November 15, 2021 — An oversight board is slated to make a decision next month on whether to allow shrimp fishing off New England this winter.
The fishery, based mostly in Maine, has been shut down since 2013. An arm of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is slated to make a decision about whether to allow a season this winter at a meeting on Dec. 17.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News
November 12, 2021 — The following was released by the Office of Governor Janet T. Mills:
Governor Janet Mills today announced that her Administration is investing $10 million in federal funds through her Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan to allow Maine seafood dealers and processors to upgrade their infrastructure.
The new Seafood Infrastructure Investment Program will launch early next year and will be administered through the Maine Department of Marine Resources. It will provide grants to Maine seafood dealers and processors to upgrade buildings, equipment, and utilities. These grants will help seafood dealers and processors increase the supply of Maine-harvested seafood; strengthen their ability to deliver to markets in Maine, across the United States, and around the world; and create and sustain jobs throughout Maine’s iconic seafood industry
“Maine’s seafood industry – from our fishermen and lobstermen to our processors and our dealers – is a cornerstone of our economy, employing thousands of people up and down the coast and generating about two billion dollars every year,” said Governor Janet Mills. “They work hard every day, and they have adapted with characteristic Maine grit and ingenuity to meet the challenges of the pandemic, but it hasn’t been easy by any means. Helping our dealers and processors upgrade their infrastructure will ensure the strength and vitality of this industry for years to come, will keep Maine people working in our waters and waterfronts, and will keep delivering Maine’s world-class seafood across the globe.”
Today’s announcement was made at the Portland waterfront facility of Luke’s Lobster, a family-owned Maine seafood business, founded by third-generation lobsterman Luke Holden.
“The pandemic forced our business to pivot from production and sales tailored for the food service industry to production and sales for grocery and ecommerce channels,” said Luke Holden, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Luke’s Lobster. “While we created new demand and opportunity for the Maine lobster and seafood industry, there were many costs associated with opening up these new channels and shifting production in such a dramatic way. Getting support from the State is necessary and appreciated so that we can continue to focus on ensuring a strong market for Maine’s fishermen and lobstermen both here in Maine and nationwide.”
“The pandemic tested the limits of the infrastructure, personnel, and resources in the Maine lobster supply chain,” said Annie Tselikis, Executive Director of the Maine Lobster Dealers Association. “Our businesses incurred costs associated with but not limited to employee quarantine and testing, Personal Protective Equipment, facility reengineering for worker safety and social distancing, and new product lines and packaging to support shifts in distribution from food service to retail or e-commerce. In our industry, like so many others, necessity is the mother of invention, but invention always comes at a cost. To date, there has not been a fund that directly or effectively mitigates the massive costs that Maine lobster wholesalers and processors experienced during the pandemic. We welcome the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan funds to support the needs of the lobster supply chain.”
“At Atlantic Sea Farms, we work to diversify incomes for fishermen by farming kelp – and one component of that commitment is to guarantee purchase of every blade of kelp that our partner farmers grow,” said Briana Warner, CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms. “The pandemic hit right as harvest season was beginning in 2020 and, at the same time, our customers – almost all of whom were food service customers – shuttered overnight. We still bought all of that kelp that we had promised to buy even though we didn’t know where or how we would sell it – because it was the right thing to do. We had to completely change our process and our offerings and hired new staff and purchased new machinery to pivot into retail. This was no small task, and its failure would have had a potentially irreversible effect on Maine’s growing kelp industry, as our partner farmers produce more than 85 percent of domestic line-grown seaweed. Through this grant, the State of Maine is recognizing the significant cost and effort that processors had to make to address an entirely new market resulting from COVID and is helping us continue to grow opportunities for fishing families in Maine.”
“Many Maine seafood dealers and processors have had to adjust their facilities at great financial cost during the pandemic to safely continue operations,” said Patrick Keliher, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “Supply chains have also been volatile, requiring dealers and processors to invest in new ways to get their product to market. Unfortunately, many of Maine’s dealers and processors have had limited access to other federal COVID-19 relief programs, and the expenditures they have made to remain in business during the pandemic have depleted their financial resources and left many of them unable to continue to make the investments necessary to grow. This funding is designed to provide a flexible opportunity for businesses that wish to make investments that will enable greater resilience to changing market conditions in the future. Such investments are critical to the stability of Maine’s seafood industry.”
