when the council voted to put the waiting list question to the 936 licensed lobstermen in the zone. It had been the last of Maine’s seven lobster zones to allow newcomers to fish without a wait.

Other regional councils had previously voted to close their fishing zones and make qualified applicants wait, sometimes for as long as a decade, to get their own lobster licenses.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald 

A Restaurant’s Sales Pitch: Know Your Lobster

August 25, 2016 — It was a steamy summer day in New York in 2009 when Luke Holden, an investment banker, had a craving for a lobster roll. Not just any lobster roll, though. He longed for the “fresh off the docks” taste he enjoyed growing up in Cape Elizabeth, Me.

After an exhaustive search on New York’s streets, he came up dissatisfied and disappointed.

“Every lobster was served over a white tablecloth, extremely expensive, drowning in mayo and diluted with celery,” he said. “I wondered why all the great chefs in this city had screwed this up so badly.”

So that year, Mr. Holden decided to open an authentic Maine lobster shack in Manhattan. To replicate that fresh taste that he remembered, he would need to oversee, track and, where possible, own every step in the process.

Today, he owns 19 Luke’s Lobster restaurants, two food trucks and a lobster tail cart in the United States, and five shacks in Japan.

He holds an ownership stake in a co-op of Maine fishermen, which allows him to track where and how the lobsters are caught, and control the quality, freshness and pricing. He also owns the processing plant, Cape Seafood, that packages and prepares the lobsters for his restaurants.

“We’re able to trace every pound of seafood we serve back to the harbor where it was sustainably caught and to support fishermen we know and trust,” Mr. Holden said. “There’s no middleman in that whole chain.”

This might seem obsessive. But in business, it’s called a vertical integration strategy.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting Scheduled for September 16, 2016

August 25, 2016 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section (Section) members from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts will meet from 9:15 a.m. through Noon on September 16, 2016 to discuss days out measures for Trimester 3 (October 1 to December 31), review recent fishing effort in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) and discuss alternative management approaches for Area 1A. This meeting will take place at the Portsmouth Library at 175 Parrott Ave Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801.

The 2016 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit is 30,102 metric tons (mt) including carryover of unharvested catch in 2014 and deductions for the research and fixed gear set-aside in 2016. The Section set the seasonal split as 72.8% allocated from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% allocated from October 1 – December 31. The seasonal quota for Trimester 3 amounts to 7,533 mt.

As a reminder, the seasonal quota for Trimester 2 is 20,161 mt. As of August 22, 2016, 78% of the Trimester 2 quota has been harvested.

MAINE: Rep. Lydia Blume submits bill to help scallop, urchin fisheries

August 24, 2016 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Rep. Lydia Blume, D-York, is proposing legislation to require license holders in the scallop and urchin fisheries to own and operate their own vessels. Owner-operator provisions help to increase stewardship in a fishery and help to ensure that the fishery’s revenues stay in local communities.

“Maine’s lobster fishery has an owner-operator requirement, and this is one of the reasons why it is looked upon as a textbook example of a sustainable fishery,” said Blume. “We should try to replicate what works with lobster in harvesting other species.”

Entrance to both the scallop and urchin fisheries is now closed, but there are several factors, like the rebuilding of stocks and increased dockside prices, that are increasing pressure to open them to new license holders.

“Implementing measures like owner-operator requirements should be done before opening the fisheries,” Blume said. “We need to act to sustain the Maine marine economy through encouraging good stewardship of these valuable and precious resources.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

More closures ahead for beleaguered lobster bait fishery

August 24, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The lobster industry’s difficulty getting enough bait could be about to get worse because of upcoming closures in the herring fishery.

Herring is the preferred bait for lobster fishermen, who use the fish to lure the valuable crustaceans into traps. But herring have been in short supply this year because fishermen aren’t catching many of them in offshore New England waters.

Fishing managers have instituted limits on inshore herring fishing to try to ensure a steady supply of herring throughout summer.

The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is also closing an area off eastern Maine to herring fishing from Aug. 28 to Sept. 24.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

MASSACHUSETTS: John Linehan, synonymous with the fishing industry, dies at 94

August 24, 2016 — NEW BEDFORD — If any one person would be the face of the fishing industry during the last half century or more, it could well be John F. Linehan, who died Aug. 14 at the age of 94.

Not a fisherman himself, the Lewiston, Maine native arrived in New Bedford in 1951 after serving in the military and graduating from Bates College, class of 1953.

Linehan wore many hats in his long career, first as general manager of the New Bedford Seafood Producers Association, a fisheries adviser in Korea, and the first director of the Harbor Development Commission.

He was later operations manager at Frionor Corp., vice president and general manager of Maritime Terminal, Inc., and 12 years as the industry liaison officer for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

His friends, who visited him regularly until the end of his life, say they admired Linehan for being not only intelligent but funny, always ready with a wisecrack.

Linehan was twice the president of the New Bedford Port Society. Member Philip Beauregard, an attorney and Port Society board member, said of Linehan, “He was was chock full of integrity. He was the classic deep-throated Maine Yankee, perfect for his New England surroundings, and he brought a dignity, I thought, to the waterfront.”

“New Bedford was very fortunate to have him as one of its own,” Beauregard said.

Roy Enoksen, a former scalloper who today own Eastern Fisheries, was a close friend of Linehan. “He was a great guy, always the same. John never had highs or lows. He was the same guy all the time.” His life experiences made him the way he was, Enoksen said. He was thoughtful, just very professional at the same time.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Atlantic Herring Eastern Maine Spawning Closure in Effect Starting August 28, 2016 and Extending through September 24, 2016

August 23, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

The Atlantic herring Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. In 2016, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section approved a one-year pilot of a new forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal states III-V, to trigger a spawning closure. However, if sufficient samples are not available then closures will begin on predetermined dates.

There are currently no samples for the Eastern Maine spawning area to determine spawning condition, therefore the Eastern Maine spawning area will be closed starting at 12:00 a.m. on August 28, 2016 extending through 11:59 p.m. on September 24, 2016. Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land or possess Atlantic herring caught within the Eastern Maine spawning area during this time and must have all fishing gear stowed when transiting through the area. An incidental bycatch allowance of up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip/ calendar day applies to vessels in non-directed fisheries that are fishing within the Eastern Maine spawning area.

Eastern Maine spawning area includes all waters bounded by the following coordinates:

Maine coast   68° 20’ W

43° 48’ N       68° 20’ W

44° 25’ N       67° 03’ W

North along the US/Canada border

Sailor’s widow sought to have fishing vessel seized before it sank

August 19, 2016 — The firm that owns a fishing vessel that sank early Wednesday miles off Mount Desert Island is being sued by the widow of a Westbrook man who died in 2013 after he fell overboard from the vessel during a fishing trip, according to federal court documents.

Marcia J. Gorham of Westbrook filed suit against the firm that owns the vessel, Lydia & Maya Inc., in May 2015, according to information posted online in the U.S. District Court document database. In the complaint, Gorham alleges that her husband, Martin J. Gorham, died as a result of “the carelessness, negligence and recklessness” of the owners of the Lydia & Maya fishing vessel, which she claims was unseaworthy at the time of her husband’s death off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, on Dec. 19, 2013.

In addition to his wife, Martin Gorham, 47, was survived by a teenage daughter and two stepsons, according to his obituary.

Marcia Gorham seeks a jury trial, unspecified full damages for suffering, distress and loss of pecuniary support, and unspecified punitive damages, according to the complaint.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News