Saving Seafood

Atlantic herring industry in Maine gets over $7 million to cope with fish losses

May 6, 2022 — Disaster-level instability in the Atlantic herring industry has prompted the federal government to give $11 million to commercial fishermen and shore-side infrastructure in four states.

A scientific assessment in 2020 found that herring are overfished, and quotas for the fish were reduced dramatically. The federal government declared a “fishery disaster” in November, clearing the way for assistance.

Atlantic herring are vital because they’re used as bait by commercial lobstermen — who’ve been plagued by a bait crunch for years — as well as for food.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

UMaine research defines lobster line requirements for whale entanglement risk reduction

May 4, 2022 — Efforts to reduce the risk of entanglement in lobster trap lines for the endangered North Atlantic right whale may need to consider more factors than just line strength if they want to be safe, effective and economical, according to new research led by the University of Maine and the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

North Atlantic right whales have the potential to get caught in the vertical line that runs from gear set on the bottom to the surface marker buoy in fixed-gear fisheries, like that of the American lobster fishery in Maine. Often whales can break free of the gear and are simply left with scars, but the risk of death increases as the lines are stronger and more densely distributed throughout the water.

To mitigate right whale injury and deaths, U.S. federal management agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have mandated weak points or weak ropes be inserted into vertical lines to limit strength and provide points at which right whales can break the ropes if they become entangled. New regulations on minimum trawl lengths — or the number of traps fished per vertical line — took effect on May 1, 2022, and caused increases in lobster fishery vertical line loads across all fishing grounds, considerably increasing with depth and distance from shore.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Maine fishermen set record for value of catch in 2021

May 4, 2022 — Maine’s fishing industry set a state record for the value of seafood species brought to the docks in 2021.

Maine is one of the most important commercial fishing states in the country, in part because it’s home to by far the largest lobster fishing industry. The Maine Department of Marine Resources said Monday the value of commercially harvested species in 2021 was more than $890 million.

The previous record of more than $733 million was set in 2016.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Lobster groups mount uncertain First Circuit fight on fishery’s future

May 4, 2022 — Arguing before a skeptical First Circuit, an attorney representing a group of Maine lobster fishermen said a federal rule designed to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale targets a portion of the ocean where there are no right whales.

“We need to figure out where the whales are and target those areas,” said attorney Alfred Frawley IV at oral arguments Tuesday before the federal appeals court in Boston.

But the First Circuit appeared to give Frawley a frosty reception, saying at one point that the record lacked evidence that the seasonal closure would lead to lost lobster boats and jobs across the coast of Maine.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued the rule at issue in 2021, closing a 967-square-mile strip of ocean off the coast of Maine to the use of vertical line buoys, a method of fishing most common with lobster fishermen, between the months of October and January.

Regulators say the move is meant to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, whose population is hovering at about 336. One of the biggest threats to the animal is entanglements, with some of the most common entanglements involving lines and buoys.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

New rules for lobster industry now in effect

May 4, 2022 — Beginning Sunday, new laws are in place requiring Maine’s lobster fishermen to use new fishing gear to protect the endangered right whale.

The new laws include thinner rope and an insert link in their fishing lines, but getting these new links has been a challenge.

A supply chain shortage is keeping fishermen from being able to use it.

Read the full story at WFVX Bangor

 

MAINE: American Aquafarms buys shuttered Gouldsboro seafood processing plant

May 3, 2022 — American Aquafarms has purchased a former sardine cannery in Gouldsboro, indicating the company will likely continue to pursue a salmon farm in Frenchman Bay after being dealt a major permitting setback last month.

The sale of the Maine Fair Trade Lobster plant from East Coast Seafood to American Aquafarms closed Friday, according to East Coast Seafood CEO Bob Blais. American Aquafarms has said that it plans to use the 11-acre property in the village of Prospect Harbor for a hatchery and processing facility.

Thomas Brennan, American Aquafarms director of project development, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. On Friday, he said knew the company was heading in the direction of a sale, but didn’t have a firm closing date.

