Saving Seafood

MAINE: Groups seek out gaps in seafood harvesting training programs

October 25, 2021 — Seafood harvesters face a sea of challenges ahead. Three organizations are working to figure out how training programs can help the next generation weather the storm.

Maine Sea Grant, the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association have all teamed up through a federal program to help prepare up-and-coming fishermen and aquaculturists.

In December, Congress passed the Young Fishermen’s Development Act to preserve the country’s fishing heritage through training and assistance for commercial fishermen. Funding has yet to be allocated for any work, but these groups are working to figure out opportunities and challenges ahead, so that when money is made available, they can hit the ground running.

“We’re going to be reaching out to tons of fishermen, people involved in the aquaculture industry and a lot of young folks,” said Natalie Springuel, a Bar Harbor-based marine extension associate with Maine Sea Grant.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

Maine’s top elected officials urge feds to throw out new lobstering rules

October 25, 2021 — Maine’s top elected officials are urging the federal government to throw out and rewrite a set of controversial new rules regulating Maine’s lobster fishery, calling the process “flawed and unfair.”

In a letter sent Thursday to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, and Gov. Janet Mills lauded a federal judge’s decision last week to block the enforcement of a seasonal closure of a large section of the Gulf of Maine that was slated to go into effect Monday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has said the closure area is necessary to protect the critically endangered right whale, but many in the lobster industry, and now U.S. District Judge Lance Walker, argue that the science used to support the closure is questionable.

They urged Raimondo to immediately resolve what they called the rule’s many shortcomings.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine Aquaculture Association releases first-of-its-kind occupational standards for industry

October 22, 2021 — The Maine Aquaculture Association (MAA) released occupational standards for the state’s aquaculture industry this week, publicly setting the bar for workforce skills and training needs in the marine finfish, land-based recirculating aquaculture system, land-based shellfish hatchery, and marine shellfish and sea vegetable sectors.

According to the organization, this is the first occupational standards document in the country for the aquaculture industry.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Judge is right that more data needed before part of ocean put off limits to lobster harvesting

October 22, 2021 — A federal judge’s order last week to temporarily stop the planned closure of a large swath of the Gulf of Maine to lobster fishing is welcome news to Maine’s lobster industry, but also to those who believe that data should guide decisions about protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.

In August, federal fisheries regulators announced new rules for lobster fishing gear and the closure of 950 square miles of ocean about 30 miles off the coast from Mount Desert Island to Casco Bay to traditional lobster fishing from October to January. Ropeless fishing, a new and largely untested way of setting and retrieving traps using a smartphone, would still be allowed in this area under the rules. The closure was set to go into effect this week.

The new regulations came despite years of pleas from lobstermen, Maine elected officials and this editorial board that any decisions about measures to be taken to protect the whales needed to be made based on actual data about where and how whales are being injured, entangled and, too often, killed.

Without better data, Maine’s lobster industry was being asked to make substantial — and costly — changes that may not have addressed the biggest threats to right whales. Other threats include collisions with shipping vessels.

Read the full editorial at the Bangor Daily News

 

Spud Woodward Elected ASMFC Chair

October 20, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Today, member states of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) thanked Patrick C. Keliher of Maine for an effective two-year term as Chair and elected Commissioner Spud Woodward of Georgia to succeed him.

“I’m honored to be chosen by my fellow Commissioners to lead our efforts for the next two years, during which I hope we’ll once again be meeting in person. I look forward to concluding our introspective examination of de minimis status and conservation equivalency so we’re confident that we have the proper balance between flexibility and accountability. Allocation will remain one of our most contentious and potentially divisive tasks. However, I know the spirit of cooperation and mutual respect that’s the legacy of the Commission will lead us to decisions that are as fair and equitable as possible,” said Mr. Woodward.

Mr. Woodward continued, “I want to thank outgoing Chair, Pat Keliher for his steady hand on the tiller during a tumultuous two years, when he faced challenges unlike those of any of his predecessors. Newly elected Vice-chair Joseph Cimino and I will strive to emulate his success working with our stakeholders, state, federal, and academic partners, Congress, and especially Bob Beal and the outstanding staff to ensure Cooperative and Sustainable Management of Atlantic Coastal Fisheries is not just a vision statement but a reality.”

Under Mr. Keliher’s chairmanship, the Commission made important strides in furthering its strategic goals. Management accomplishments over the past two years include quick action by the states to end overfishing of Atlantic striped bass; implementation of ecological reference points to manage Atlantic menhaden; positive stock status for all four tautog populations after years of effort to rebuild the stocks; a new rebuilding amendment for bluefish; and the completion of benchmark stock assessments

for American lobster, American shad, Atlantic cobia, and tautog. Further, advances in habitat conservation were made by the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP) through its funding of seven on-the-ground projects, which will open over 40 river miles and conserve over 300 acres of fish habitat. ACFHP alsopartnered with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership and The Nature Conservancy to spatially prioritize fish habitat conservation sites through GIS mapping and analyses for the Atlantic region of the U.S. from Maine to Florida.

From a data collection and management perspective, the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program also made progress under Mr. Keliher’s leadership. The Program redesigned SAFIS eTRIPS, the first and currently only fisherman trip reporting application that meets One Stop Reporting initiative; and implemented state conduct of the Marine Recreational Information Program’s (MRIP) For-Hire Survey and electronic data collection for MRIP’s Access Point Angler Intercept Survey.

The majority of Mr. Keliher’s chairmanship occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time in which his leadership truly shined. He maintained active communication with staff and fellow Commissioners, oversaw a seamless transition to virtual meetings, and consistently made decisions with the safety of Commissioners and staff in mind.

A native Georgian, Mr. Woodward has dedicated his life to marine fisheries management at the state and interstate levels. Now retired and serving as Georgia’s Governor Appointee to the Commission, Mr. Woodward worked for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA DNR) for over 34 years, including serving as the Director of the Coastal Resources Division and Assistant Director for Marine Fisheries. In addition to his work with GA DNR and the Commission, Mr. Woodward has served on the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council since 2018. In the Commission’s 80-year history, Mr. Woodward holds the distinction of being the second Governor’s Appointee to serve as Commission Chair and Vice-chair. The first being Captain David H. Hart.

The Commission also elected Joseph Cimino, Marine Fisheries Administrator for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, as its Vice-Chair.

 

Maine lobstermen celebrate, conservationists criticize ruling on fishery closure

October 20, 2021 –Maine lobstermen will not have to stop fishing in an area slated to be off-limits from October through January.

A federal judge granted temporary relief to the Maine Lobstering Union Saturday.

The group sued in an effort to block the seasonal closure of the roughly 1,000-square-mile area.

Federal officials argued the closure is necessary to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from extinction.

“You’re not going to save a whale by closing down I-95 and we feel like that’s the same implication,” said Virginia Olsen of the Maine Lobstering Union.

The rules issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Marine Fisheries Service are part of a 10-year plan to reduce the risk of right whales getting tangled in lobster fishing ropes and dying.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit in September to challenge the protections which, they argue, will “eliminate” the Maine lobster fishery.

Read the full story at WMUR

 

Maine Lobstering Union Lands Injunction to Halt Right Whale Lobster Fishing Area Closure

October 19, 2021 — The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) was granted emergency relief by U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker on October 16 to halt an impending closure of a lobster fishing area off Maine.

The closure was set to be implemented as part of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Modifications announced at the end of August.

After learning of the closure, the MLU, along with other industry groups including the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), sued the NMFS over the right-whale related rule changes.

According to the MLU, the closure would have impacted a large area of “prime lobstering territory.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

Directed herring fishery closed for rest of the year, incidental catch still allowed 

October 19, 2021 — The directed herring fishery has been closed for the rest of the year for the inshore Gulf of Maine, according to officials.   

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board voted late last month to set the number of landing days at zero for the second half of the herring season, meaning a vessel can’t go out fishing directly for herring.   

Fishermen are allowed to fish for other species and may land up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip as incidental catch only, said Emilie Franke, the fishery management plan coordinator at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.   

Herring is a prized bait fish for lobstermen in Maine, though many have resorted to other species, such as  pogies,  as  herring numbers have  declined  and quotas have tightened. Herring is considered overfished, but overfishing  by fishermen  is  not  currently happening, leaving officials searching for an answer on how to help the species  rebound. 

The New England Fishery Management Council met late last month to talk about how to move forward with the conservation of the species across New England. The council decided to go forward with an acceptable biological catch strategy that allows for sustainable harvest of the fish while accounting for the species role as a forage species  and baitfish. The rule works by allowing fishing mortality rate to fluctuate with the highs and lows of the species’ biomass, allowing flexibility depending on how the fish is doing. It also adds accountability measures.   

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

Judge’s rejection of lobstering ban draws praise of industry, ire of environmentalists

October 18, 2021 — Lobster industry advocates and environmental groups offered starkly different reactions Sunday to a judge’s decision blocking a federal ban on lobstering in a section of the Gulf of Maine designed to protect the endangered right whale.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Lance Walker, said federal regulators relied on “markedly thin” analysis that didn’t provide hard proof of the whales’ presence in the roughly thousand-square-mile area off the Maine coast. Advocates for the lobster industry had asked for a stay of the three-month ban, arguing there wasn’t evidence that the critically endangered whales actually frequent the area.

Environmental groups accused Walker of relying on his own analysis of data rather than that of scientists. Lobstering advocates, on the other hand, praised the judge for offering a lifeline to the $1.4 billion industry, which is critical to Maine’s economy.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Portland Press Herald

 

Federal judge blocks lobster fishing ban in stretch of Gulf of Maine

October 18, 2021 — A federal judge in Maine on Saturday blocked a seasonal ban on traditional lobster fishing in a stretch of offshore waters in the Gulf of Maine that regulators say is needed to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale from extinction.

In his 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker said regulators had relied on “markedly thin” statistical modeling instead of hard evidence to show the nearly thousand-square-mile area they had planned to close was really a hot spot for the imperiled whale.

While the area targeted for closure may be a viable habitat for the right whale, there is no hard proof the whales actually gather there, or even pass through that part of the Gulf of Maine, with enough frequency to render it a “hotspot,” Walker wrote.

The National Marine Fisheries Service had only just this year deployed acoustic devices along the Maine coast that can detect the presence of right whales through their song, Walker noted. When available, such evidence of a hot spot is preferable to statistical likelihoods.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald