Saving Seafood

Maine relief plan seeks to buoy seafood industry

June 27, 2022 — Maine Gov. Janet Mills is diverting $8.3 million in federal funding to help the state’s seafood industry absorb the impact of rising costs from inflation and new whale protection rules.

The funding, which will be provided by the state Department of Marine Resources, will be used to reimburse commercial fishermen, dealers, processors, and aquaculturists for the cost of their 2022 licenses and associated fees. The department will also waive lease fees for commercial leases this year through a separate process, the Mills administration says.

“Maine’s commercial fishing and seafood industry is a crucial cornerstone of our economy, and they are facing unprecedented increases in costs,” Mills said in a statement. “This puts money back in the pockets of Maine’s fishermen, aquaculturists and dealers to help them offset growing business expenses, hopefully providing a small measure of relief for them.”

The initial round of payments, totalling $4.2 million, will be mailed by the end of this month for commercial fishermen who purchased their license between Nov. 15 and March 31, according to the Mills administration. Reimbursements for licenses purchased during the remainder of 2022 will be mailed separately.

Read the full story at The Center Square

NEFMC June 28-30, 2022 Hybrid Meeting – Listen Live, View Documents

June 21, 2022 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a three-day hybrid meeting from Tuesday, June 28 through Thursday, June 30, 2022.  This will be an in-person meeting in Portland, ME, coupled with a webinar option for individuals who cannot or prefer not to attend in person.

COVID PROTOCOLS:  The Council continues to follow all public safety measures related to COVID-19 and intends to do so for this meeting.  Please participate remotely if you are experiencing COVID symptoms or do not feel well.  Updates will be posted on the meeting webpage as needed.

START TIME:  9:00 a.m. each day.  The webinar will end shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

HUDSON CANYON:  Under Other Business on Thursday, June 30, 2022, the Council will receive a presentation from the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries on NOAA’s initiation of the scoping process to consider designating a national marine sanctuary in the Hudson Canyon area.  The Council will discuss and approve scoping comments, which are due August 8, 2022.

PUBLIC COMMENT OPPORTUNITIES:  The Council wants to hear from you.  Here’s how you can let the Council know what you think.

  • WRITE A LETTER:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 23, 2022.  Please note that written comments mustaddress items listed on the agenda for this meeting.
  • TALK TO THE COUNCIL:  You’ll be able to address the Council directly through two different avenues:
  1. By commenting on motions at the discretion of the Council chair (if commenting remotely, raise your hand on the webinar and unmute yourself when called upon); and
  2. By speaking during the open period for public comment.  Here are the Guidelines for Providing Public Comment.
  • OPEN PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT:  On Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 2:45 p.m., the Council will offer the public an opportunity to provide comments on issues relevant to Council business but not listed on this agenda.  Given the Council’s busy meeting schedule, we ask that you limit remarks to 3-5 minutes.
    • SIGN UP:  Interested in speaking?  If attending in person, fill out the sign-up sheet on the table at the entrance to the Council meeting room.  To speak remotely, email Janice Plante at jplante@nefmc.org to get on the list.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

  • Here are instructions in the Remote Participation Guide for successfully joining and participating in the webinar.
  • THIS IS KEY!  If you want to speak during opportunities for public comment, you need to: (1) register for the webinar; and (2) actually “join” the webinar.  People who call in by telephone without joining the webinar will be in listen-only mode.  Those who take both steps – register and then join the webinar – will see the meeting screen and be able to click on a “raise hand” button, which will let the meeting organizer know you want to be unmuted to speak.
  • We have a Help Desk in case you get stuck joining the webinar or have trouble along the way.  Phone numbers are listed on the Help Desk Poster, or just email helpdesk@nefmc.org and we’ll get right back to you.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone without joining the webinar, dial +1 (562) 247-8422.  The access code is 308-632-643.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.  Remember, you will not be able to speak if you do not first join the webinar as described above.  This phone number provides a “listen-only” option without the webinar component.

AGENDA:  All meeting materials and the agenda are available on the Council’s website at NEFMC June 28-30, 2022 meeting.  Additional documents will be posted as they become available.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK:  A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available HERE.

