Saving Seafood

MAINE: Maine fishers brought in USD 611 million in 2023

March 30, 2024 — Commercial fishers in the U.S. state of Maine earned USD 611 million (EUR 564 million) at the dock in 2023, a 4 percent year-over-year increase, according to preliminary data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR).

“The Maine seafood industry continues to be a powerful economic engine for our state,” Maine Governor Janet Mills said in a statement. “The dedication to sustainability and premium quality by our fishermen, aquaculturists, and dealers is a source of tremendous pride for everyone who calls Maine home.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Lobster alliance donates $10,000 to Working Waterfront Support Fund

March 30, 2024 — The Maine Lobster Community Alliance, a non-profit organization based in Kennebunk whose mission is to foster thriving coastal communities and preserve Maine’s lobstering heritage, has announced in a press release that it is donating $10,000 to the Working Waterfront Support Fund.

The fund was established following January’s devastating storms and historic flooding that caused widespread destruction and millions of dollars of damage in communities up and down the Maine coast. According to MLCA’s website, the fund “will be utilized to provide resources and support to fishing businesses and working waterfronts that suffered damages due to the storms.”

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Pilot

MAINE: ‘I’m not going to hang around:’ Some Maine lobstermen decide to quit over new regulations

March 28, 2024 — Maine lobstermen say they’re frustrated by a new round of rules and regulations in place up and down the coast.

Some are even deciding to quit.

Rules that took effect January 1 require lobstermen to make monthly reports detailing when, where and the number of lobsters caught each day, along with the number of traps in the water.

Some lobstermen have decided the paperwork, and more harsh future regulations, aren’t worth it.

Read the full article at Fox 23

MAINE: Maine lobstermen struggle to adapt to new electronic reporting rules. Their licenses are on the line.

March 25, 2024 — Alice Mayberry and Sue Kelley spend most of their days talking to lobstermen about what they’ve hauled in. Mayberry is riffling through paper logs. Kelley is texting until 9 p.m.

Then, they both log onto the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ database and plug in what the lobstermen did for the day.

Over the last several years, state and federal regulators started requiring more fishermen to report what they caught, and where. A few years ago, only a portion of harvesters needed to submit that information, and it could be sent in on a piece of paper.

Now, all fishermen who harvest 15 species of fish – pogies, scallops, lobster, halibut, mussels, eels and others – have to file their landings, and most must do so electronically.

Fishermen in Maine are gradually learning what they’re supposed to do. For lobstermen, adjusting has been particularly hard.

Regulators used to require a random 10% of lobstermen to report their landings. The weight and value of lobster hauled from local waters were measured and reported primarily by the dealers who first purchased the fish.

Read the full article at centralmaine.com

MASSACHUSETTES: Massachusetts fishermen say feds are hypocritical in Gulf of Maine wind energy designation

March 25, 2024 — A move to designate two million acres in the Gulf of Maine as a hub for wind energy is snagging a sharp hook from Massachusetts fishermen who say the development overlooks risks to the North Atlantic right whale.

A handful of Bay State fishermen advocacy groups are teaming with counterparts from across New England in criticizing the Biden administration’s plans to industrialize the area off the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management finalized the designation earlier this month, an action it says looks to support President Biden’s clean energy goals.

The area, which ranges from 23 to 92 miles off the coasts of the three states, has the potential to support generation of 32 gigawatts of clean energy, the bureau said. That amount of energy surpasses “current state goals for offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine: 10 GW for Massachusetts and 3 GW for Maine,” BOEM said.

Specifically, industrialization could lead to the deployment of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035, according to the feds.

Local, state and federal officials over the years have mandated fishermen to follow a growing number of protocols to preserve the endangered right whales — in some cases, barring them from taking to certain waters.

Read the full article at the Boston Herald

MAINE: Maine fishermen caught more fish in 2023, thanks to a hunger relief program and COVID funds

March 25, 2024 — Maine fishermen bucked yearslong, industrywide trends last year and caught more fish, a development regulators and industry members said shows the impact of COVID-19 relief funds.

Maine has long been a leader in catching groundfish, which are bottom-dwelling species of fish such as cod and flounder that are often used in seafood staples such as fish and chips. The New England groundfishing industry has been in decline for decades due in part to past overfishing of key species and difficulty rebuilding those stocks.

