December 2, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Fishing managers are recommending a shift in the amount of fish New England’s beleaguered cod fishermen can catch for the next few years.
The New England Fishery Management Council is meeting on Wednesday to consider quotas for several species of important food fish. One of the species is the Gulf of Maine cod, which was once the backbone of the New England fishing industry.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at Beaumont Enterprise
December 1, 2015 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Maine scallop fishery opened Tuesday morning, with predictions that the boat price will be high, the season short and the pressure to let more people into the fishery intense.
Last week, Trisha Cheney, the Department of Marine Resources’ scallop resource coordinator, hosted an outreach meeting in Ellsworth to give industry members a heads-up about what to expect for the coming season and to hear their concerns about the fishery and the way it is managed by DMR.
The department is in the midst of developing a formal fishery management plan for scallops, but no draft will be available for industry review any time soon. In the near term, and of more immediate interest, Cheney said Downeast harvesters are likely facing “a lean season,” especially in Zone 2, which covers the waters from roughly the middle of Penobscot Bay eastward to Lubec.
This season, harvesters will have access to seven areas in Zone 2 that have closed to scalloping under the state’s 10-year rotational management program. Encompassing locations in and around Machias Bay, Wohoa Bay and Western bays, Gouldsboro and Dyer bays, upper Blue Hill Bay and the Union River, eastern Eggemoggin Reach and Southeast Harbor on Deer Isle, lower Jericho Bay and, finally, lower Penobscot Bay and the outer islands seaward of North Haven, the newly opened areas were closed for just one season. As a result, these areas have had less time during which the scallop resource would be undisturbed and allowed to rebuild.In 2014, scallop landings totaled 584,172 meat pounds (without the shell) compared to just 33,141 pounds in 2005. Value jumped from a low of $272,703 in 2005 to $7,464,690 in 2014. Because each scallop season extends over parts of two calendar years, the 2014 numbers reflect landings for the period January through April and the month of December. In recent years, DMR has frequently closed the fishery by the end of March.
December 1, 2015 — Norwegian energy giant Statoil has received approval to explore for oil in an area next to the Georges Bank and the entrance to the Gulf of Maine, raising environmental concerns on both sides of the border.
In a move opposed by fishermen, Canadian authorities have granted the company an exploratory lease for the area 225 miles southeast of Bar Harbor and bordering on the eastern flank of Georges Bank. Environmentalists fear drilling could leave the ecologically sensitive Gulf of Maine susceptible to a catastrophic oil spill.
It would be the closest that exploratory drilling has come to Maine since the early 1980s. Five wells were drilled on the U.S. side of Georges Bank in 1981 and 1982, before U.S. and Canadian moratoriums were put in place to protect the fishing grounds.
Final approval was granted Monday afternoon as a deadline passed for federal and provincial authorities to veto a Nov. 12 recommendation by the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board, an intergovernmental entity responsible for regulating petroleum activities near the province.
“We’re aware of concerns that exist, particularly from fisheries, about the effects of oil and gas activity,” said Kathleen Funke, the board’s spokeswoman. “Bidding on a license is a first step but doesn’t guarantee any work will take place in this underexplored area.”
Statoil has pledged to spend at least $82 million exploring the parcels under its six-year exclusive lease. The relatively small financial commitment suggests the company has no immediate plans to begin drilling, which is a much more expensive process that requires further approval. The company did not respond to interview requests.
November 25, 2015 — After five years of double-secret negotiations, the world has had its first look at the text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. All together, the 12 nations comprise nearly 40 percent of the global economy, and Maine lobster exporters are just one group that hopes this will crack open new markets.
If the trade pact is accepted, more than 18,000 tariffs would be reduced or eliminated, including those Pacific rim nations levy on Maine lobsters.
And Maine lobster exporters see the elimination of tariffs to prized agricultural markets in Asia, especially Japan, as an opportunity to export more of the valuable commodity.