COUNCIL MEETING QUESTIONS:  Anyone with questions prior to or during the Council meeting should contact Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

Study says whales adapting to climate change; so too must mariners and fishermen

June 15, 2022 — A review of 20 years of data tracking the highly endangered north Atlantic right whale shows the population has shifted its feeding and migration patterns significantly, as sea temperatures in the Gulf of Maine warm with climate change.

The findings show that government-enforced protections for right whales – already requiring restrictions on vessel speed limits and fishermen’s lobster and fish trap lines and buoys – will need to be adjusted as the whales shift their movements and habitats.

After two decades of warming waters in the Gulf of Maine, right whales – a population now estimated at just 336 animals at risk from ship strikes and entanglements in fishing gear – are relying much more on Cape Cod Bay as their food supply has changed.

“The time of year when we are most likely to see right and humpback whales in Cape Cod Bay has changed considerably, and right whales are using the habitat much more heavily than they did 20 years ago,” said Dan Pendleton, a research scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, in a summary issued by the aquarium. Pendleton is lead author of the study and its team of whale scientists in the U.S. and Canada.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine’s fisheries and agricultural delegation meets with buyers in Cuba

June 13, 2022 — Representatives of Maine’s fisheries, apples, seed potatoes and vegetable seeds traveled to explore export opportunities in Cuba. After a first visit in May, an expanded delegation will return in October.

Those delegates from Maine agricultural growers and fisheries met with buyers and officials from the Cuba Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) to develop a pipeline of Maine agricultural products for export to Cuba.

The delegation was developed by Doyle Marchant, president of Cedar Spring Agricultural Co., at the direct invitation of the Cuba Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG).

“It was important for Maine growers and producers to act on this unique invitation for Maine to build a reliable source of products and begin a normalization of relations between the two countries,” said Marchant. “The primary currency in Cuba is not money but building trust that can benefit both Maine and Cuba.”

While in Havana, letters of support for the delegation from Maine lawmakers Sen. Susan Collins, Rep. Chellie Pingree, and Rep. Jared Golden were presented to Sr. Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, vice minister of Ministry of Foreign Relations for the Republic of Cuba. The meetings also coincided with an important announcement by the Biden administration to lift certain restrictions on Cuba.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Scientists see long-term hope for Maine’s lobster fishery despite warming waters

June 13, 2022 — Dire predictions about the effects of global warming on Maine’s lobster population may be exaggerated and underestimate the potential that conservation measures have to preserve the fishery into the future.

Rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine and the collapse of lobster fisheries in southern New England have fueled predictions that lobsters will likely move north out of Maine waters in the coming decades. But ongoing research at the University of Maine is revealing a more optimistic long-term view of the Maine lobster fishery.

The UMaine scientists are now projecting that temperatures in Gulf of Maine will likely remain within lobsters’ comfort zone because of the gulf’s unique oceanographic features, though changing ocean currents are harder to predict. The researchers cautioned that the dynamics of global warming are complex and make it difficult to project far into the future with certainty.

Ocean stratification – where water of different densities separates into distinct layers – is keeping the bottom temperatures colder on the Gulf of Maine’s western side, the scientists say, while strong tidal mixing in the eastern gulf and the Bay of Fundy helps moderate the water temperature there during the summer. Because Maine waters have historically been so cold, they say, even a couple of degrees of warming should keep Maine’s bottom waters below 68 degrees, the temperature at which lobsters begin to show signs of stress, according to the Atlantic States Fisheries Management Council.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Can Offshore Wind Energy Coexist With Maine’s Lobster Industry? Attempt Underway

June 9, 2022 — Researchers at the University of Maine are attempting to work ahead to prevent problems between one of Maine’s heritage industries and a new clean energy sector.

Over the past several years, Maine lobstermen have raised concerns about offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine and its potential to disrupt where and how they fish.

Hundreds of people in Maine’s lobster industry organized a protest in the state’s capital, Augusta, last year on the same day Gov. Janet Mills issued a moratorium on all new offshore wind development in state waters for 10 years, excluding some specific research projects. ‘

Roughly one week ago, UMaine announced it would try to “minimize” conflict by working with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and other groups to gather data on where fishing occurs, in order to inform offshore wind development.

