Saving Seafood

Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association testimony from recent BOEM task force meeting

May 26, 2023 — Testimony from MCFA’s Emily Coffin, Seafood and Fisheries Policy Coordinator, at BOEM’s Gulf of Maine Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting in Augusta on May 10-11.

My name is Emily Coffin, I’m a 5th generation fisherman out of Brunswick and work for the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. We are an industry-founded organization that advocates for fishing communities and we believe in stewarding our marine resources for a sustainable and vibrant fishing future.

I’m here today to express my concern over the data collection approach with respect to the National Centers for Coastal Oceans Science (NCCOS) spatial modeling as well as the equity issues within the greater process of offshore wind development.

BOEM has asked fishermen for their fishing data, which is of high value, but the NCCOS model has not yet provided transparency about how exactly that data will be used. 

If BOEM values community engagement, support from the industry sector, and stakeholder participation, they will make a more significant effort not only to include and invite but seek out fishermen who share their data and answer that effort by returning information on where that data goes and how much it matters.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

New England Fishery Management Council asks NOAA to raise haddock limit for upcoming season

May 24, 2023 — The Gulf of Maine is now on a federal overfishing watchlist after a group of scientists found the haddock population is on the decline.

As a result of the population decline showed in the survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has limited the amount of haddock New England fishermen can catch this season.

Now, the New England Fishery Management Council estimating fishing season will close as early as August.

But fishermen said they are seeing an increase in the highly demanded fish this season, not a decrease, and they are questioning the science behind the survey.

In an effort to protect the fish and the fishermen, the New England Fishery Management Council has asked NOAA to increase the limit.

Read the full article at WMUR

MAINE: Historic alewife runs in Maine continue to rebound

May 24, 2023 — Fishermen and regulators call the return of alewife runs in Maine a success story.

In the ’80s, the fishery was all but gone. Dams and overfishing drove the migratory fish, that lives in the ocean and returns to ponds to spawn, out of the playbook for lobstermen bait.

But now with regulations by the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the removal of dams throughout Maine streams, the alewife is now running better than the last few decades.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

MAINE: Role of Unionized Firms at Center of Maine’s Offshore Wind Debate

May 22, 2023 — On Thursday the Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing on a proposal to pave the way for the development of offshore wind infrastructure in the Gulf of Maine, including the construction of a coastal manufacturing facility that would build the offshore floating wind turbines

Lawmakers also considered Thursday Rep. Tiffany Strout’s (R-Harrington) LD 1884, a bill that would block offshore wind developments.

In recent years, the prospect of filling the Gulf of Maine with hundreds of wind turbines has taken on an air of inevitability, with environmental groups, industry groups, and well-paid lobbyists pouring millions of dollars into political pressure campaigns and ad campaigns designed to build support for the project.

Unions, construction companies, investment companies, and lobbyists are all lining up to secure their share of what could be one of the largest taxpayer-funded projects in the history of the state.

Most of the activity during Thursday afternoon’s public hearing centered around LD 1895, a bill proposed by Sen. Mark Lawrence (D-York) that would expand offshore wind power in the Gulf of Maine.

The bill is cosponsored by nine Democratic State Senators and Representatives.

Sen. Lawrence’s bill would direct the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) to encourage the development of extraterritorial wind power projects in the Gulf of Maine, mandate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles for an offshore wind power port project, create environmental monitoring standards, and ensure that any port project use agreements favorable to labor unions.

LD 1895 also directs the MPUC to solicit contracts for wind power projects, with the first solicitation to happen no later than June 1, 2025, and each subsequent solicitation required to be within two years of the previous one.

Read the full article at the Maine Wire

MAINE: Maine committee holds hearing on competing offshore wind bills

May 22, 2023 — Two competing bills – one accelerating offshore wind technology, the other hitting the brakes on it – were taken up by a Maine legislative panel Thursday during a lengthy, hours-long public hearing that stretched late into the evening.

The Maine Committee on Energy, Utilities, and Technology heard from dozens of environmental advocates, fishermen, and residents on Legislative Document 1884, an act to prohibit offshore wind energy development, and Legislative Document 1895, an action regarding the procurement of energy from offshore wind resources.

If enacted, LD1884 would change the course of ramping up offshore wind as a renewable energy source – not just within Maine but across New England and north of the international border.

Read the full article at The Center Square

Gulf of Maine offshore wind developers open for public comment

May 22, 2023 — As offshore wind developers inch closer to the horizon, fishermen on the East Coast are eagerly searching for answers.

On May 10-11, the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management (BOEM) hosted the Gulf of Maine Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force Meeting at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine.

The purpose of the two-day meetings was to update task force members and the public on BOEM’s commercial and research offshore wind energy planning activities and discuss the next steps for the Gulf of Maine, including a Call for Information and Nominations.

More information from BOEM can be found here.

On May 3, 2023, BOEM announced the publication of the Gulf of Maine’s Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment for a wind energy research lease on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf offshore Maine in the Federal Register on May 4, 2023.

This meeting gave the greater public and fishermen the ability to ask questions in person to BOEM members, as well as an open 30-day public comment period that will end June 5 at 11:59 p.m.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

With American Aquafarms farm stalled in Maine, Keith Decker resigns as CEO, moves to sell processing plant

May 14, 2023 — Keith Decker, who joined American Aquafarms as its CEO in October 2021, announced his resignation in early May and is now seeking to sell his share in the facility the company planned to use for its processing operations.

American Aquafarms reached an agreement to purchase the former Maine Fair Trade Lobster facility, in Gouldsboro, Maine, U.S.A., in October 2020. The 100,000-square-foot facility, formerly owned by the East Coast Seafood Group, was intended to house the company’s hatchery and fish farm facilities as part of a planned closed net-pen salmon aquaculture operation with a production capacity of up to 30,000 metric tons annually.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Maine lobstermen facing another rule that may affect their catch

May 9, 2023 — An Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission board has enacted new rules that could change the size of lobsters Maine fishermen can legally harvest in the hope that the changes will ultimately preserve the fishery.

The American Lobster Board has passed a policy that will put new size limits in place if data shows a 35% decrease in the local lobster population compared with counts from previous years.

If the fishery reaches that trigger point, the regulations would increase the minimum size of lobsters that lobstermen can keep.

The board has passed the policy in order to “improve the resiliency” of the lobster population in Maine waters by increasing the number of younger, breeding lobster that go unharvested. The policy comes amid data showing that warming waters related to climate change, which were at first a boon to Maine’s lobstering industry, could soon be its downfall.

Read the full article at the PRESS HERALD

Regulators approve new lobster size limits in Maine to preserve young population

May 8, 2023 — An Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission board has approved new measures that could change the minimum and maximum catch sizes for lobster in certain parts of Maine.

The fisheries commission said it will gradually implement changes to measurement sizes by fractions of an inch in certain parts of the Gulf of Maine — but only if it observes a 35 percent decline in the young lobster population through trawl and trap survey data.

Recent assessments have shown a 23 percent decline in juvenile lobsters, said Pat Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News