Saving Seafood

MAINE: Rep. Golden asks for more lobstermen on panel

March 24, 2022 — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02) called on the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) March 16 to expand representation of lobstermen on its Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team by including members of Maine Lobstering Union Local 207.

The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team is charged with making recommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for addressing rising North Atlantic right whale mortalities. Only four of the members of the 60-person team are Maine lobstermen.

“As the only industry organization comprised exclusively of lobstermen with active commercial lobster and crab fishing licenses, the MLU would bring an essential perspective to the ALWTRT,” said Golden. “For nearly a decade, the MLU has engaged with local, state and federal officials as well as the scientific community on various projects to improve our understanding of the distribution of right whales and their potential interactions with certain gear types and fishing effort.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Regulators say new whale-protection rules for Maine’s lobster fleet are on the horizon

March 24, 2022 — Federal regulators said they will soon start a process to create new whale-protection rules for Maine’s lobster fleet that will go beyond the controversial regulations going into effect on May 1. The rules are being imposed to reduce the risk that endangered North Atlantic right whales will be killed by entanglements with fishing gear or ship strikes.

Michael Pentony, the regional administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spoke to an online meeting of the Maine Fishermen’s Forum today.

He said that the initial rules were designed to reduce the risk to whales by 60%, but recent evidence shows that the agency must act more quickly than planned to reduce that risk even more.

Read the full story at Maine Public

China’s ongoing COVID lockdowns threaten Maine’s baby eel season

March 22, 2022 — Warm weather this spring may boost catches of lucrative baby eels in Maine, but the ongoing effects of the covid pandemic still could hamper the global availability of the popular seafood item.

An abundance of eels during Maine’s 11-week elver season, which starts Tuesday, may not be able to overcome pandemic-related difficulties in shipping the eels to eastern Asia, where most elvers caught in Maine are raised to adulthood in aquaculture ponds in China and then sold into the enormous Japanese seafood market.

“As of now, the biggest challenge facing the industry this season will be the logistics of getting eels to their ultimate destinations,” said Mitchell Feigenbaum, a major distributor of Maine eels. “A severe COVID outbreak in Hong Kong combined with strict import controls have created great uncertainty in the market as the season prepares to open.”

China has maintained a “COVID zero” policy that in recent weeks has resulted in the country locking down areas where outbreak of the disease are detected, which potentially could inhibit the ability to ship Maine elvers to Chinese aquaculture sites. Because elvers have to be shipped live, the possibility of shipments being delayed and elvers dying en route can make things “very risky” for dealers, Feigenbaum said.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Golden Presses Feds for More Maine Lobstermen Representation on Regulation Advisory Panel

March 21, 2022 — The following was released by The Office of Jared Golden:

Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) called on the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) today to expand representation of lobstermen on its Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (ALWTRT) by including members of the Maine Lobstering Union Local 207 (MLU).

The ALWTRT is a council of stakeholders charged with making recommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for addressing rising North Atlantic right whale (NARW) mortalities, or takes. However, only four of the members of the 60-person ALWTRT are Maine lobstermen, the workforce whose livelihoods would be most impacted by the group’s recommendations.

“As the only industry organization comprised exclusively of lobstermen with active commercial lobster and crab fishing licenses, the MLU would bring an essential perspective to the ALWTRT,” said Golden. “For nearly a decade, the MLU has engaged with local, state and federal officials as well as the scientific community on various projects to improve our understanding of the distribution of right whales and their potential interactions with certain gear types and fishing effort. They are currently working on new data collection models utilizing fishermen and their fishing gear to obtain vital information about right whale habitat in the Gulf of Maine. This data, if brought to bear, would prove invaluable to the ALWTRT as they continue to assess the underlying causes of right whale serious injury and mortality.”

“The MLU greatly appreciates Congressman Golden’s support in seeking additional Maine seats on the ALWTRT for Local 207,” said MLU Secretary Virginia Olsen. “These are very uncertain times for Maine lobstermen and securing union seats to bring new science forward is vital in protecting our heritage fishery. As new technologies come available, we need to work with fishermen who are on the water day in and day out to be a part of this process, not only conceptually but in data collection too.”

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), take reduction teams like ALWTRT must be inclusive of “all commercial and recreational fisheries groups and gear types which incidentally take the species or stock.” The MMPA also authorizes NMFS to appoint additional members to a take reduction team if a particular constituency is not adequately represented.

“In order to ensure that the ALWTRT is indeed representative of all commercial fisheries groups, I strongly urge you to appoint representatives from the MLU,” Golden continued. “Their unique makeup as an entirely fishermen-member enterprise that participates in every aspect of the industry make them an indispensable industry participant whose voice deserves to have a seat at the table.”

Maine lobstermen have a history of environmental stewardship and continued commitment to protecting the North Atlantic right whale. Beginning in 1997, Maine lobstermen have implemented costly and labor-intensive gear modifications to protect the NARW. Since then, NARW population growth has doubled. Recent right whale mortalities have been definitively linked to ship strikes and entanglements in Canadian waters with no entanglements affirmatively linked to Maine’s lobster fishery since 2004.