But Maine’s groundfishermen had a stronger year than most in 2023, according to state data released earlier this month. The catch of haddock more than doubled to more than 500,000 pounds (226,796 kilograms), and the catches of Atlantic cod, witch flounder and Atlantic halibut were all up significantly.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

MAINE: $15 Million Secured For Coastal Communities in Maine Damaged By Recent Storms

March 20, 2024 — U.S. Senator Susan Collins announced this week that she has secured $15 million dollars to help coastal communities in Maine rebuild, following infrastructure damage caused by recent storms.

The Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill includes $10 million through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which will go towards repairing and renovating infrastructure affected by storms that hit the coast in December 2023 and January of this year. The legislation also includes $5 million to create a new program at the Economic Development Administration (EDA) for working waterfronts.

“Maine’s working waterfronts are the economic engine of our coastal communities, but recent damaging weather events have posed significant challenges to their resilience and underscored the urgent need for federal assistance,” said Senator Collins. “This investment aims to revitalize working waterfronts across the country, allowing communities like Harpswell to recover from severe storm damage whose financial toll exceeds the capacity of local government to meet.”

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

More ocean space for offshore wind

March 20, 2024 — Opening a new frontier in the region’s offshore wind power push, the federal government on Friday finalized its designation of a two million-acre wind energy area off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said the designated Gulf of Maine area would support President Joe Biden’s goals of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035.

The area, which ranges from 23 to 92 miles off the coasts of the three states, has the potential to support generation of 32 gigawatts of clean energy, the bureau said. That amount of energy surpasses “current state goals for offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Maine: 10 GW for Massachusetts and 3 GW for Maine,” BOEM said.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

Next BOEM studies will examine Gulf of Maine, NJ wind conflicts

March 19, 2024 — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on March 18 opened two new environmental assessments of offshore wind power: one for the agency’s proposed Gulf of Maine wind energy areas, the other for the Atlantic Shores project off New Jersey.

Both proposals are hotly contested by ocean user groups, but supported by Northeast state political leaders along with the Biden administration. The processes opened March 18 with a “notice of intent” in the Federal Register, and come as the budding U.S. offshore wind industry remains under financial and supply-chain setbacks.

The Gulf of Maine wind energy area includes around 2 million acres off Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, from 23 mile to 92 miles offshore, according to BOEM. The agency says that is an 80 percent reduction from a much broader area initially examined by BOEM, and a further 43 percent down from an early draft plan.

BOEM officials say their process sought to avoid lobster and other fishing areas and habitats. In its own August 2023 summary report, the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association said BOEM should have conducted an environmental review before outlining wind energy areas, and warned of threats to lobster, haddock and endangered right whales.

In a joint statement Tuesday with 16 other New England fishing groups, NEFSA called BOEM’s planning “the culmination of a rushed development process that is poorly informed on economic, scientific, environmental and cultural issues of paramount importance. Without adequate consideration of these issues, leasing in BOEM’s WEA designation should not be pursued.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Feds announce areas where offshore wind can go in Gulf of Maine

March 18, 2024 — Federal regulators have made a final designation of roughly 2 million acres in the Gulf of Maine where offshore wind turbines can be deployed to help provide power to New England.

The boundary set by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management does not include any part of the federal lobster management area 1, where the vast majority of lobster fishing occurs in the gulf. That fishing area extends from the edge of state waters, about three miles offshore, to about 40 miles from shore.

Some of the closest points in Maine to the wind energy area are the islands of Matinicus, Criehaven and Monhegan: its uppermost section is roughly 40 miles south of them. The closest mainland community is Port Clyde, about 50 miles away.

The oddly-shaped wind zone then extends to the southwest, ending about 23 miles due east of Cape Cod. Its most remote sections are about 90 miles from the mainlands of Maine and Massachusetts.

The selection was applauded by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, even though the group remains more broadly opposed to any wind power development in the Gulf of Maine. In a statement, the group said that it appreciates that the zone won’t interfere with the lobster fishing grounds, but that it remains “steadfast” in its larger opposition.

“There are still too many unanswered questions about the impacts of offshore wind on the marine environment, commercial fishermen and our fishing heritage,” the association said.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News