Saving Seafood

MAINE: Maine lobstermen have slower year amid industry challenges

March 3, 2023 — Fishers of Maine lobster, one of the most lucrative seafood species in the U.S., had a smaller haul during a year in which the industry battled surging fuel and bait prices, rebukes from key retailers and the looming possibility of new fishing restrictions.

Maine lobster has exploded in value in recent years in part due to growing international demand from countries such as China. The industry brought about 98 million pounds of lobster to the docks worth about $389 million in 2022, Maine regulators said Friday. That was more than 11% less than the previous year, in which they harvested more than 110 million pounds of lobster worth more than $740 million.

The value of lobsters also fell to a little less than $4 per pound at the docks, the lowest since 2017, a year after setting a record of more than $6.70 in 2021.

The industry has experienced growth in recent years, as fishermen have caught more than 96 million pounds of lobster per year for 13 years in a row after never previously reaching that mark. But it is also wrangling with threats such as proposed rules to protect rare North Atlantic right whales, which are vulnerable to entanglement in gear.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

MAINE: Maine Fishermen’s Forum returns amid offshore wind debate

March 3, 2o23 — The 48th Maine Fishermen’s Forum kicked off as a celebration of the industry and informed discussion on developing challenges.

“The greatest things that the Maine Fisherman’s Forum does it negates or lessens a lot of the animosity between the groups involved in the fishery,” said Stephen Train, lobsterman.

“We have a trade show, we have a dance, we have an auction, we give out scholarships to children and fishermen. And we have some really nice meals and the seafood reception is amazing,” said Train.

The highlight of the day was a series of seminars on how offshore wind development may impact local fisheries. Leaders at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shared data-driven presentations but noted several gaps remain in the process.

Read the full article at WABI

State and federal officials for the first time allow ropeless lobstering in areas closed to protect right whales

March 2, 2023 — For nine years, Rob Martin spent winters with most of his 800 traps stacked in his front yard, struggling to stay solvent over the long three months when regulators closed the region’s lobster fishery to protect critically endangered whales.

Over the years, the 58-year-old lobsterman has attended countless public meetings, pleading with officials to find a way that would allow him and others to resume fishing during those hard months.

Now, after years of controversy, state and federal officials are allowing Martin and more than a dozen other lobstermen to fish in closed areas off Massachusetts. The only caveat: They must use a new kind of fishing gear that uses limited amounts of rope and aims to eliminate the threat that lobstering poses to North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Federal bill would undo six-year right whale regulatory pause championed by Maine delegation

March 2, 2023 — The bill has a long name: The Restoring Effective Science-based Conservation Under Environmental Laws Protecting Whales, or the RESCUE Whales Act.

But the legislation, introduced earlier this week by Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, would have a simple outcome. It would eliminate a provision that pauses the development of new federal right whale regulations on the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries for the next six years, a measure that Maine’s congressional delegation slipped into the latest federal spending bill during the final days of 2022.

In joint statement, all four members of the Maine delegation defended the provision, which they described as a “lifeline” to the state’s lobster industry that provides “time to pinpoint the true cause of the decline in the right whale population.”

The Rescue Whales Act, they said, would “unfairly target Maine’s lobster industry without any data or taking into account the reality in the Gulf of Maine.”

Read the full article at Maine Public

Maine Lobstermen’s court appeal heard; new attempt to rescind gear delay

March 1, 2023 — A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. is considering the Maine Lobstermen’s Association appeal of the government’s fishing gear restrictions aimed at saving endangered whales.

In arguments Feb. 24, the MLA’s lead attorney Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general during the Bush administration, laid out the fishermen’s case, arguing the National Marine Fisheries Service went overboard in making worst-case assumptions about the danger of Maine lobster gear entangling whales.

The North Atlantic right whale is highly endangered, with fewer than 350 animals believed to be surviving, with ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement leading causes of mortality. Clement made the MLA’s case that none in recent years have been documented to involve Maine lobster gear.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

National animal rights group sues Maine over aquaculture rules

March 1, 2023 — A national animal rights group is suing the state, alleging that it has failed to adequately protect fish raised in aquaculture facilities and that it does not have rules in place to regulate large-scale fish farms.

Animal Outlook, an animal advocacy organization based in Washington DC and California, filed suit Feb. 22 in Kennebec County Superior Court to challenge the state’s decision to reject its citizen petition.

The petition, signed by 152 registered Maine voters, calls on the state agriculture department to adopt new rules regarding inspections and enforcement of animal cruelty laws for fish raised by commercial companies.

