Saving Seafood

Panel Approves Changes to Maine’s Lobstering License System

February 25, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A panel of the Maine Legislature has signed off on a series of changes to the way the state hands out valuable lobster fishing licenses.

The bill would raise the age for young lobstermen to automatically get a license when they finish an apprenticeship. It would also change the way old licenses are retired.

The Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources unanimously approved the changes on Wednesday. The proposal will likely go before the full Legislature next month.

Some of the changes are aimed at speeding up the process of getting fishermen off a waiting list that’s nearly 300 names long. The proposal has divided members of the industry.

The proposal comes as Maine is experiencing record catches. Maine lobsters were worth nearly $457 million at the docks in 2014.

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

Maine may extend fishing season for eels prized as sushi

February 21, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Fishermen are making money on sushi in Maine, the only state in the country with a significant baby eel fishery, and lawmakers are looking to make it possible for them to make more.

Maine’s baby eels are wriggling gold, sometimes worth more than $2,000 per pound at the dock. The baby eels, called elvers, are sold to Asian aquaculture companies who raise them to maturity for use them as food, and they frequently end up in sushi and sashimi. Some end up back on plates in the U.S.

But fishermen must abide by a strict quota system that limits the state fishery to 9,688 pounds per year, and they caught only 5,242 pounds of elvers last year. Fishermen attributed the slow season to a cold spring, which state regulators said slowed the migration of elvers in the rivers and streams where they are caught.

Lawmakers are looking to change the restrictions on the elver fishery to give fishermen a better chance to catch the entire quota. A legislative committee recently approved a plan to extend the season by a week and allow weekend fishing, as opposed to the current limitation to five days per week.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

Maine To Shut Down Most Productive Scallop Ground For Season

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine fishing regulators are shutting down more key scallop grounds as fishermen exceed targeted levels for the year.

The state Department of Marine Resources says it is closing Cobscook Bay, the most productive scallop fishing area in Maine. It is also shutting down the Owls Head area of Lower Penobscot Bay and limiting the St. Croix River to one day per week for draggers and one day per week for divers.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WABI

Warming Oceans Are Turning Sea Stars to Goo and Killing Lobsters, Scientists Say

February 17, 2016 — Warming waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have increased the prevalence of diseases that are turning sea stars to mush and killing lobsters by burrowing under their shells and causing lesions, two new studies say. The outbreaks are so lethal, according to a biologist involved in both studies, that at least one species of sea star has vanished off the coasts of Washington and British Columbia and the lobster fishery, already decimated in southern New England, will likely be threatened in Maine.

In the Pacific, a wasting disease is blamed for the disappearance of the technicolor sunflower sea star. It’s also laying waste to the ochre sea star that scientists at Cornell University, the University of Puget Sound and Northeastern University, as well as other institutions, examined for the latest research. Their reports were published this week.

Numerous climate studies have shown that the oceans are warming. In addition, 30 percent of the carbon released into the atmosphere ends up there, leading to acidification that’s further destroying coral, shell life and other organisms.

The sea-star study was led by Morgan E. Eisenlord, an evolutionary biologist at Cornell, and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Both in a laboratory and at 16 sites on the San Juan Islands off Washington’s coast, researchers determined that ochre sea stars gradually became sicker as water temperatures rose slightly. Conditions simulated in the lab confirmed what the scientists observed in the field.  As temperatures rose, the disease became more prevalent, and adult ochres died within days. The disease, plus death, was more prominent in temperatures between 54 degrees and 66 degrees Fahrenheit. For the adults, the risk of death was 18 percent higher at 66 degrees.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

New Lobster Scientist Hired by Maine Department of Marine Resources

February 18, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

Katherine Thompson has been hired by the Maine Department of Marine Resources as the lead lobster sampling program scientist. Thompson, a Ph.D. student in Marine Biology at the University of Maine, will be responsible for the coordination, implementation, and participation in the lobster sea sampling program in all seven-lobster management zones as well as the juvenile lobster ventless trap survey.

Thompson’s responsibilities will include supervision of DMR scientific staff and contractors who participate in the sea sampling and ventless trap survey programs. 

