Saving Seafood

Where have Maine’s mussels gone?

CASCO BAY, Maine  — August 30, 2015 — The survey map in Ann Thayer’s hand showed fat red splotches that wrapped around two-thirds of Bangs Island’s shoreline, meaning that the intertidal zone – the zone between the high and low water marks – was supposed to be densely packed with mussel beds. The tide was nearly three hours past high, leaving plenty of rockweed exposed.

Thayer began systematically flipping over the weed, looking for mussels, aka Mytilus edulis, attached to the rock below.

“Nothing,” she said. She said this over and over.

By the time she got back into her dinghy to row back to her Boston Whaler, she’d found only two mussels. Two where surveys from the 1970s and 1990s indicated there should be thousands, mollusks wedged into almost every nook and cranny in the rocks, the blue-hued shellfish nearly as commonplace as the barnacles living on their shells.

Thayer, who serves on the board of directors of Friends of Casco Bay, was not surprised by her findings.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

Fishermen rescued from burning boat off Maine coast

August 27, 2015 — PORTLAND, MA —Two Maine fishermen were safely rescued Wednesday evening from their burning boat about six miles from Jeffreys Ledge off the coast of Maine.

The Coast Guard said a crew member of the Gretchen Marie, a 40-foot fishing boat based out of Portland, contacted the Coast Guard around 7:40 p.m. to say there was a fire on board and heavy smoke was coming from the boat’s pilothouse.

Station South Portland sent a motor boat to the area and removed the fishermen from the boat. The fishermen used their own equipment to put out a fire in the boat’s engine before the Coast Guard arrived, according to Petty Officer 1st Class Kurt Hein.

Read the full story at WMTW News

 

 

The Good and Bad of Climate Change in Maine- Fishing Impacts

August 25, 2015 — “If ocean temperatures go up 5 degrees, I might actually swim in it,” proclaimed Tom Doak, executive director of the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine.

I’d need at least 20 degrees, I responded. But Tom was making an important point about climate change: It’s not all bad.

Yes, there will be no skiing in Maine, but waterskiers will enjoy a long season. Farmers will have longer growing seasons, although some current crops won’t do well. As we plan for these climate changes, it’s important to include the benefits along with the bad impacts.

The June conference on Maine’s Economy & Climate Change, organized by Alan Caron and Envision Maine, was both fascinating and troubling. Last week, I told you a bit about the conference, and today I will focus on the three dozen people who spoke briefly, from 10 minutes to 1 minute.

“Eat Hake, not Haddock.” That must be our new slogan, said Andy Pershing of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Fish species are changing in the Gulf of Maine, he said, and hake eat cod. We’d like to eat cod too. But first, we must eat hake. And the real question is this: Will tourists eat hake? Just for the hake of it?

Read the full story at CentralMaine.com

 

 

ACFHP Seeks Nominations for Melissa Laser Fish Habitat Conservation Award

August 25, 2015 — The following was released by the Atlantic Costal Fish Habitat Partnership:
                                                                                                                                 
The Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership is seeking nominations for its Melissa Laser Fish Habitat Conservation Award, which is bestowed upon individuals deemed to further the conservation, protection, restoration, and enhancement of habitat for native Atlantic coastal, estuarine-dependent, and diadromous fishes in a unique or extraordinary manner. The award was established in memory of Dr. Melissa Laser who passed away unexpectedly on April 27, 2010.  Melissa was a biologist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources where she worked tirelessly to protect, improve and restore aquatic ecosystems in Maine and along the entire Atlantic Coast. Nominations will be accepted until September 16. For more information, please visit http://www.atlanticfishhabitat.org/acfhp-seeking-nominations-for-melissa-laser-fish-habitat-conservation-award-3/.              
                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                      

Seafood technology: When ‘net’ means more than catching fish

August 24, 2015 — For generations Maine’s fishermen have used nature — both their own internal sense of navigation and measurements like water temperature — to find rich fishing grounds. But with increasing competition, broader distribution, more government regulations and a desire by customers to trace food sources, the seafood industry is turning to technology to help automate tasks from the boat through the dock, processors, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and onto the consumer’s plate.

“Boat to Plate” is one such nascent effort by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and other collaborators. The goal is within a few years to create a database including the boat, fisherman, catch, distribution and other information so the seafood can be traced if there’s a food safety issue, and so consumers can download an app to learn about the fish on their plate using a QR or quick response code, the two-dimensional code that contains and retrieves more information more quickly than a traditional bar code.

“We’re thinking of ways to get more value out of fish and catch more fish,” explains Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association in Brunswick. “Farmers are successful [in the farm-to-table movement]. Until recently, we haven’t been.”

Read the full story at Mainebiz

Maine shrimp fishery may allow fewer fishermen in future

August 22, 2015 — Maine shrimp might come back on the market eventually but there could be fewer fishermen catching them.

Regulators are considering putting a limit on the number of fishermen who can participate in the Gulf of Maine’s beleaguered shrimp fishery in an attempt to revive the shuttered industry.

A board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is developing a proposal to control the number of fishermen who can fish for the shrimp that are prized for their sweet, tender meat. The plan will likely be the subject of public hearings next year, and could apply as soon as the 2017 fishing year, said commission spokeswoman Tina Berger.

The winter fishery, which formerly took place in the early months of the year, is currently shut down over concerns about low population, and fishermen haven’t been able to catch shrimp there since 2013.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

New restrictions set for recreational fishing for cod, haddock in Maine

August 15, 2015 — Maine fishing regulators are enacting new restrictions on recreational fishermen who fish for cod and haddock.

Maine’s new rules went into effect on Aug. 8 and apply to charter, party and recreational fishing vessels in state waters. Cod fishing in the state is now closed, and it is unlawful for recreational fishermen to take or possess cod in state waters. The minimum size for haddock caught by recreational fishermen is being reduced to 17 inches.

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

Maine elver fishermen to have same quota next season

August 14, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from a story published yesterday by the Associated Press, appearing in the Portland Press Herald:

Maine’s elver fishermen will have the same quota next spring when they fish for the valuable baby eels.

The fishermen are dealing with fluctuating volume and value in a fishery that exploded in interest early this decade. Elvers are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity and use them as food, including sushi. Maine’s fishery for elvers is by far the biggest in the country, and the eels have become more valuable in recent years largely because of a sharp decline in their population across Europe in the 1990s.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which manages elver fishing, met earlier this month to discuss the fishery. There was no discussion of the possibility of changing the quota, which will remain in effect through 2017, when it will be re-evaluated, a spokeswoman said.

The quota system and Maine’s swipe card tracking system have been valuable tools to manage the fishery, said David Allen, a member of the commission’s American Eel Advisory Panel.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine approves new card system to track sea urchin sales

PERRY, Maine (AP) — July 5, 2015 — Maine wants to get better and timelier information about the harvest of its sea urchins, which are the most valuable in the country, and it will begin doing so with a new swipe card system in a few weeks.

Maine sea urchins are harvested for their roe, which is especially popular in Japan and Japanese restaurants in America as sushi and sashimi. The swipe card system is similar to a program the state unveiled for its baby eel fishery last year.

The new card system will allow the state to collect information about volume and price of urchin sales in real time, said Maggie Hunter, a biologist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The season begins Sept. 1 and Hunter said the cards will likely be ready by October.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Inside Bay Area News

 

A big shift is coming to the Maine lobster population — and it could devastate the local economy

July 7, 2015 — There aren’t many foods more closely associated with Maine than the lobster.

So it’s pretty scary that this valued American crustacean could one day soon become a Canadian treasure — a change that could have a devastating impact on Maine’s local economy.

The problem is, lobsters like cold water. And oceans are warming, especially in New England.

The waters in the Gulf of Maine, specifically, are warming 99% faster than the rest of the world’s oceans.

And as a result, lobsters are moving north toward colder climates.

Over the last decade, southern lobster fisheries along Long Island and Connecticut have already seen their catches drop due to lobsters moving north into Maine, which hauled record catches during the same time period, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Maine lobsters have already moved north about 43 miles per decade between 1968 and 2008, according to a 2013 study.

Read the full story at Business Insider