But the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry rejected the petition in September, calling it “incomplete and defective,” primarily because Animal Outlook didn’t provide text for the rule it wants the state to adopt.

In the February lawsuit, Animal Outlook accuses the state of refusing to adopt standards for aquaculture facilities, failing to investigate the facilities and failing to enforce existing animal cruelty laws.

The agriculture department did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

MAINE: Mills Offshore Wind Roadmap Stirs Debate in Augusta

February 28, 2023 — Proponents of offshore wind power generated off the coast of Maine are no longer just blowing cold air: they will soon be brokering leases for development, a report issued by the state last week highlighted.

Given the scale and scope of what’s in the State of Maine’s Offshore Wind Roadmap that Gov. Janet Mills’ administration unveiled on Thursday, it’s a little odd that the governor didn’t directly mention the ambitious project in her state of the budget speech two weeks ago. What she did tell us then was her new goal is to have 100 percent of energy in the state coming from renewable sources by 2040, and in this context the offshore wind scheme begins to make more sense.

Until you consider the intense opposition to installing 500-900 foot tall wind turbines throughout the offshore waters of Maine.

The “roadmap” envisions 2,100 installations. Fishermen have been vocal in their opposition, and a state law Mills signed in 2021 prohibits offshore wind development in state waters. But what does that really mean?

Read the full article at the Maine Wire

Rep. Allison Hepler: More and better data can protect lobstering and right whales

February 28, 2o23 — The word “reprieve” is being used to describe the late-December federal action that produced a 6-year delay in implementing federal whale rules, as well as new funding for research and gear innovations in the lobster fishery. A reprieve is welcome, but it does not mean that the industry can step back and go about business as usual. Fortunately, that’s not what is happening.

This past summer, the National Oceanic and Aeronautical Administration (NOAA) had fast-tracked its implementation of rules around the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, which would have made immediate and dramatic changes to Maine’s lobster fishery in two years rather than 10. In response, in the midst of our early-winter coastal storm that occurred just before Christmas last year, Maine’s federal delegation secured a 6-year pause in the implementation of those regulations, and also provided $55 million in funding for research and monitoring. This action was a welcome break for Maine lobstermen.

Science is at the heart of the work that needs to be done. Some of the funding will allow for continued research into better understanding the behavior and distribution of right whales as a result of the changing environmental situation in the Gulf of Maine. It is dramatically warming, and the whales’ favorite food is shifting east into Canadian waters. Organizations such as Bigelow Laboratories are likely to receive some of this funding to continue its research on the impact of this shift.

Read the full article at the Press Herald

 

Gulf of Maine sees second-hottest year on record, report shows, ‘getting to the edge of habitability’

February 27, 2023 — Already one of the fastest-warming bodies of water in the world, the Gulf of Maine recorded its second-hottest year ever in 2022, another ominous indicator of how global warming threatens the rich marine world off New England.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute reported recently that average annual sea surface temperature for the sprawling ocean waters clocked in at 53.66 degrees Fahrenheit last year, more than 3.72 degrees above a 30-year average measured earlier this century. In 2021, the average annual sea surface temperature was even slightly higher, at 54.09 degrees.

The rapid rise in water temperatures has dire consequences, such as the loss of marine species, some of which are major sources of food and commercial fishing activities, and rising sea levels that can damage coastal communities.

“It’s part of a multidecadal trend that … has profound implications for not just people who rely on the Gulf of Maine for their livelihoods and well-being but also for coastal communities,” said Dave Reidmiller, director of the Climate Center at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Home to more than 3,000 aquatic species and birds, the gulf is “one of the most biologically productive marine ecosystems” in the North Atlantic, according to the Gulf of Maine Association. It covers a 36,000-square-mile area from the tip of Cape Cod to Cape Sable in Nova Scotia, and its historically cold waters are a key reason why the gulf is such a viable environment for marine life.

The temperature of the gulf has been rising rapidly for more than a century, at a rate more than three times that of the world’s oceans, according to the institute’s report released last week. It surpassed the average temperature of the global oceans in the 1990s.

Rising gulf temperatures are also, in large part, why New England itself is warming faster than the planetary average, scientists say.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Federal court hears arguments from Maine lobstermen appealing right whale regulations

February 27, 2023 — A federal appeals court heard arguments Friday from the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, which is challenging a government plan to regulate the fishery and conserve endangered right whales.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association had promised to take its latest appeal of federal fishing regulations all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

But lobstermen hope they’ll avoid that prospect, especially with Paul Clement, an attorney with more than 100 past Supreme Court appearances, representing Maine.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News