Saving Seafood

Fishermen accused of herring fraud face federal trial

March 11, 2024 — On March 7, five individuals charged with a multi-year scheme of selling unreported herring and forging fishing records began trial in the U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine. According to The Courier-Gazette, the trial is expected to last at least nine days.

The five defendants who pleaded not guilty are Glenn Robbins of Eliot, Maine; Neil Herrick of Rockland, Maine; Stephen Little of Warren, Maine; Ethan Chase of Portsmouth, N.H., and Jason Parent of Owls Head, Maine and Western Sea Inc. Some additional defendants previously pleaded guilty.

The fishermen and seafood companies were charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice in connection with the multi-year scheme, according to the Penobscot Bay Pilot. The indictment was originally filed on Jan. 27, 2022.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: In Maine, aquaculture-friendly legislation meets opposition

March 9, 2024 — Aquaculture advocates in the U.S. state of Maine are having a hard time getting through to legislators in the state capitol of Augusta.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has backed a bill to make its process for reviewing aquaculture leases more efficient, but its call for a reduction in public notices and tighter requirements for a public hearing have raised the ire of numerous fishermen and community groups all along the coast.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Catch dips as lobster fishers grapple with climate change, whale rules

March 7, 2024 — America’s lobster fishing business dipped in catch while grappling with challenges including a changing ocean environment and new rules designed to protect rare whales.

The lobster industry, based mostly in Maine, has had an unprecedented decade in terms of the volume and value of the lobsters brought to the docks. But members of the industry have also said they face existential threats from proposed rules intended to protect the North Atlantic right whale and climate change that is influencing where lobsters can be trapped.

Fishermen from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and other Northeast states also harvest lobsters with traps from the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, but about 80% comes to the docks in Maine in a typical years.

Maine fishermen’s catch in 2023 fell more than 5% from the year that preceded it, and the total of 93.7 million pounds of lobsters caught was the lowest figure since 2009, according to data released Friday by the Maine Department of Marine

Read the full article at The Daily News

MAINE: Maine marine dept. hosts listening sessions on aquaculture leasing

March 7, 2024 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is hosting five listening sessions to gather input from stakeholders on the Aquaculture Leasing Program.

The Aquaculture Leasing Program was reorganized and now falls under the Bureau of Public Health and Aquaculture.

According to information from the DMR’s website, “In light of this reorganization, as well as increased interest in the blue economy, aquaculture in general and growing demands on the program, DMR wants to hear directly from stakeholders as it plots a course for the future.”

The sessions are designed to foster an understanding of opportunities and challenges and to encourage discussion of the best ideas for moving forward with aquaculture in Maine.

Read the full article at Aquaculture North America

MAINE: Maine Lobstermen’s Association tallies its victories, future risks at annual meeting

March 6, 2024 — “Every year, there is a new issue facing the industry,” Tristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), said as the trade organization opened its 70th annual meeting during the Maine Fishermen’s Forum on March 1.

For lobstermen and the commercial lobster fishery, there are three big issues facing the industry: protecting North Atlantic right whales, maintaining a sustainable fishery and the federal leasing in the Gulf of Maine for floating offshore wind energy — plus the myriad of federal and state regulations and public hearings and, at times, lawsuits, that go with them.

Lobstermen had been facing implementing measures to achieve a 90 percent risk reduction to right whales that would have curtailed fishing in 2023, but this was put on pause until 2028 through a federal omnibus spending bill in December 2022.

“You’re fishing now because of the Consolidated Appropriations Act,” Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), told the hundreds of fishermen in attendance.

Then, in June 2023, a federal court ruled in favor of the MLA, which had sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NOAA Fisheries, regarding the data used to determine the risk of vertical fishing lines to right whales. That risk calculation would further restrict the lobster fishery — possibly out of existence.

“We did not have the money to do this, but the industry stepped up,” said Patrice McCarron, the MLA’s policy director.

Read the full article at Mount Dessert Islander

MAINE: Jonesport aquaculture project paused as conservation groups appeal permits

March 5, 2024 — Kingfish Maine, the company behind a proposed aquaculture facility in Jonesport, received $4 million from the state last month while appeals challenging the project continue to wind their way through the courts.

Though a number of aquaculture projects across the state have stalled in recent years because of pushback from conservation groups, fishermen and coastal landowners, Kingfish Maine remains optimistic it will break ground on a $110 million land-based fish farm next year.

For now, construction on the recirculating aquaculture facility, which the company says will eventually produce 8,000 metric tons of yellowtail kingfish a year and provide between 70 and 100 jobs, is on hold as the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and Maine Business and Consumer Court consider challenges to the group’s permits.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Lottery for Maine’s lucrative elver lottery is closing

March 8, 2024 — The lottery for a license in Maine’s 2024 elver fishing season ends at 4:30 p.m. Monday. There are a total of 16 licenses available this year, the most since 2013.

Maine’s elver fishery is one of the most lucrative fisheries in the state. In fact, in 2023, it was the second most valuable in Maine, earning fishermen $19,508,478 thanks to a $2,009 price per pound. The lobster was the only fishery worth more in Maine.

Read the full article at WMTW

MAINE: Maine Lobster Harvest Down 5% Amid Warming Ocean, Right Whale Regulations

March 4, 2024 — Last year’s lobster catch in Maine fell more than 5% for a total yield of 93.8 million pounds, new data from the Maine Department of Marine Resource showed Friday, as climate change and regulations put in place to protect a rare whale species continue to impact the fragile industry.

Fishermen in Maine, who are responsible for catching more than 90% of the nation’s lobsters per year, caught 93.8 million pounds of the crustacean in 2023 (the lowest level since 2009) and were paid $4.95 per pound, up significantly from the $3.97 per pound paid to fishermen last year.

The sharp rise in price paid harvesters a total of $464.4 million, almost $72 million more than in 2023 despite the lower catch, indicative of a widely fluctuating value that involved prices spiking to $6.70 per pound in 2021 before falling to less than $4 in 2022.

The lobster industry in the state has been in flux for a decade as lobster populations move north toward Canada and away from the United States in search of cooler waters—the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world’s ocean surface, according to the University of New England.

New England’s fishermen have also been increasingly impacted by regulations put in place to protect right whales—one of the most endangered species of all large whales—that impact when and for how long fishermen can be on the water.

The decline in catch continues to build on a trend in the Maine lobster industry since harvesters caught a record high 132.6 million pounds in 2016, and 2023 marked the second year in a row the total catch has declined.

Read the full article at Forbes

 

MAINE: Value of Maine lobster fishery rebounds in 2023 despite smallest catch in 15 years

March 4, 2024 — Maine lobstermen raked in $464 million at the docks last year, rebounding from the worst year the fishery had seen in a decade, according to the annual report released Friday by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The increase in the value of Maine’s famed fishery comes even as lobstermen reported the smallest catch in 15 years, at 94 million pounds. The jump in value was partly due to the second-highest boat price on record, $4.95 per pound.

The dwindling number of landings isn’t necessarily a surprise, though. State officials and members of the lobstering community say the decrease reflects the impacts of high costs of operating the fishery last year. And the dip in poundage indicates how lobstermen navigated the challenging obstacles.

“Fishermen are now very strategic about how they fish. Expenses are through the roof, so you can’t afford to be out if you’re not making money,” said Patrice McCarron, a lobsterman and policy director with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “That causes the number of trips to go down and is going impact the amount of lobster that we all brought in.”

Read the full article at the Press Herald

MAINE: Maine fishermen hauled more than $611M to the dock last year

March 4, 2024 — Maine fishermen earned an additional $25 million dockside in 2023.

The total value of Maine’s fisheries came to $611,277,692, according to preliminary figures for 2023 the Maine Department of Marine Resources released Friday morning.

That’s a boost compared with 2022’s $574,049,682, but a far cry from the record more than $890 million hauled in throughout 2021. 2022’s catch was more in line with recent catches.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News