July 17, 2023 — Senator Susan Collins has announced she has advanced more than $35 million in an appropriations bill for the next fiscal year to support Maine’s lobster industry.
The bill was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and still needs the approval of Congress.
$30 million would go to the Atlantic Marine States Fisheries Commission for Right Whale related research and monitoring.
July 10, 2023 — There is a haddock problem swimming around Gulf of Maine waters.
But don’t blame the problem on fishermen catching too many haddock, say Maine commercial fishing advocates like Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. In fact, they have been fishing in accordance with mandated quotas for decades, he said, regulatory measures that have returned the haddock stocks in the Gulf of Maine to sustainable levels.
The problem, rather, is grounded in inaccurate accounting of the boom-and-bust cycles of haddock biomass, that is, how many fish are swimming in the Gulf of Maine at any given time. In April, the New England Fishery Management Council, a regional body that uses industry and scientific data to recommend quotas that restrict how many metric tons of regulated species Maine fishermen can haul in each year, announced a cut in haddock quotas. It represents an 80-plus percent reduction in allowable catch; the new season began on May 1.
To understand this year’s drastic cut, you need to go back several years: The 2022 catch limits were based on a 2019 stock assessment, according to New England Fishery Management Council member Dr. Jamie Cournane speaking in a podcast hosted by Martens. In hindsight, the 2019 assessment was found to be bloated because, among several factors, the “recruits” (the juvenile fish swimming with the 2019 cohort) matured to be smaller than anticipated. Thus the 2023 limits, ultimately calculated in pounds, were set on an assessment conducted in 2021 that reflects the skinnier fish.
Fishermen have formally questioned the 2021 assessment because they say they are seeing many haddock in the Gulf of Maine. Not only is haddock a significant revenue source for them, but the fishermen fear that they’ll be restricted from catching other groundfish – particularly American plaice and grey sole – that also swim near the bottom of the sea. Say, for example, that fishermen fill their quota for haddock by August. They’d then have a hard time taking a trip to catch plaice or grey sole because haddock bycatch, likely, would also be in the nets.
Cournane and her colleagues have recommended an emergency increase in haddock catches for Maine fishermen to allow them to keep fishing for other groundfish species; the emergency increase would allow for wiggle room in the net for a few haddock as bycatch. The increase is small and on par with conservation efforts mandated by federal law, she said. According to Janice M. Plante, Council spokesperson, no conservation groups spoke out against the emergency measure in April.
July 5, 2023 — Fresh off legal victories, lobstermen in the U.S. state of Maine and salmon trollers across the country in Alaska are finding kinship in a shared narrative.
In a letter sent to the Alaska Trollers Association, Maine Lobstermen’s Association President Kristan Porter said both organizations had fought similar battles against environmentalists who want to end commercial fishing over concern about the threat it poses to whales.
June 27, 2023 — Janet Mills, the governor of the U.S. state of Maine, has signed a bill limiting salmonid aquaculture introduced in the wake of American Aquafarms’ failed bid to establish a facility in Gouldsboro, Maine.
The bill, L.D. 1951, An Act Regarding Marine Finfish Aquaculture, places limits on the stocking density of salmonid aquaculture operations. The bill was sponsored by Maine Senator Nicole Grohoski and co-sponsored by Maine House Minority Leader Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham, and passed through committee in late May before quickly passing both the House and Senate before being signed into law by Mills.
Cooke Aquaculture Vice President of Public Relations told SeafoodSource that the shift made all the difference.
“We appreciate that Maine legislators and the governor took a consultative and science-based approach to finalize the bill at a stocking density in the lease area of up to 30 kilograms per cubic meter,” Richardson said. “Previous bills (up to 22 kilograms per cubic meter) presented to the Maine Marine Resources Committee would have negatively impacted rural coastal jobs and restricted a producer’s ability to introduce new technologies and innovative equipment which otherwise enables aquaculture farms to operate even more sustainably.”
June 26, 2023 — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden has introduced a bill that would bar commercial offshore wind energy development in a key fishing area along the coast of Maine.