The DMR sea sampling program places trained observers onto commercial lobster boats to gather data on the near shore lobster fishery. The ventless trap survey uses specially modified traps distributed along the coast to help the DMR characterize the juvenile lobster population in Maine waters. 

Thompson will also manage the lobster research program database, oversee data entry compilation and annual summary statistics/reports for publication and will assist in writing grant reports. In addition, she will present survey results at lobster zone council meetings. 

Thompson brings to the position experience both in commercial fishing and fisheries research. Raised in a fishing family in New Harbor, Thompson served as a sternman for a Round Pond lobster fisherman during summers while she pursued a degree in Biology from Smith College. The vessel she worked on participated in DMR’s ventless trap survey, providing her first experience with cooperative research. After graduating, Thompson completed an internship in lobster research through Bigelow Laboratory focusing on the settlement index survey conducted by Dr. Richard Wahle.

In 2013 Thompson received her Master’s degree in Living Marine Resource Science and Management from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology. Her Master’s thesis project provided the first conclusive evidence of semiannual scallop spawning in U.S. waters on Georges Bank, which has important implications for management of the fishery.

From 2013 to 2014, Thompson served as a Supervisory Research Biologist for Coonamessett Farm Foundation, a scientific research and education foundation based in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

In January 2015 she began her doctoral studies at the University of Maine focusing on northern shrimp reproduction and distribution. 

“I’m excited about working closely with industry, especially here in my home state,” said Thompson.

“Katherine’s experience in scientific research of multiple fisheries provides a strong foundation for her work here at DMR,” said DMR’s Lead Lobster Biologist Kathleen Reardon. “She has the strong academic and practical experience in marine science and commercial fishing to help move our monitoring programs forward.”

 

Scientists solve mystery of where puffins go in the winter

February 17, 2016 — PORTLAND (AP) — Researchers say they’ve found an answer to the long-standing question of where Maine’s Atlantic puffins spend the winter: far off New Jersey and New York.

Puffins are the colorful seabirds of the auk family that are graceful in the water and awkward on land and air. The birds spend the spring breeding season and summer in coastal areas before heading out to open ocean waters in the autumn and winter.

The National Audubon Society has described the exact winter locations of Maine’s puffins as “long a mystery” to scientists. But the organization said Tuesday that locators recovered from 19 puffins in recent years show the birds spent a chunk of the winter several states away from Maine.

The area most frequented by puffins in the winter was about 200 miles southeast of Cape Cod, said Stephen Kress, the director of the Audubon Seabird Restoration Program. Kress said the data showed puffins winter over underwater canyons and sea mountains in the Atlantic.

Read the full story at the Associated Press at Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Lobster licensing bill runs into concerns about pressure on the fishery

February 17, 2016 — AUGUSTA — An effort to reduce waiting lists for entry into the $457 million lobster fishery is running into concerns that a proposal to create a new class of license would put more pressure on a lobster population that the industry and regulators agree is already “fully exploited.”

The proposal, drafted by the Department of Marine Resources, is designed to reduce the nearly 300-person waiting list, which was established 16 years ago after regulators began limiting entry into a fishery with a long tradition of local control and industry-led conservation efforts. The bill would create a new, limited lobster and crab fishing license for a reduced number of traps; increase the age from 18 to 23 before someone who has gone through the industry’s apprenticeship program is put on a waiting list; and remove special fees for applicants age 70 or older, among other provisions.

But several members of the Legislature’s Committee on Marine Resources are skeptical of the proposal because of its relatively modest impact on reducing the waiting list and the unforeseen consequences it could have on a fishery that has posted record landings for reasons that are not fully understood. The wariness is shared by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the leading trade group representing the industry, as well as the Maine Lobstering Union, a recently formed labor union. Roughly 123 million pounds of lobster were landed in 2014, with the value of the catch at nearly $457 million, a record. Regulators and the industry do not believe that those landings will continue.

Carl Wilson, director of the Bureau of Marine Science and the state’s leading lobster biologist, told legislators Wednesday that the proposal likely wouldn’t have a “huge negative impact” on the fishery. He said the effect would probably be the equivalent of the unreported landings of lobster that are cash sales.

However, Wilson also acknowledged that there are some “troubling” indicators that the industry could be headed for a downturn. The indicators are different from the ones that appeared before the collapse of the fishery in southern New England.

