Saving Seafood

Proposed fund could help Maine lobstermen test new fishing gear

April 28, 2023 — State lawmakers are considering a measure that would create a new fund to help lobster fishermen test gear designed to reduce entanglement risks to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The proposed fund would set aside $1 million for each of the next two years. The money would be paid to lobster fishermen who test ropeless and other kinds of new fishing gear designed to minimize interactions with right whales.

The most recent federal spending bill set aside nearly $20 million for fishing gear.

But Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said it’s reasonable that lobstermen receive a stipend for the work itself.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Maine herring fishers get money after decline of fish, quota cuts

April 27, 2023 — Fishermen in Maine’s historic herring fishing business will receive money from the federal government to help cope with a decline in the fish’s population that has caused the industry to struggle.

The government has appropriated $7 million for the fishermen, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said Wednesday. Atlantic herring were found to be overfished via a 2020 scientific assessment, and fishing quotas were slashed after that.

The herring are especially important to New England’s fishing industry because they are used as bait by lobster fishermen. They’re also used as food, and people have fished for them from New England waters for hundreds of years.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

New program to help prevent ocean trash, promote sustainable packaging

April 25, 2023 — It’s estimated there are at least 50 trillion pieces of plastic and microplastics in the ocean, and a new initiative is underway to help tackle the problem in Maine.

The Maine Sea Grant College Program, University of Maine researchers and statewide partners will receive funding to address the prevention and removal of marine debris in the Gulf of Maine. The problem will be addressed from three directions: promoting sustainable packaging, getting rid of derelict fishing gear and repurposing materials from ghost traps.

“Marine debris negatively impacts our coastal communities, marine wildlife and iconic ocean vistas — things we consider special about our state,” Maine Sea Grant Director Gayle Zydlewski said in a news release. “Whether it’s preventing debris from going into the ocean or getting it out, we need to tackle this issue from multiple directions and perspectives.”

Read the full article at Mainebiz

New England council seeks boost in haddock quota to avoid shutdown

April 24, 2023 — Emergency action to temporarily boost the Gulf of Maine haddock catch is needed to avoid potential shutdowns during the 2023 groundfish fishing year that starts May 1, the New England Fishery Management Council said.

The council is asking the National Marine Fisheries Service to take emergency action “to address a critical Gulf of Maine haddock situation that is expected to result in significant fishery impacts during the 2023 groundfish fishing year,” according to a statement issued Thursday as the council wrapped up a three-day meeting at Mystic, Conn.

Council members learned that “fishermen have been encountering Gulf of Maine haddock at very high catch rates,” according to the council. “The proposed 2023 annual catch limit (ACL), however, is extremely low.”

One fishermen told of making one single trip when he caught so much haddock that it was equivalent to what his entire allocation will be for the 2023 season. Other fishermen have warned that an early shutdown of the fishery is very likely, with major impacts as a result.

Read the full article at the  National Fisherman

NMFS closing Northern Gulf of Maine scallop area

April 20, 2023 — The federal Northern Gulf of Maine scallop management area will close one minute after midnight April 21, with projections now that 100 percent of the 380,855-pound quota set-aside will have been caught in little more than two weeks.

The closure announced late Wednesday by the National Marine Fisheries Service means no scallop vessels fishing under federal scallop regulations may fish for, possess, or land scallops in or from the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop area until the end of the current fishing year on March 31, 2024.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Biologist warns that without new regulations, right whales will be ‘functionally extinct’ by 2035

April 19, 2023 — Maine lobstermen testified in Washington Tuesday against a bill that could put the industry back on the hook for regulations aimed at protecting endangered right whales. But without them, a marine biologist warns the whales could become functionally extinct within the next 12 years.

The warning came from Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who told federal lawmakers that based on their current trajectory, North Atlantic right whales are in “immediate jeopardy.” Fewer than 70 breeding females remain. And Moore said that number will plunge deeply if no conservation measures are taken within the next five years.

“The black arrow [indicates that in] 2035 [there will be] no more breeding females, no more calves,” he said. “The species will be functionally extinct in 2035.”

