Saving Seafood

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

MAINE: In Maine, aquaculture-friendly legislation meets opposition

February 29, 2024 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources introduced a bill to make processing aquaculture leases more efficient. But 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.

Bill LD 2065, sponsored by Rep. Alison Hepler of district 49, would reduce the number of required public notices of an aquaculture lease or lease change from two to one, and increase the number of people it takes to request a public hearing on an aquaculture lease from five to 25. It also streamlines the process of converting an experimental lease into a standard lease.

According to Crystal Canney, executive director of the Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation, the changes limit public participation in the leasing process of public waters.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Forum to feature NEFMC talk on Atlantic cod and herring, Gulf of Maine scallops on Friday

February 29, 2024 — The New England Fishery Management Council will be taking part in seminars Friday on Atlantic herring, Gulf of Maine scallops and Atlantic cod at the 49th Maine Fishermen’s Forum.

Attendees on Friday can meet some council members and staff at sessions about Atlantic cod, the Northern Gulf of Maine scallop fishery and Atlantic herring, while taking part in an open forum with federal fishery management leaders on topics of interest to fishers, according to the Newburyport-based council.

The forum takes place in-person this year at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine. It started Feb. 29 and runs through Saturday, March 2.

Council Chair Eric Reid and Executive Director Cate O’Keefe are participating in the leadership session along with NOAA Fisheries officials.

Gloucester Fisheries Commission Executive Director Al Cottone, a commercial fisherman, is attending the meeting in Maine.

Read the full article at Gloucester Times

MAINE: Maine’s lobster fishermen struggle with efforts to save right whales

February 28, 2024 — Willis Spear stands in the backyard of his Yarmouth, Maine home. Behind him are dozens of yellow and green lobster traps. Spear, 67, spends most of the winter preparing these traps to be deployed in the Gulf of Maine come April. It’s a task this lifelong lobster fisherman has carried out each year since he was a child.

“The water gives us life,” Spear said on an unusually warm winter day in late February.

Over the last decade, lobster fishermen in Maine have faced increasingly stronger financial headwinds — from the price of fuel to the revenue they are receiving for the lobster themselves. The lobster-fishing industry generates hundreds of millions of dollars for Maine’s economy each year.

“It’s been a difficult last couple of years. Some of my friends have dropped out altogether. Prices are going up but lobster prices are stuck at 1970s prices,” Spear said.

Read the full article at AOL

MAINE: Maine Shaken by High-Stakes Offshore Wind Port Choice

February 27, 2024 — Maine Governor Janet Mills announced that the state selected a section of state-owned Sears Island reserved for port development to support the floating offshore wind industry. The site selection followed an extensive public stakeholder process led by the Maine Department of Transportation and Maine Port Authority to consider the State’s primary port development options.

However, in former documentation, locals in the community and commercial fishing groups oppose the development of the port and offshore wind altogether.

Sears Island is a 941-acre island off the coast of Searsport. In 2009, Sears Island was, by agreement, divided into two parcels: approximately 601 acres, or two-thirds of the island, was placed in a permanent conservation easement held by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, while the remaining one-third, or approximately 330 acres, was reserved by MaineDOT for future development.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: Data show fewer baby lobsters but fishermen say ‘eggers’ abound

February 27, 2024 — Lobstermen and the agency that oversees them — the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) — sparred a little over state data on lobster populations that lobstermen said does not reflect what they see when fishing, when the Zone B Lobster Council met Feb. 21 at the Mount Desert Island High School library.

The DMR estimates the number of baby lobsters, called “year of young,” through trawl and ventless trap surveys to project future adult populations and manage the fishery — and to adhere to interstate fishery rules from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), an interstate board managing fisheries for 15 states, including Maine.

Last May, the ASMFC’s American Lobster Board approved a “trigger” measure that would raise the minimum size of legally caught lobsters and, eventually, the size of trap vents when the annual lobster year of young abundance, also called “recruit,” declined by 35 percent.

Larger trap vents allow larger lobsters to escape traps, and a higher minimum size means smaller, previously legal lobsters are thrown back. Both measures are used to help maintain a healthy population.

At the time, it looked like it would take a couple of years to reach that trigger, but instead the trigger came quick, in late 2023, when data showed a 37 percent decline in settlement, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said. He was able to leverage a seven-month delay to implement the trigger until Jan. 1, 2025.

Read the full article at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: A day on the ocean with Maine’s tough winter scallopers

February 26, 2024 — An orange sun exploded behind a tangle of blue clouds on Monday morning, silhouetting the stone beacon tower on Little Mark Island that once held supplies for shipwrecked sailors.

Lying roughly between Eagle and Bailey islands, the 197-year-old navigational aid is one of the final outposts guiding fishermen at the far reaches of Casco Bay.

But Kenny Blanchard and Josh Todd didn’t have time to admire the gorgeous sunrise, or contemplate the history of the 50-foot tower.

They were busy, on their hands and knees, picking scallops from a pile of seaweed and rocks on the heaving stern of a Chebeague Island fishing boat. A constant breeze made the 26-degree air feel even colder, and the rising winter sun radiated no extra warmth.

“This really isn’t too bad,” said 37-year-old Blanchard, steam following his voice into the air. “Sometimes it’s cold enough to get the deck all iced up — and it snows, too.”

Though often romanticized for tourists and marketing, there’s little glamor in the work of a Maine fisherman — especially in the dead of winter, when the state’s scalloping season takes place.

Worth about $9 million to Maine’s economy every year, it can be an important financial bridge for fishermen waiting out the slowest part of the lobstering season. Their fresh catch, known as “day boat scallops,” are prized and often sold directly to hungry locals. Those buyers are smart, knowing that scallops purchased at other times of the year have likely been soaked in preserving chemicals, which dilute the taste.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Offshore wind is coming to Maine. Here’s what we know.

February 21, 2024 — Labor unions, environmental advocates and many lawmakers are looking to Maine’s budding offshore wind industry to help transition the state into the future, as a climate-friendly driver of investment and jobs.

On Tuesday. Gov. Janet Mills announced that Sears Island on the northern tip of Penobscot Bay would be the location of a new port from which floating turbines would be assembled and launched into the Gulf of Maine.

This isn’t the first time Maine has tried to procure the alternative energy source.

Back in 2010, the state began working with international oil and gas company Statoil on a $120 million offshore wind pilot project that never came to fruition. Then-Gov. Paul LePage was opposed to the project, arguing it didn’t provide enough benefits to the state, as reported by Bangor Daily News in 2013.

“We had the chance to do this 15 years ago, and we blew it,” said Kathleen Meil, senior director of policy and partnerships for Maine Conservation Voters, referring to the failed wind project.

But last legislative session, Mills signed a law that not only brought offshore wind back to life, but did so with high labor and environmental standards, which she says will help build quality jobs while achieving the goal of having infrastructure to create three gigawatts — enough to power between 675,000 and 900,000 homes — installed by the end of 2040.

Read the full article at the Maine Morning Star