Read the full story at Portland Press Herald

Rebuilding Maine’s Scallop Fishery: Part 2

February 11, 2016 — The scalloping season is scheduled from December through March or April, depending on which fishing zone you’re in.

State waters are broken up into three zones, each with its own set of rules.

Wednesday, Caitlin Burchill took us scallop fishing in Cobscook Bay, an area which has since been closed to scallop fishing for the season.

The Department of Marine Resources says they’ve made the scallop fishery their top priority.

While Maine may be known for lobster, they want fisherman to have another seafood to fall back on.

In recent years, the DMR has implemented special closures, shorter seasons, and fishing limits, among other things, to help rebuild the fishery after it was overfished and hit rock bottom in 2005.

State regulators say it’s working, but what do fishermen think about all the rules?

Caitlin Burchill looks into it.

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Tim Sheehan sees scallop harvesters at the end of a hard day’s work.

Many stop by his store in Perry to sell him fresh caught Cobscook Bay scallops.

“Everyone needs to eat and the prices are going up and up and up. Years ago, guys would fish all day to get $5 a pound. Well now, I’m paying them $12.50 and you know for a half a days work, not that they don’t have huge overhead, it’s pretty good days pay,” said Sheehan.

A better price perhaps thanks to the creation of fishery management plans.

Trisha Cheney overseas the scallop fishery for the Department of Marine Resources.

“We base all of our management on the best available science, so we also have a science team that’s in the field collecting information,” said Cheney.

The state also gets input from fishermen.

“Three different management approaches in three different areas of the state, and it’s based on what the harvesters want in that area and we’ve seen different success in those areas as well,” said Cheney.

But when Cheney calls for closures, she understandably gets some angry phone calls.

Read the full story at WABI

New Owner May Reopen Fish Company After Food Safety Upgrade

February 17, 2016 — The federal court documents that Friday led to the mandatory closure of the Sullivan Harbor Farm smokehouse in Hancock, ME, also included  a lengthy recipe for re-opening the facility known for annually smoking as much as 75,000 pounds of Atlantic salmon.

Friday’s consent decree of permanent injunction, ordered by a federal judge, shut down Mill Stream Corp., doing business as Sullivan Harbor Farm on U.S. 1 in Maine. The injunction also prohibits the company’s former president and owner, Ira J. Frantzman, from working in the food industry. The injunction is in response to a Feb. 10 complaint by the U.S. Department of Justice at the behest of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

But ahead of the Feb. 12 injunction, in late January, Sullivan Harbor Farm reportedly was sold.

“The new owner has already made most of the necessary improvements while working with a food safety expert in conjunction with FDA to improve safety, sanitation and training practices in anticipation of reopening soon, bringing award winning products back into the marketplace,” stated a Sullivan Harbor Farm post Monday on the company’s Facebook page.

It did not disclose the name of the new owner, but said whoever it is plans to “move forward with new concepts, while continuing the 25 year tradition of producing safe, tasty artisanal smoked seafood.”

Read the full story at Food Safety News

NOAA Cuts Monitor Days for Massachusetts Lobstermen

February 16, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries has recalibrated its method for determining the requisite sea days of observer coverage for lobster boats, resulting in decreased coverage for Massachusetts-based lobstermen and increased coverage for those based in Maine in the final quarter of this fishing season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, responding to criticisms from Bay State lobstermen, re-allotted the number of sea-days after expanding the pool of vessels eligible for observer coverage to include all federally permitted lobster boats rather than just those holding limited-use, multi-species permits that require the filing of vessel trip reports (VTRs).

The result is that for the final quarter of the 2015 fishing season (Jan. 1 to March 31), Massachusetts lobstermen will have six sea-days of mandated observer coverage, down from the previously scheduled 18. Maine lobstermen, however, will see their mandated sea-days of observer coverage rise to 33 from the originally scheduled 14 in the same period.

The modified methodology also means that New Hampshire and Rhode Island lobstermen will have one day of mandated observer coverage respectively in the final quarter of the 2015, down from the previously scheduled five for New Hampshire and four for Rhode Island.

Amy Martins, manager of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP) that provides the observer coverage for lobster boats, said the new method for determining observer coverage will continue into the 2016 fishing season that begins May 1.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times