The bill would prevent the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from potentially hurting the fishing and lobstering industries in Maine, said Golden, D-2nd District. The legislation would ban wind energy development in Lobster Management Area 1, which is the zone closest to shore and stretches along the entire coast of Maine. The bill also would launch an assessment of how federal agencies like the BOEM and the National Marine Fisheries Service study the effects of offshore wind development and engage with industry groups.
Maine has a long, complex relationship with such attempts to harness the power of distant sea breezes to generate electricity.
There are currently a variety of plans across the state to create both public and private offshore wind farms. The Governor’s Energy Office wants to lease a site 45 miles from Portland in the Gulf of Maine to create the nation’s first floating offshore wind research site.
A developer also is working with University of Maine researchers to build a commercial-size floating wind turbine off the coast of Maine. And the Governor’s Energy Office is thinking about turning a portion of Sears Island, off Searsport, into a center for assembling and servicing wind turbines.
However, the attempts all require a massive build-out of the state’s infrastructure. Wind turbines would have to float in the Gulf of Maine because the waters are too deep to allow the structures to be anchored to the seabed. And an attempt to build a commercial-size floating wind turbine project might be scrapped because it’s too large, complicated and expensive.
June 27, 2023 — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling on June 16 overturning a lower court’s ruling that would have required the lobster fishery to eliminate virtually any risk—no matter how minute—that North Atlantic right whales could become entangled in lobstering gear.
“Maine’s lobstermen and women have long demonstrated their commitment to maintaining and protecting a sustainable fishery in the Gulf of Maine,” said Gov. Janet Mills in a joint statement with the state’s federal delegation. “Today’s decision vindicates what the Maine lobster fishery, and the countless communities that rely on it, knew all along—that their practices support the conservation of the gulf ecosystem for generations to come.”
June 26, 2023 — Janet Mills, the governor of the U.S. state of Maine, has signed a bill limiting salmonid aquaculture introduced in the wake of American Aquafarms’ failed bid to establish a facility in Gouldsboro, Maine.
The bill, L.D. 1951, An Act Regarding Marine Finfish Aquaculture, places limits on the stocking density of salmonid aquaculture operations. The bill was sponsored by Maine Senator Nicole Grohoski and co-sponsored by Maine House Minority Leader Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham, and passed through committee in late May before quickly passing both the House and Senate before being signed into law by Mills.
June 23, 2023 — The U.S. state of Maine suspended two permits essential to Nordic Aquafarms’ planned salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Belfast, Maine, U.S.A.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, in a decision announced on 21 June, suspended both the Site Location of Development Law and Natural Resources Protection Act Permit and its Air Emissions License for the facility, the Republican Journal reported.
June 23, 2023 — Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, introduced a bill in Congress that would block commercial offshore wind development from Lobster Management Area 1, and require a new study of how federal agencies are conducting environmental reviews for potential wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.
“BOEM’s decision not to remove one of the most lucrative and productive fishing grounds in the region from consideration for commercial offshore wind projects is just the latest in a series of unrelenting challenges to Maine fishermen,” Golden said in announcing the bill Thursday. “Prohibiting commercial wind development in LMA 1 protects Maine fishermen’s way of life and of making a living for their families and their communities, just as they have for generations.”
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified more than 9.8 million areas of federal waters in the Gulf of Maine for consideration as wind energy areas for future leasing to developers. The agency included LMA 1 “and areas closed seasonally or permanently to protect the North Atlantic right whale, as potential commercial offshore wind sites,” according to Golden. “Prohibiting offshore wind development in LMA 1 would help to avoid conflict with the New England commercial and recreational fishing industries.”
June 23, 2023 — Former American Aquafarms CEO Keith Decker has successfully auctioned off the company’s facility in Gouldsboro, Maine, U.S.A. for USD 975,000 (EUR 895,000), the Ellsworth American reported.
Decker announced his resignation from American Aquafarms in early May and soon after announced the facility would be up for sale as compensation for USD 1.125 million (EUR 1.03 million) the company owed him. The company originally bought the 100,000-square-foot facility in 2020, with plans to use the facility for a closed net-pen salmon aquaculture operation in Frenchman’s Bay, before legal efforts and permit trouble effectively ended the project’s hopes of getting off the ground.