Saving Seafood

MAINE: Fundraiser for Maine Lobstermen’s Association raises over $50K

August 10, 2022 — With donations still rolling in, organizers of the fundraiser for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association held at Brady’s restaurant in Boothbay Harbor on Sunday, Aug. 7 report that over $50,000 has been raised.

The fundraiser included twin lobsters, (a non-lobster entree was available), clams or mussels, corn, blueberry pie, a live auction and silent auction, entertainment by Maine humorist Tim Sample and guest appearances by former Governor Paul LePage, NewsCenter co-host Sharon Rose who served as emcee, District 89 candidates, Rep. Holly Stover and Tricia Warren, among others.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Pilot

Climate change has reversed 900 years of cooling in the Gulf of Maine

August 9, 2022 — Nearly a millennium of cooling in the Gulf of Maine has been reversed over the past century.

That’s the finding of a new study, published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, led by Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, co-written by the University of Maine and funded by the National Science Foundation.

Scientists have long warned that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than most of the world’s oceans — 2021 was yet another year of record warmth — but the lack of long-term records has made it difficult to compare the 20th and 21st centuries to warming or cooling trends for past periods.

The oldest records available come from a station in Boothbay Harbor, where surface water temperatures have been tracked since 1905.

Read the full article at the Bangor Daily News

Fishery interests urge judge to rule in lobster lawsuit

August 8, 2022 — Parties in a lobster industry lawsuit filed against federal regulators are urging a judge to make a decision in the case because its outcome affects a parallel case that the parties have to act on.

The federal judge considering this decision was the same who ruled last month that new regulations to protect endangered right whales do not go far enough, and violate both the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. In that case, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg asked the parties to propose remedies.

The lobster association’s case takes aim at newly enacted and proposed federal regulations to protect the whales, which the association says are invalid because they are based on flawed assumptions and calculations.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal defendants – as well as intervenors the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the Maine Lobstering Union and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association – all filed briefs this week asking Boasberg not to stay a decision on a lawsuit brought by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. The parties need to know the court’s opinion so they can develop proposed remedies that Boasberg ordered in the parallel lawsuit brought by conservation groups.

Read the full article at The Press Herald

MAINE: Finfish aquaculture ordinance drafted

August 5, 2022 — A far-reaching licensing ordinance, which would prohibit finfish farms whose annual landed catch exceeds so many pounds from operating in town, has been drafted and continues to be refined by the Planning Board. The proposal is being commented on by the public in writing or by citizens who regularly attend online or in-person the board’s regular meetings the first and third Tuesday of each month.

In its current draft form, the “Finfish Aquaculture Licensing Ordinance” applies to enterprises seeking to raise salmon, trout, sturgeon, yellowtail and other species of finfish. Under Maine law, “finfish” are defined as cold-blooded marine animals having permanent gills and fins. Finfish aquaculture licenses would be required of entities seeking to raise finfish in land-based tanks in town or operate from Gouldsboro to tend the fish in ocean pens and land their catch here. The non-transferable license would be valid for one year and renewable for one-year periods only.

Finfish aquaculture operations whose annual catches fall below a yet-to-be-determined volume threshold would not require the license but may face compliance with other municipal ordinances.

Read the full article at The Ellsworth American

Annual fisheries meeting tackles lobster lawsuits, whale protections

August 3, 2022 — On Tuesday in Washington D.C., key players from Maine’s lobster fishery tackled what it considers its most pressing issues.

Lawsuits, protections for Atlantic right whales, and new sizing limits for lobsters were some of the issues discussed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and lobster fishers.

The first issue was an update regarding Judge James Boasberg’s July ruling in the U.S. District Court case involving the Center for Biological Diversity versus Secretary Raimondo and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

This case made the news in early July after Boasberg ruled regulators aren’t doing enough to protect the right whale.

Just days after, he sided with environmental groups in another lawsuit to allow Area 1 to close again to fishermen this coming fall and winter.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

Federal commission considers increasing legal size of lobsters to protect fishery

August 1, 2022 — A federal commission will discuss increasing the minimum legal size of caught lobsters or other management measures to respond to a decline in numbers of juvenile lobster in recent years.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is scheduled to discuss proposed measures to protect the spawning stock of lobster in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank on Tuesday in Arlington, Va.

Measures the commission will be considering include increasing the minimum legal harvestable size of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine by up to 1/8 inch in increments, either scheduled proactively or triggered by a  decline in abundance of young lobsters.

Maine lobstermen say the measures come at a bad time, when they are already struggling to comply with new federal regulations to protect endangered right whales from entanglement in fishing gear, and they are facing economic challenges with the price of bait and fuel at record highs coupled with low prices they are getting for their catch at the dock.

The Maine lobster industry is known for its  sustainability, with strong conservation measures already in place to protect the spawning stock. These include a maximum harvestable size limit of 5 inches, and protections against harvesting egg-bearing females through a mandatory V-notching program, in which a V-shaped cut is made into the tail of a female bearing eggs. It is illegal to keep females with this mark even if they are caught when they’re not bearing eggs.

Though the commission has determined that lobster stock is not depleted and overfishing is not occurring now, the proposed actions are intended to protect landings from potentially dropping past 100 million pounds in for the Gulf of Maine and Georges Banks because of the economic impacts that could result. They cite the example of Southern New England where the fishery collapsed after a trend of declines in juvenile lobsters.

At Lobster Zone Council meetings this spring, Maine lobstermen expressed frustration about the proposal because they say they face far greater threats to the fishery through new and upcoming federal measures to protect right whales than they do from declines in abundance when landings are still high. Rather than making size limit adjustments, some have argued, efforts should be directed toward gathering data about the shifts in right whale habitat and causes of right whale deaths, because they do not believe Maine lobster gear is to blame.

Read the full article at Press Herald

Researchers study temperature impacts on lobster larvae

July 29, 2022 — Researchers with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), along with partners from Hood College, the University of New England, and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, work from June through October each year since 2018 to catch and study the crustaceans in their tiny larval stage to understand how temperature influences where they choose to move and live at the bottom of the ocean.

Within the last two decades, the Gulf of Maine has been warming faster than 99 percent of the rest of the world’s oceans, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. This research could help scientists and fishermen alike understand if climate change pushes lobster populations to cooler waters.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

Ships must slow down more often to save whales, feds say

July 29, 2022 — Vessels off the East Coast must slow down more often to help save a vanishing species of whale from extinction, the federal government said Friday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the announcement via new proposed rules designed to prevent ships colliding with North Atlantic right whales. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are the two biggest threats to the giant animals, which number less than 340 and are falling in population.

Efforts to save the whales have long focused on fishing gear, especially that used by East Coast lobster fishermen. The proposed vessel speed rules signal that the government wants the shipping industry to take more responsibility.

The new rules would expand seasonal slow zones off the East Coast that require mariners to slow down to 10 knots (19 kilometers per hour). They would also require more vessels to comply with the rules by expanding the size classes that must slow down. The rules also state that NOAA would create a framework to implement mandatory speed restrictions when whales are known to be present outside the seasonal slow zones.

The whales were once numerous off the East Coast, but their populations plummeted due to commercial whaling generations ago. Although they’ve been protected under the Endangered Species Act for decades, they’ve been slow to recover.

More than 50 of the whales were struck by ships between spring 1999 and spring 2018, NOAA records state. Scientists have said in recent years that warming ocean temperatures are causing the whales to stray out of protected areas and into shipping lanes in search of food.

Members of New England’s lobster fishing industry have made the case that too many rules designed to save the whales focus on fishing and not on vessel strikes. Some characterized the new vessel speed rules as overdue.

Fishermen are unfairly being held accountable for whale deaths that occur due to vessel strikes, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, which is the largest fishing industry association on the East Coast.

Read the full article at ABC

Fishery regulators will discuss possible rise in minimum lobster size

July 28, 2022 — Fishing regulators will gather in Virginia next week to talk about the potential of raising the minimum size lobsters need to be in order to be harvested by New England fishermen.

The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission’s lobster management board is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the implications of a proposal that would install new minimum size limits and other regulations for the crustaceans, either gradually over time or triggered by lobster populations dipping below a certain level.

The proposal was drafted to protect the lobster population as surveys show indications of potential future decline. The idea has rankled many Maine lobstermen, who claim the Pine Tree State often bears the hardest brunt of any new regulations, despite having some of the strictest rules in place already.

Maine lobstermen currently have the lowest maximum size limits in New England. They can only keep a lobster if the distance between its eyes and the start of the tail is at least 3 ¼ inches but no longer than 5 inches. This is done to protect future populations and the most productive breeders.

Other areas of New England have different size limits and could undergo area specific changes under the proposal.

For Maine, one option being considered by regulators is increasing the minimum size by 1/16 of an inch if the abundance of lobster drops by 17 percent, and then again at 32 percent. Another would raise the minimum size gradually between 2023 and 2025.

Analysis done by the commission projected that raising the legal size minimum could increase the number of lobsters that reached maturity, allowing for more resilient populations.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News