“Right now, published maps suggest that lobster fishing is occurring everywhere. We hope through this effort to provide more spatial specificity about the most important fishing locations — where fishermen spend more time and effort,” said Kate Beard-Tisdale, a professor of spatial computing at the university who is leading this collaboration, in a statement released by UMaine.

Read the full story at NECN

NASA-funded Study: Gulf of Maine’s Phytoplankton Productivity Down 65%

June 8, 2022 — The Gulf of Maine is growing increasingly warm and salty, due to ocean currents pushing warm water into the gulf from the Northwest Atlantic, according to a new NASA-funded study. These temperature and salinity changes have led to a substantial decrease in the productivity of phytoplankton that serve as the basis of the marine food web. Specifically, phytoplankton are about 65% less productive in the Gulf of Maine than they were two decades ago, scientists at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, report in new results published today.

The Gulf of Maine helps fuel New England’s marine ecosystems and economy. Like plants on land, phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use photosynthesis to grow, and then become a food source for other organisms. Disruptions to their productivity can lead to adverse effects on the region’s fisheries and the communities that depend on them.

“Phytoplankton are at the base of the marine food web on which all of life in the ocean depends, so it’s incredibly [significant] that its productivity has decreased,” says William Balch, the Bigelow Laboratory scientist who led the study. “A drop [of] 65% will undoubtedly have an effect on the carbon flowing through the marine food web, through phytoplankton-eating zooplankton and up to fish and apex predators.”

Read the full story from NASA

Lobster industry and lawmakers await court decision to determine legality of new restrictions

June 8, 2022 — Maine and Massachusetts harvest more than 90% of the American lobsters sold in the U.S. and most lobstermen and New England lawmakers want to keep it that way.

Over the past year, a dispute over new federal regulations on Maine’s lobster industry, intended to protect the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, have become heated as Maine’s lobster industry fights to protect the livelihoods of its workforce.

Mike Sargent, who became the captain of his own boat at 15, told Spectrum News Maine that things haven’t been too bad since the restrictions went into effect in May.

“Yes, it’s an added expense and something I’ll look into as I rewrite my business model for this year and for years in the future. But, it’s not a deal breaker yet,” said Sargent, who grew up in Milbridge and is now part of an advocacy campaign called Lobster from Maine.

The 29-year-old is worried, however, that if regulations adopted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2021 are ruled lawful by the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, that more expensive and stricter regulations could follow.

Read the full story at Spectrum News 1

MAINE: Request for offshore wind power contract raises ratepayer concerns

June 8, 2022 — The developers of a planned offshore wind energy research array have asked state regulators to approve a 20-year electricity supply contract with terms they say are essential to their investing $1.2 billion in a project that could help launch a new renewable energy industry in Maine.

But Public Advocate William Harwood said this week that while he supports the state’s renewable energy ambitions, he’s concerned that the power contract could add to the bills of struggling Maine electricity customers if the proposed price is significantly above wholesale market rates.

“We’ve got an affordability issue,” Harwood said. “There are a lot of people excited about offshore wind, but my job is to make sure people aren’t paying too much for electricity.”

As a practical matter, any impact on electric rates would be far off. The research array wouldn’t be built until late in the decade, at the earliest. But a 2021 law requires a contract to be negotiated within nine months of filing at the Maine Public Utilities Commission. That timeline will make the upcoming process a near-term test of the state’s ability to balance its climate and renewable electrification goals with the imperative to protect ratepayers.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Endangered whale numbers may be stabilizing after some bad years, but their future remains uncertain

June 8, 2022 — Yesterday, we reported a story about a new era for Maine’s lobstermen, who face new gear rules designed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Today we look at how the whales themselves are faring with the changing patterns of their seasonal migration.

All in all, it’s been so far so good this year.

No dead right whales have been spotted. Fifteen calves were born — the second-largest number since 2015. And observers were impressed by the saga of one whale, a mother who, injured and entangled in fishing gear, managed to escort her calf a thousand miles up the coast

And researchers continue to keep tabs on how the species is doing.

Michael Moore, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, recorded a recent encounter with a right whale off Massachusetts.

“Now the swells have dropped down and it’s a couple hours before sunset and now the whale’s leveling out a little bit, it just blew. You can see a little bit more of its back,” he says in the recording.

Read the full story at Connecticut Public Radio