“It’s going to happen,” Brennan said. “It’s just a question of when.”

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine dam owner to make changes to try to save salmon

May 3, 2022 — The owner of hydroelectric dams in Maine said Monday it’s going to make changes to some of its operations to try to help save the final remaining wild Atlantic salmon in the United States.

The country’s last wild populations of the fish are found in a few Maine rivers. Salmon counters found fewer of the fish on one of those rivers, the Penobscot, last year than in any year since 2016.

Brookfield Renewable U.S. said Monday that it has begun shutdown procedures for dams on the lower Kennebec River to help the salmon migrate. The company is a subsidiary of a larger Canadian company that owns many dams in Maine.

Read the full story at AP News

Maine’s fisherman report record $890M haul

May 3, 2022 — Maine’s commercial fishing industry set a new record last year, with a historic haul valued at more than $980 million, according to newly released data.

Figures from the state Department of Marine Resources show the value of fish landings jumped by more than $350 million between 2020 and 2021, breaking a previous record.

By far, lobster landings were the most valuable commercial fishery in Maine last year, with more than $730 million in landed value at an average wholesale price of $6.71 per-pound, according to the state agency. Lobsters were followed by soft shell clams, which were the second-most valuable species, with harvesters reporting more than $25 million in sales.

Elver fishermen reported more than $16 million in landings, making it the third most valuable fishery last year, the agency said. The elver fishery grew from $525 to $1,831 per pound between 2020 and 2021, according to the landings data.

Read the full story at The Center Square 

Maine lobstermen fear disaster as new gear regulations take effect

May 2, 2022 — Doug McLennan looks out his window in South Thomaston every morning at the traps and boats in his yard and worries about the future of lobster fishing in Maine.

McLennan’s wife, Laura, is his sternman. His two sons, who have homes on either side of his driveway, are lobster fishermen, too. His great-grandfather was the legendary “Tall Barney Beal” of Jonesport, a Grand Banks fisherman and the 6-foot-6 descendent of the original settler of Beals Island, known for his incredible strength.

McLennan isn’t worried about the state of the fishery. Despite a dip in landings last year, more than 100 million pounds of lobster were hauled and their value broke records. Also, Maine’s lobstermen have a reputation for sustainable practices that preserve the stock for future generations, he said.

What worries McLennan and thousands of other Maine lobstermen is the latest round of federal regulations designed to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, and additional measures being planned for the next decade. The newest regulations took effect Sunday, though their enforcement has been delayed until supply chain issues for some of the required gear are resolved.

This is just the latest in gear regulation change required by the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, which was put in place in 1997 and has been amended several times since. The current changes comprise the first phase of a 10-year conservation plan to reduce the risk of right whale entanglements in fishing gear by 98 percent.

Many lobstermen have raised concerns about safety and the potential for gear failure and loss of expensive traps under the new rules, and they worry about what is coming next.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

The climate is changing much faster than fishing regulations are evolving

May 2, 2022 — Officials who oversee fishing in the Gulf of Maine and the entire East Coast are taking a hard look at how fishery regulations will need to evolve in order to keep up with the accelerated and unpredictable changes wrought by climate change.

Fishery managers from organizations across the eastern seaboard are brainstorming scenarios they could face in the coming decades as water temperatures rise, fish stocks fluctuate and species push into new areas.

Several fishery experts said they’ll likely have to reimagine how management has worked in the past.

“I think people are recognizing that small little tweaks and band aids might not be what we need here,” said Deirdre Boelke, a fishery analyst at the New England Fishery Management Council and one of the leaders working on the scenario planning effort.

Even before the effects of climate change were more widely known, fisheries management had a reputation for being complex and cumbersome. There are various layers of governance, with councils and managers making decisions at the state, regional, coastwide and national levels.

“To say that it’s a glacial process is putting it kindly,” said Gib Brogan, a fisheries analyst at Oceana, an international conservation group.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News