Saving Seafood

8 Gulf of Maine sites picked for possible commercial offshore wind leases

May 2, 2024 — The federal government is proposing eight areas in the Gulf of Maine as possible sites for commercial offshore wind farms.

The proposed lease areas cover about 1 million acres and have the potential to generate 15 gigawatts of energy, enough to power five million homes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Tuesday.

Two of the sites, encompassing nearly 254,000 acres, are off the Maine coast. The remaining six are located off Massachusetts.

In choosing the lease sites, BOEM said it wanted to avoid offshore fishing grounds and transit routes for ships. The eight proposed sites represent about half of the 2 million acres that BOEM chose as its “final wind energy area” for the Gulf of Maine, which the agency announced last month.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Maine’s wharf owners scramble to repair what they can before lobstering season starts

May 1, 2024 — Chris Hole was busy at work on a sunny Friday morning, taking apart his commercial fishing wharf like a game of Jenga.

After pulling up the surface wooden slats, Hole used a fork lift to lower large wooden beams down to the deck. Josh Saxton, Hole’s right-hand man, would then slip between the large gaps in the deck to put the support beams in place.

Hole owns Henry Allen’s Seafood, a wholesaler and retailer with a commercial wharf that was battered by the series of storms in January that swept away many working waterfronts along Maine’s coast. The storms flooded Henry Allen’s historic buildings and wiped out the dock’s seawall. At a quick glance from above, Henry Allen’s wharf doesn’t look all that bad. But most of the repair work is invisible, the pummeled structure hidden beneath the surface of the deck.

Hole is of course familiar with storms.

Read the full article at the Press Herald

MAINE: Federal government seeking feedback ahead of Gulf of Maine offshore wind auction

May 1, 2024 — As Maine is still figuring out where to build a port for its budding offshore wind industry, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced its proposal to auction offshore wind leases in the Gulf of Maine Tuesday.

As part of the Biden administration’s efforts to drive more offshore wind development, the Gulf of Maine is slated to have eight lease areas offshore Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which have the potential to generate 15 gigawatts of clean energy to power more than five million homes, according to a news release from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

“We’re taking decisive action to catalyze America’s offshore wind industry and leverage American innovation to provide reliable, affordable power to homes and businesses, all while addressing the climate crisis,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

Read the full article at the Maine Morning Star

Sea off New England had one of its hottest years in 2023, part of a worldwide trend

April 29, 2024 — The sea off New England, already warming faster than most of the world’s oceans, had one of its hottest years on record in 2023.

The Gulf of Maine, which abuts New England and Canada, had an annual sea surface temperature nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal last year, scientists with the Portland, Maine-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute said Monday. The institute said it was the fifth-warmest year on record for the Gulf of Maine, a body of water critical to commercial fishing and other maritime industries.

The Gulf of Maine has emerged as a case study for the warming of the world’s oceans in the last 10 years, and the research institute said in a statement that last year’s warming was “consistent with the long-term trend of increasingly warm conditions driven primarily by” climate change.

The early portion of the year was especially warm, said Dave Reidmiller, director of the Climate Center at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

How New England entrepreneurs are creating skincare from lobsters

April 28, 2024 —  Re-envisioning the fishing industry to make it more sustainable and environmentally friendly. It’s a movement that started in Iceland. And now, it has inspired a similar collaboration here in New England.

The New England Ocean Cluster in Portland, Maine is trying to harness the wonders of the ocean and power the blue economy.

It was spawned by Patrick and Janeen Arnold after a visit to Iceland.

“We found at the Iceland Ocean Cluster something new, something novel,” says Arnold. “An energy where people were sharing principles and values in business.”

The Ocean Cluster brings people with common goals together to spark innovation.

Read the full article at CBS News

NOAA Fisheries closes Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area

April 23, 2024 — NOAA Fisheries announced on Friday, April 20, that no scallop vessel fishing under federal scallop regulations may fish for, possess or land scallops in or from the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area.

The scallop regulations require that this area be closed once it is projected that 100 percent of the 2024 Northern Gulf of Maine Set-Aside will be taken. The closure will be in effect until the end of the fishing year, March 31, 2025.

Read the full article at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: Bill to protect access to working waterfront gets unanimous support from Legislature

April 22, 2024 — The state Legislature unanimously voted April 10 to enact legislation sponsored by Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, that would help protect fishermen’s access to Maine’s working waterfront.

As amended, L.D. 2162 would strengthen the working waterfront section of the current land use tax program, which provides tax relief for owners of land designated as working waterfront. By strengthening the program, Mainers who use their own residence for their commercial fishing business would have a larger incentive to enroll, according to prepared release from the House Democratic Office.

Read the full article at The Times Record

Maine legislature passes $60 million to aid working waterfronts

April 18, 2024 — The Maine legislature has taken a significant step by passing the supplemental budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. This budget, proposed by Governor Mills, includes a substantial $60 million to aid Maine communities and businesses recover from the devastating storm damage. These funds will be allocated to the working waterfront communities, underlining the importance of their role in the state’s economy as soon as possible under the law.

The House of Representatives approved the budget by a 75-63 vote just after 4 a.m. Thursday. According to the Portland Press Herald, the Senate followed with a 19-14 vote, and the decision came after an all-night debate in the final hours of this year’s legislative session. Gov. Mills issued this statement after the Legislature passed,

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: Mills’ storm relief bill caught up in last-minute state budget battle

April 17, 2024 — Gov. Janet Mills’ storm relief bill appears to be at risk of falling victim to a wide-ranging legislative brawl over the supplemental budget.

A bipartisan group of Senators that now includes Senate President Troy Jackson wants to load the bill with a bevy of costly riders – which is estimated to bring the bill’s total cost to $117 million – that have nothing to do with the $60 million infrastructure repair that Mills asked lawmakers to approve as an emergency measure a month ago. The additions include raises for education techs, new behavioral health programs, and higher, non-lapsing funding for nursing homes and veterans homes.

But House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, and Mills want a storm relief bill that isn’t weighed down with all that extra spending. They want to keep the other spending contained within the official supplemental budget bill, which was voted out of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee Monday. And while Mills had wanted infrastructure repair money to go out fast, the House was so intent on adopting a stripped-down storm relief bill that it appeared willing to give up hopes of adopting the bill as an emergency measure.

Read the full article at the centralmaine.com