Already, Maine lobster exports have soared in value to $366 million in 2014 from $185 million in 2010, according to data from the Maine International Trade Center.
For Calendar Island Lobster Co. in Portland, exports of frozen and processed lobster are big business, accounting for nearly 60 percent of sales, with the lion’s share shipped to consumers in Asia, said Emily Lane, vice president of export sales and marketing. The trade pact has benefits for lobstermen and suppliers, Lane said.
“I think it’s going to open a lot of markets in an area of the world where there is one of the largest consumer populations,” she said.
Already Maine lobsters are appearing more frequently on menus in Asia. Much of this growth has been in China, South Korea and Hong Kong, none of which took part in the recent trade negotiations.
With trade barriers expected to come down in other Asian emerging markets, Lane hopes to see growth in exports to that part of the world, Japan in particular.
Read the full story at Bangor Daily News
November 25, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council will hold its Dec 1-3 meeting in Portland, ME. Please take a look at the details below if you would like to listen in.
Location: For further information about the venue, check Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland, ME
Meeting Materials: See the agenda here Dec 1-3, 2015 Council Meeting Agenda and meeting materials at www.nefmc.org/calendar/december-2015-council-meeting
Webinar Registration: See https://global.gotowebinar.com/ojoin/9120951799557371650/300000000000299567 for online access to the meeting.
The webinar will be activated beginning at 8:00 a.m. each day and end at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST .
Charges for Listening: There are no charges if you access the webinar via your computer. If dialing in, your normal phone charges will apply.
Dial in number: Toll: +1 (646) 307-1720
Access Code: 399-520-213
November 24, 2015 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A key panel says Maine shrimp are still depleted and fishing regulators’ moratorium on fishing for them should remain in effect in 2016.
Fishermen haven’t been able to catch the shrimp since 2013. They were previously sought by commercial fishermen from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and were a popular winter item at fish markets.
The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Northern Shrimp Technical Committee says prospects for shrimp recovery is poor for the near future. The committee is asking the Northern Shrimp Section to extend the moratorium at a Dec. 7 meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Herald
November 19, 2015 — One of the three brothers who own and operate an iconic fish market on Portland’s waterfront has died, following a long struggle with cancer.
Benjamin A. Alfiero, 59, of Scarborough, died Monday, his family said.
Alfiero and his brothers, Nick Alfiero and Mike Alfiero, have been involved in the operation of the Harbor Fish Market since their father Ben Alfiero Sr. founded the business in 1969.
For years, Benjamin A. Alfiero ran the retail store for Harbor Fish Market, which is located at 9 Custom House Wharf on the city’s waterfront.
“He was the face of the business in a lot of ways,” said his younger brother, Mike Alfiero. “Ben became a local celebrity.”
Alfiero was born and raised in Portland, the son of Benjamin and Gloria Alfiero.
He attended Portland schools and graduated from Portland High School.
He joined the business as a teenager and never lost interest.
“We grew up doing every aspect of the entire operation, from cutting fish to sweeping floors,” Mike Alfiero said.
In the 1990s, when their father retired, the three brothers took over.
November 17, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
ORONO, Maine – Endangered shortnose sturgeon have rediscovered habitat in the Penobscot River that had been inaccessible to the species for more than 100 years prior to the removal of the Veazie Dam in 2013. University of Maine researchers confirmed evidence that three female shortnose sturgeon were in the area between Veazie (upriver of the dam remnants) and Orono (Basin Mills Rips), Maine in mid-October. Researchers had previously implanted these sturgeon with small sound-emitting devices known as acoustic tags to see if they would use the newly accessible parts of the river.
Among the most primitive fish to inhabit the Penobscot, sturgeon are often called “living fossils” because they remain very similar to their earliest fossil forms. Their long lives (more than 50 years) and bony-plated bodies also make them unique. Historically, shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic sturgeon (a related species also present in the watershed) had spawning populations in the Penobscot River as far upstream as the site of the current Milford dam, and provided an important food and trade source to native peoples and early European settlers. Overharvest and loss of suitable habitat due to dams and pollution led to declines in shortnose sturgeon populations and a listing as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1967. In 2012, Gulf of Maine populations of Atlantic sturgeon were listed as threatened under the ESA.
