Saving Seafood

Innovative Fish Farms Aim to Feed the Planet, Save Jobs and Clean Up an Industry’s Dirty Reputation

April 20, 2022 — Carter Newell owns and operates one of the most productive mussel farms in the state of Maine. One frigid spring morning I joined him and his two-person crew on a short boat ride to the barge he calls Mumbles, a 60-by-24-foot vessel anchored that day in a quiet cove in the brackish Damariscotta River. Named for the Welsh seaside town where Newell once did research, Mumbles was tethered to a steel-framed raft hung with hundreds of 45-foot ropes, each thick with thousands of mussels in various stages of development.

I shivered in the piercing wind as a crew member stepped from Mumbles onto the shifting raft to identify mussel ropes ready for harvest. Newell remained on the barge to helm a 16-foot crane that hauled up the designated ropes, each heavy with a Christmas tree–shaped aggregation of roughly 3,000 mussels. An outsized brush then swept the bivalves off the ropes and into an enormous stainless steel bucket. Another machine funneled them into a heavy polyethylene bag the size of a baby elephant, from which they were poured onto a conveyor-belt apparatus to be scrubbed, sorted and bagged. Newell designed this ungainly Willy Wonka–esque apparatus over decades in a costly process of trial and error that faced—and ultimately overcame—several challenges, including protecting the mussels from turbulent seas and voracious eider ducks.

Read the full story at Scientific American

 

Maine baby eels reach near-record prices as season ends early

April 18, 2022 — While their appearance is glass-like and puny, Maine elvers come with a price tag that’s a shock to many.

One pound of elvers, also known as baby glass eels, sells for more than $2,000, beating out a pandemic slump of just over $500 per pound, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

These eels are on the rebound, as many close to the industry said this is the best season they’ve had in recent history. This season was so productive. In fact, the limits will be reached before May, more than a month before their expected end date.

But why so expensive? These elvers may be two inches now but can grow up to five feet long.

These eels will also be shipped across the world to China and Japan, where they will be farmed for their meat.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

New report sets broad goals for Maine’s aquaculture industry in the next decade

April 15, 2022 — In the last 8 years, Maine’s aquaculture harvest has more than doubled in volume and in value, and some predict that the state’s aquaculture exports could be worth as much as $800 million by 2025. A new report is recommending how that growth should be managed over the next decade. But critics say it’s too focused on expanding the industry, and gives short shift to other users of the ocean commons or the ecosystems that they all depend on.

The document sets broad goals for aquaculture’s next decade in Maine, starting with streamlined permitting for public water leases that “balances the rights of the applicant and the public.

And it identifies the potential costs of specific actions: $100,000, for instance, to support a state employee who would help applicants get through the permitting process and engage with host communities, $100,000 to integrate aquaculture into K-12 education, and a quarter million dollars to create a Maine Seafood Council to market both farmed and wild-caught seafood.

“It’s one tool that can be used along with the many tools the state has in thinking about the future,” said Gayle Zydlewski, who directs Maine Sea Grant, a federal-state program housed at the University of Maine that led a collaborative effort to create the so-called Maine Aquaculture Roadmap.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Gouldsboro considers aquaculture licensing ordinance

April 15, 2022 — The town of Gouldsboro’s attorney has drawn up a draft aquaculture licensing ordinance that would apply to all farming of marine fauna and flora — from Atlantic salmon to seaweed — and set standards and requirements for both land- and ocean-based ventures seeking to operate in or from the town. The incomplete, all-encompassing document requires further work before it can be presented at a public hearing and put to voters at a town meeting.

Many months in the works, Rudman Winchell attorney Tim Pease’s 23-page draft document Thursday evening was submitted to the Gouldsboro selectmen for their review. Pease will go through the proposed Aquaculture Licensing Ordinance in detail and answer questions at the Planning Board’s next regular meeting at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, April 19, at the Prospect Harbor Women’s Club. Pease and staff scrutinized existing municipal standards, policies and regulations concerning aquaculture development in Maine and beyond. In formulating the draft ordinance, they also were assisted in the process by and took into account much input from year-round and seasonal Gouldsboro residents as well as concerned citizens in neighboring Schoodic Peninsula towns.

Imposed late last fall, Gouldsboro’s six-month moratorium on 10-acre-plus finfish aquaculture development is due to expire May 15. As part of their regular meeting, Thursday, April 28, Gouldsboro Selectmen are scheduled to hold a public hearing to determine whether to end or extend the freeze. Sources expect the Select Board to continue the ban for another six months.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

Maine lawmakers approve bill to limit number of pogie-fishing licenses

April 14, 2022 — Under a bill passed by the Maine Legislature on Wednesday, the state’s pogie fishery will be closed to all fishermen in 2023 except current license holders who meet certain criteria.

To be eligible, fishermen must have held a license to fish for pogies in at least two of three years from 2019-21, and have landed 25,000 pounds in at least one of those years. Those who have the required license history but have not yet met the landings requirement have until the end of 2022 to harvest 25,000 pounds.

Pogies, also known as menhaden, have returned to state waters in large numbers over the past few years. As herring landings have dwindled, many lobstermen have switched to pogies for bait. At the same time, lax licensing requirements have lured others to enter the pogie fishery.

But the fishery has a regional quota, set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is up for reassessment next month. State officials are concerned that the rules will be changed in ways that will limit the amount harvested from Maine coastal waters and estuaries. If the fishery remained open to additional licenses, that would mean less would be available for each fisherman, threatening the bait industry.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Gulf of Maine wind task force to meet May 19

April 13, 2022 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a Gulf of Maine Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting on May 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern.

The meeting will take place virtually via Zoom. To register for the meeting, please click here.

This task force is an intergovernmental group composed of federal officials and elected tribal, state and local officials from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The upcoming task force meeting will focus on the following topics:

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Dealers scramble to supply lobstermen ahead of gear change deadline

April 12, 2022 — May 1 is the deadline for commercial lobstermen in Maine to trawl up, use weaker rope or insert weak links and mark gear with the state color purple. But will they be ready? 

The new federal gear requirements enacted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are aimed at reducing right whale entanglements with vertical trap lines. Weaker rope or weak links will allow whales to break free of the rope, while the state-specific gear colors will help determine where a whale was entangled.  

“Everyone’s hoping for a good year, hoping for a good price,” said Virginia Olsen, a Maine Lobstering Union Local 207 member who fishes out of Stonington. “We’re just going to do what we do. We’re gonna go to work.” 

But first, enough rope and weak links must come into local fishing gear stores to supply the approximately 4,500 commercial lobstermen in Maine, each of whom can haul up to 800 traps. 

That equals a lot of rope or links – even with the requirement to attach more traps per vertical line than before, depending on the lobster zone and whether the grounds are in federal or state waters. While NOAA has specified approved gear types and brands, many local lobstermen are on waiting lists at gear shops.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Baby eel value up to pre-pandemic levels despite challenges

April 12, 2022 — Concerns that war in Europe or fickle weather might hold back one of America’s most valuable fisheries appear to have been unfounded.

Baby eels, also called elvers, are one of the most lucrative wild fish species in the U.S. Maine is the only state in the country with a sizeable baby eel fishing industry, and the price for the tiny fish is back up to pre-pandemic levels this spring.

Fishermen are selling the baby eels for $2,110 per pound at docks, the Maine Department of Marine Resources reported Monday. They’ve also already run through more than four-fifths of their quota for the season, which runs from late March to early June.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

 

MAINE: Grant program opens to support seafood dealers and processors

April 11, 2022 — Gov. Janet Mills announced the opening of a nearly $16 million grant program through her Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan to help Maine’s wholesale seafood dealers and processors recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and invest in infrastructure improvements that will make their businesses more resilient to potential future market disruptions, according to a press release.

Applications for the Maine Seafood Dealer and Processors COVID-19 Response and Resilience Program opened April 1 and will close on April 28, 2022. The Maine Technology Institute is administering the program on behalf of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

“This program will not only help Maine wholesale seafood dealers and processors recover from the significant economic challenges of the past two years, but it will also deliver important and timely investments to support the resilience and future prosperity of Maine’s working waterfront and blue economy,” said Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Press

 

It’s the beginning of seal pupping season in Maine

April 7, 2022 — April marks the beginning of the time of year when harbor seals start giving birth to pups.

Typically, pups can be born as early as the beginning of April, but the season gets into full swing from May to June, according to the Marine Mammals of Maine website.

Baby harbor seals can appear to be stranded and alone on Maine beaches, but the mothers are typically foraging for food nearby and feel as though the babies can be safely left alone, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Seal pups may be left alone by their mothers for up to 24 hours.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News