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: Rock lobster concert to raise funds for Maine industry

April 17, 2023 — Todd Erickson, bassist and singer for the band Holy Smoke, has been a musician all his life. His son, Eliot Erickson, is taking a different path.

At 22-years-old, this is the younger Erickson’s third season lobstering out of Portland Harbor aboard his own boat, the Lisa Lee.

With the lobstering industry under pressure from increased federal regulation, blacklisting by environmental groups and looming wind power projects, Todd Erickson knew he wanted to help his son, somehow.

So he’s doing what he knows how to do best: put on a show and rock-n-roll like crazy.

On Sunday, May 7th, rock and lobster will combine for Band Together: A Concert to Celebrate Maine’s Lobstering Heritage. Featuring four bands and two comedians, the show kicks off at 2 p.m. at the Portland Elks Lodge on outer Congress Street.

All proceeds from the show will go to the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance, a Kennebunk-based, non-profit organization supporting the Maine Lobstermen’s Association’s Save Maine Lobstermen campaign.

Through that campaign, the Lobstermen’s Association filed suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Secretary of Commerce in Sept. 2021, challenging a 10-year whale plan that Maine lobstermen believed would decimate the industry. The lawsuit is now in appeal.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

Right whales aren’t having a good year. The pressure is on to save this hard-to-track species

April 16, 2023 — It’s a chilly morning in early March. And New England Aquarium scientist Orla O’Brien and her team are preparing a small, twin propeller plane at the New Bedford Regional Airport for takeoff.

It’s perfectly clear, ideal for flying and, hopefully, for spotting North Atlantic right whales from about 1,000 feet in the air.

It hasn’t been a particularly good year for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Scientists have documented four right whale entanglements so far in 2023, which they say is a relatively high number for the first three months of the year. And with a population of fewer than 350 — scientists estimate the number is likely closer to 340 — the pressure is on to learn more about how and where the whales are becoming entangled.

But despite decades of research, biologists say tracking the species — and developing definitive answers about their encounters with fishing gear — are challenging tasks. And the answers that scientists have developed are often frustrating for New England fishing industries, which say the information has been used to unfairly regulate them.

For the New England Aquarium, the process starts with these monthly aerial surveys south of Martha’s Vineyard.

O’Brien points to one of two seats behind the pilot and co-pilot. “We sit there and then we’ll pop open that little square,” she explains.

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: Nordic Aquafarms asks Maine to suspend permits as it faces an onslaught of legal challenges By Chris Chase April 14, 2023

April 16, 2023 — Nordic Aquafarms has requested the Maine Department of Environmental Protection pause permit deadlines for its planned salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Belfast, Maine, U.S.A., as it continues to face several legal challenges.

In a release on 7 April, the company announced it is asking the DEP to suspend its permits to let multiple court decisions on property issues raised by project opponents play out. The company, which announced the large aquaculture project in January 2018 and originally said it hoped to have production start in 2020, has faced a barrage of legal challenges to its development.

Read the full article SeafoodSource

A new program to research American Lobster fishery’s sustainability

April 11, 2023 — Sea Grant is accepting applications for the American Lobster Research Program 2023. Applications must be submitted to Grants.gov until May 10, 2023.

Sea Grant announced the launch of the American Lobster Research Program 2023, which will support collaborative projects that address priority research needs to enhance the understanding of and address impacts to the American lobster fishery.

According to Sea Grant “applications are sought from research teams and encourage partnerships between industry, state agencies, and/or academia that address population dynamics, including but not limited to distribution and abundance in regards to ecosystem changes; life history parameters, including but not limited to temperature effects, ocean acidification, and other changing climate conditions; species interactions and behavior; and/or social, behavioral, or economic research including but not limited to impact studies, assessments, and policy analyses regarding measures under consideration for inclusion in the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan.”

The institution says the program aims to address impacts to the American lobster fishery in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and southern New England, and applications must be submitted to Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time May 10, 2023. Eligible applicants are any individual; any public or private corporation, partnership, or other association or entity (including any Sea Grant College, Sea Grant Institute or other institution); or any State, political subdivision of a State, Tribal government or agency.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman