Saving Seafood

Charitable seafood program serves both fishermen and the food insecure

September 13, 2021 –The past year’s decrease in restaurant and wholesale markets, domestically and overseas, made it difficult for Maine fishermen to get a fair price for their catch.

But a charitable seafood program implemented a year ago has helped provide a reliable revenue stream to some small-boat fishermen – while also contributing to food security around the state.

Since last September, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association in Brunswick raised nearly $1 million from grant funding and individual donors to purchase fish directly from fishermen and donate it to local schools, food banks and community groups. To date, the program, called Fishermen Feeding Mainers, has purchased 170,000 pounds of fish, in turn providing 230,000 meals.

Last week, 29,000 pounds of fresh fish were landed at the Portland Fish Exchange, the highest volume Portland has seen in one day since before the pandemic, according to a news release. Of that, the association bought 10,000 pounds to donate for 15,000 meals.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

 

Ropeless fishing guide in the works, lobstermen skeptical

September 13, 2021 — Federal officials are working on a road map for the implementation of ropeless fishing in the Atlantic Ocean after announcing a seasonal closure of a large swath of prime lobstering ground last week.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was expecting to have the guide for the developing technology available in May 2022.

The agency announced that it would be closing a 967-square-mile area largely off the Midcoast to lobstering between October and January, some of the most lucrative months for offshore lobstering. The move is part of an effort to reduce the number of vertical lines in the water in order to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Lobstermen, however, could continue to fish in the area if they used ropeless fishing equipment that doesn’t use the persistent vertical lines that traditional lobstering does.

“The primary goal behind having these restricted areas open to ropeless fishing is to test it so that we can figure out how it might be able to be implemented in the fishery in the future,” said Marisa Trego, an Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction team coordinator at NOAA. “This will help us deal with different issues like gear conflicts and figuring out how to locate here and have everybody on the same page.”

Traditionally, lobstermen have a buoy on the surface to mark the location of their traps on the ocean floor. The traps are connected to the buoy by a vertical line.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

 

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting on September 24

September 10, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Members of the Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board from the states of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on September 24, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., to discuss Season 2 (October 1 – December 31) days out measures for the 2021 Area 1A fishery (inshore Gulf of Maine). Days out measures include consecutive landings days for Season 2. The webinar and call information is included below:

Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting

September 24, 2021

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/517895485. If you are new to GoToMeeting, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) and be ready before the meeting starts. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at +1 (872) 240-3412 and enter access code   517-895-485 when prompted. The webinar will start at 9:30 a.m., 30 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.

The 2021 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 1,453 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for the carryover from 2019, the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside, and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL). There is no research-set-aside for 2021 because the participants in the RSA program will not continue their RSA project in 2021.

The Board established the following seasonal allocations for the 2021 Area 1A sub-ACL: 72.8% available from June 1 – September 30 and 27.2% available from October 1 – December 31.

Please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0716 or efranke@asmfc.org for more information; or visit http://www.asmfc.org/calendar/9/2021/Atlantic-Herring-Area-1A-Days-Out-Meeting-on-September-24/1797.

The meeting announcement can also be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/AtlHerringSep2021DaysOutMeetingNotice.pdf

Bipartisan group of 151 Maine legislators call on Biden to rescind new lobster fishing regulations

September 10, 2021 — State legislators have submitted a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that his administration take steps to immediately rescind new regulations on lobster fishing.

The new regulations, which are intended to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, were announced on Aug. 30 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Maine lawmakers are now asking federal agencies to re-engage with the state of Maine to find a different path forward. Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, a lobster fisherman, initiated the letter. It includes signatures from 151 Republican, Democrat, and Independent state legislators from across Maine.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

 

MAINE: Lobstermen and conservationists sound off on new lobster regs 

September 9, 2021 — The day after new rules for the lobster fishery aimed at preserving the North Atlantic right whale came down from the federal government, Richard Larrabee Jr., an offshore lobsterman, was fuming.   

“I’m pissed as hell,” he said. “This makes no sense.”   

He wasn’t the only one. Both supporters of Maine’s lobster industry and conservation groups were displeased with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new rules, though largely for different reasons.  

Larrabee, who fishes out of Stonington, called it a textbook example of government overreach and said it wasn’t based in science. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has been waging legal battles on behalf of the critically endangered species, called them “half measures” that can’t be expected to save the whales.   

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

Maine groups receive $900K to help restore Atlantic salmon populations

September 8, 2021 — Continuing efforts to help restore Atlantic salmon populations in Maine are receiving a boost thanks to $900,000 in funding awarded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced Tuesday that four organizations in Maine have been selected to receive money from the distribution to assist their efforts.

“Atlantic salmon are a critical part of our state’s marine ecosystem, but they are endangered and at risk of extinction,” Collins and King said in a joint statement. “These fish help to ensure the health of our rivers and oceans that Mainers and wildlife depend on. We welcome this funding, which will help to conserve and restore wild Atlantic salmon and their ecosystems across the state.”

The Atlantic salmon, specifically the Gulf of Maine distinct population that has been protected since 2000 under the Endangered Species Act, is one of the most at-risk endangered species, NOAA reported. Only approximately 1,200 fish return each year, although as of Aug. 30 only 522 salmon have been counted so far this year at the Milford and Orono dams.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

NOAA looks at other fisheries in effort to help whales 

September 7, 2021 — With new rules for the lobster fishery issued last week, federal regulators are now looking at potential changes to other fisheries on the east coast to cut down on the risk of injuries to several types of whales.   

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to hold two scoping sessions this fall to get input on their efforts to cut down potential entanglements and whale mortalities.   

Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are considering changes to other trap and pot fisheries other than lobster and Jonah crab in Maine and other New England states, as well as amendments to the east coast gillnet fishery.   

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

Maine lobstermen fear lasting impacts on industry from new regulations

September 3, 2021 — Mainers that make their living fishing for lobster in the Gulf of Maine are coming to terms with new federal regulations this week. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued new guidance for the fishery this week in an effort to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, but those in Maine’s lobster fishing community say the new rules go too far.

“We knew a lot of this was coming,” said Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher. “But when it finally happens, it’s still a gut punch.”

Leaders in Maine’s fishing community have been working with NOAA for more than a decade to protect right whales. Fishermen told NEWS CENTER Maine that while they were not surprised to see the regulations, they were more extreme than expected.

“I see these regulations as having the potential of injuring fisherman, creating more ghost gear and debris on the ocean flood and costing us a lot more money to rig over for it, for something we’re not doing already. We’re not entangling these whales,” said Casco Bay-based lobsterman Steve Train.

The regulations will close a roughly 950-square-mile area in the Gulf of Maine to traditional lobster fishing from October to January. Rope-less fishing can continue there, but that technology has not been widely adopted in Maine.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

 

MAINE: New federal lobstering restrictions spark backlash from industry and elected officials

September 2, 2021 — After long hours hauling traps off the coast of South Thomaston on Wednesday, Barry Baudanza hadn’t had the chance to fully absorb all the changes headed his way after federal officials announced new rules governing the lobster industry the day before, but he knew one thing right off the bat: “This was the worst-case scenario.”

Among other changes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s newly released Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan will put more than 950 square miles of the Gulf of Maine off-limits to traditional lobstering from October through January – the area’s most lucrative season. The goal is to reduce risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales by at least 60 percent.

But lobstermen, the fishing industry and elected officials are pushing back. They say the new rules will be expensive, dangerous, burdensome and impractical, and won’t reduce the risk to whales.

And despite lobstermen’s concerns and protestations that they aren’t even seeing right whales in Maine waters, conservationists argue that the plan does not go far enough to protect the critically endangered animals.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Right Whale Conservation Groups ‘Disappointed’ By Long-Awaited Lobster Fishing Rules

September 2, 2021 — Federal officials have issued new regulations for the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries that are designed to protect North Atlantic right whales from entanglements in gear. But conservationists say the long-awaited rules don’t go far enough to save the critically endangered species.

The new regulations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) require lobstermen to add more traps per buoy line to reduce the number of vertical ropes in the water. They also restrict buoy lines in certain areas during seasonal whale migration south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket and in the Gulf of Maine.

In addition, they require fishermen to make two significant changes to the ropes themselves: adding breakaway sections so that entangled whales can more easily break free, and markings to buoy lines to enable federal officials to differentiate gear by state.

Federal officials say the rules, which are four years in the making, will reduce the whales’ risk of death and serious injury by 69% — and more protections will be phased in over the next decade as part of a conservation framework.

But conservation groups say they wanted more aggressive measures, given the current status of the critically endangered whales. The population of North Atlantic right whales has declined sharply over the last few decades, and today an estimated 360 remain.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) was also critical of the new rules, saying that, in fact, the federal government has placed an “unwarranted burden” on the fishery.

“[The National Marine Fisheries Service] has mandated that Maine lobstermen reduce risk to right whales by an additional 98% over the next 10 years based on the worst-case scenario instead of using best available data and realistic assumptions,” said Maine Lobstermen’s Association executive director Patrice McCarron, “The final rule is just the first round of economic impacts to us, and future restrictions will likely destroy Maine’s iconic lobster fishery.”

The MLA takes issue with the size of the seasonal restricted area in the Gulf of Maine, a lack of “flexibility” for lobstermen to “innovate and propose equally protective yet less costly approaches,” and “last minute changes” to the gear marking requirements that they say could require lobstermen to purchase a second set of buoy lines.

Read the full story at New Hampshire Public Radio