You can read a copy of the letter here.

 

MAINE: Lobster fishery, coming off a record year, faces challenges ahead

March 18, 2022 — Maine’s lobster fishery scored a record-breaking value in 2021, with a 75% increase over 2020 and a 10% increase in landed weight.

But fishermen face increasing pressures, including difficulty finding and keeping crew, rising operational costs, competition for fishing grounds from other industries, new regulations affecting fishing gear and methods and coastal development pressure that’s squeezing waterfront access and opportunities to live they work.

There are plenty of long-term studies on the lobster side of the fishery. For example, the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute handles the American Lobster Settlement Index, which monitors larval lobsters and their environment.

Now a new study is underway to study the human side of the fishery.

“Last year’s season was the most valuable ever,” said Theresa Burnham, a University of Maine research associate and a member of the study’s research team.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

Maine lobster industry fights lawsuit that aims to shut down fishery

March 18, 2022 — While Maine’s lobster industry has been fighting an offensive legal battle against impending rules to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, it also is playing defense in a case brought by environmentalists that seeks to shut down the lobster fishery entirely.

Lobster industry groups are intervening in a case brought in Washington, D.C.’s U.S. District Court by the Center for Biological Diversity and other plaintiffs that argues the new federal restrictions aren’t adequate, and that the fishery’s continued operation poses an existential threat to the whales.

The plaintiffs in that case, Center for Biological Diversity v. (U.S. Commerce Secretary) Gina Raimondo, are asking the court to vacate a National Marine Fisheries Service “biological opinion” that serves as the basis for the new restrictions and conservation plan, saying they don’t go far enough to meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Lawyers for the lobster industry recently filed a legal brief arguing that the environmental groups are misreading the two laws and attempting to force the state’s lobster fishery under federal jurisdiction.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: $17 million for lobster industry included in bill

March 17, 2022 — A sum of $17,065,000 to support Maine’s lobster industry was included in the Fiscal Year 2022 Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Appropriations bill, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden announced March 11. Collins is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and a member of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee. Pingree is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and chairs the Interior and Environment Subcommittee.

The omnibus funding package passed the House and the Senate before heading to the President’s desk.

“NOAA’s own data show that the Maine fishery has never been linked to a right whale death, and the record clearly demonstrates that ship strikes and Canadian fishing activities are major contributors to right whale mortalities,” said Sens. Collins and King and Reps. Pingree and Golden in a joint statement. “Maine lobstermen and women have always been good stewards of the environment and have taken numerous actions to protect right whales when the science has warranted it. That’s why it is extremely frustrating that they have been targeted by the deeply flawed and unfair Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Rule.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

“It’s almost embarrassing”: Lobster price shock hits restaurants

March 14, 2022 — Lobster prices have soared so much that restaurants are either giving their customers sticker shock, or taking it off the menu entirely.

Why it matters: The lobster price shock isn’t just a supply problem or just a demand problem. It reflects both — and is a microcosm of the U.S. economy.

By the numbers: Maine lobstermen were able to sell their catch straight off the boat for $6.71 a pound in 2021, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. That was up 59% over the pandemic-depressed 2020 level — and up 39% over 2019.

Read the full story at Axios

MAINE: Federal windfall won’t put a stop to state lobster industry relief bills

March 14, 2022 — Although Maine’s lobster industry is set to receive $17 million in federal funding as part of the 2022 omnibus spending package, it is unlikely to affect two bills going through the Legislature that seek more than $30 million in state funds for the industry.

The spending bill will bring more than $200 million in funding for projects across the state. For the lobster industry, it includes $14 million to help lobstermen comply with new federal regulations intended to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, set to take effect May 1, along with $760,000 for the Department of Marine Resources to conduct outreach and education among lobstermen, and $2.3 million for right whale research, monitoring and conservation.

“This funding comes at a critical time, as Maine’s lobster industry faces challenges from both an uncertain future and the looming May 1 implementation date,” said Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Lobstermen have adopted many conservation measures to protect whales in recent years, such as replacing floating lines used to link traps along the ocean bottom with sinking lines, increasing the number of traps per buoy line, and adding weak inserts to buoy lines so they break if whales become entangled. The new regulations require gear modifications such as adding more weak links to vertical lines, increasing the number of traps per line and adding new markings at intervals along the lines.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine politicians call for grant program to help with lobster rules

March 11, 2022 — The members of Maine’s congressional delegation are calling for the creation of a federal grant program to help the lobster industry cope with new rules designed to save whales.

Federal authorities have implemented new restrictions on lobster harvesting in hundreds of miles of productive fishing waters off the Maine coast to protect North Atlantic right whales. That’s among a host of new rules intended to save the whales, which number fewer than 340 in the world.

Members of the New England lobster fishing industry, based largely in Maine, have said the rules will cause severe economic harm to one of the region’s oldest industries.

The four members of the Maine delegation on Tuesday announced a proposed grant program that would provide assistance for fiscal years 2022 to 2024 to help cover the cost of compliance with new rules. The states would get money for the program in proportion to their number of lobstermen.

Read the full story at News Center Maine