Today, a network of sound receivers, which sit on the river bottom along the lower river from Penobscot Bay up to the Milford Dam, detect movement and location of tagged fish. According to Gayle Zydlewski, an associate professor in the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences, the three individual fish observed were females. These fish have since been tracked joining other individuals in an area identified as wintering habitat near Brewer, Maine. Wintering habitat in other rivers is known to be staging habitat for spawning the following spring.
“We know that shortnose sturgeon use the Penobscot River throughout the year, and habitat models indicate suitable habitat for spawning in the area of recent detection upriver of Veazie, although actual spawning has not yet been observed,” Zydlewski said.
Since 2006, Zydlewski has been working with Michael Kinnison, a professor in UMaine’s School of Biology and Ecology, and multiple graduate students, including Catherine Johnston, to better understand the sturgeon populations of the Penobscot River and Gulf of Maine. Johnston, who has been tagging and tracking sturgeon in the Penobscot for two years to study the implications of newly available habitat to shortnose sturgeon, discovered the detections of sturgeon upstream of the Veazie dam remnants. Each new bit of information adds to the current understanding of behavior and habitat preferences of these incredible fish.
“We’re very excited to see sturgeon moving upstream of where the Veazie Dam once stood, and into their former habitats,” said Kim Damon-Randall, assistant regional administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Protected Resources Division. “We need to do more research to see how they’re using it, but it’s a tremendous step in the right direction.”
Habitat access is essential for the recovery of these species. The removal of the Veazie Dam is only a portion of the Penobscot River Restoration Project, which, when combined with the removal of Great Works Dam in 2012, restores 100 percent of historic sturgeon habitat in the Penobscot. In addition to dam removals, construction of a nature-like fish bypass at the Howland Dam in 2015 significantly improves habitat access for the remaining nine species of sea-run fish native to the Penobscot, including Atlantic salmon and river herring.
“Scientific research and monitoring of this monumental restoration effort has been ongoing for the past decade,” said Molly Payne Wynne, Monitoring Coordinator for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. “The collaborative body of research on this project is among the most comprehensive when compared to other river restoration projects across the country,” Wynne said.
NOAA Fisheries is an active partner and provides funding for this long-term monitoring collaboration that includes The Penobscot River Restoration Trust, The Nature Conservancy and others. These efforts are beginning to shed light on the response of the river to the restoration project. Restoration of the full assemblage of sea-run fish to the Penobscot River will revive not only native fisheries but social, cultural and economic traditions of Maine’s largest river.
After measurement and implantation of a small tagging device, graduate student L. Izzo releases a shortnose sturgeon back into the Penobscot (ESA Permit #16036 compliant, photo courtesy G. Zydlewski).
November 13, 2015 — Interstate fishing regulators say they will meet next month to decide if there will be a fishing season for Gulf of Maine shrimp next year, though they say prospects are bleak.
The fishery is currently shut down over concerns about its low population. Fishermen haven’t been able to catch the popular food species since 2013. A panel of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will make a decision about the coming season on Dec. 7 in Portsmouth, N.H.
The fishery was formerly a popular winter fishery for fishermen who spent the warmer months trapping lobsters.
Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times
November 12, 2015 — MACHIAS, Maine (AP) — Maine fishing regulators are meeting with scallop fishermen around the state as they get ready for the 2015-16 season amid some cutbacks.
The state approved a proposal to cut back the number of scalloping days in the southern scalloping zone from 70 to 60. The upcoming season begins in early December and ends in mid-April. It’s happening in a time of record high prices for Maine scallops, which are typically more expensive per pound than others.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at WCSH6