The Department of Marine Resources will begin accepting applications in the coming months. A range of funding will be offered, including smaller grants for facilities improvements and larger grants for capital projects. Eligible investments may include:
This new Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan program builds on the Mills Administration’s commitment to Maine’s seafood industry. In 2020, the Administration awarded approximately $17 million from the CARES Act in direct payments to Maine fishermen, aquaculturists, charter fishing operations, dealers and processors.
This event is the second in Governor Mills’ Maine Heritage Industry Week, which features a series of announcements through the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan focused on supporting Maine’s iconic farming, fishery and forestry industries. Earlier this week, Governor Mills announced that she was investing $20 million in Maine’s farmers and food processors to help them strengthen their businesses.
The Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan is the Governor’s plan, approved by the Legislature, to invest nearly $1 billion in Federal American Rescue Plan funds to achieve three goals: immediate economic recovery from the pandemic; long-term economic growth for Maine; and infrastructure revitalization.
It draws heavily on recommendations from the Governor’s Economic Recovery Committee and the State’s 10-Year Economic Development Strategy, transforming them into real action to improve the lives of Maine people and strengthen the economy.
Since the legislation implementing the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan took effect on October 18, 2021, Governor Mills has announced:
Funding for the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan is through the federal American Rescue Plan Act, which allocated $4.5 billion in stimulus funds to Maine earlier this year.
Coordination of the Jobs Plan is led by the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services and the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, through a new Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan Office.
This Office will oversee the transparent and accountable implementation of the Jobs Plan, including ensuring that proposed expenditures are permissible under U.S. Treasury eligibility guidance, the final version of which remains pending.
November 11, 2021 — Governor Janet Mills today announced that her Administration is investing $10 million in federal funds through her Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan to allow Maine seafood dealers and processors to upgrade their infrastructure.
The new Seafood Infrastructure Investment Program will launch early next year and will be administered through the Maine Department of Marine Resources. It will provide grants to Maine seafood dealers and processors to upgrade buildings, equipment, and utilities. These grants will help seafood dealers and processors increase the supply of Maine-harvested seafood; strengthen their ability to deliver to markets in Maine, across the United States, and around the world; and create and sustain jobs throughout Maine’s iconic seafood industry.
“Maine’s seafood industry – from our fishermen and lobstermen to our processors and our dealers – is a cornerstone of our economy, employing thousands of people up and down the coast and generating about two billion dollars every year,” said Governor Mills. “They work hard every day, and they have adapted with characteristic Maine grit and ingenuity to meet the challenges of the pandemic, but it hasn’t been easy by any means. Helping our dealers and processors upgrade their infrastructure will ensure the strength and vitality of this industry for years to come, will keep Maine people working in our waters and waterfronts, and will keep delivering Maine’s world-class seafood across the globe.”
November 11, 2021 — Over the last few decades local fish has become harder to source for coastal communities, but covid-19 has changed that. Local food systems, including fisheries, have been thriving in the lockdowns, and educators are starting to notice. Small-scale fishermen and local distributors are meeting with students from high schools and colleges all around the coasts.
In August and September, one such group from Sterling College in northern Vermont visited Downeast Maine to learn about local fisheries, seaweed gathering, and aquaculture.
Read the full story at National Fisherman
November 10, 2021 – A new study of western Atlantic bluefin tuna population data is expected to improve management practices and a valuable marketplace for fishermen from Maine to Texas.
Thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen capture the tuna, one of the strongest and fastest predators in the open ocean, off the East Coast each year.
The tuna is “among the most sought-after commercial fish in the world’s oceans,” University of Maine assistant professor Walt Golet said in a news release.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded Golet, a research assistant professor with the School of Marine Sciences, more than $276,000 to lead a team of researchers who will collect and analyze updated the animal’s population data. The new data will help reduce uncertainties in assessment models that estimate the amount of fish in the fishery, which can help guide management practices and prevent overfishing, he said.
Golet was also awarded almost $300,000 from NOAA for a project to help bolster the industry. The research includes developing best practices for handling, particularly cleaning and chilling the fish, and outreach to improve consumer perceptions and markets.
November 9, 2021 — Several Maine scientists have received federal funding to learn how the American lobster is affected by environmental change in the Gulf of Maine and across New England.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant announced $2 million in grant s late last mont h for six projects as part of the American Lobster Initiative. The initiative looks to bridge critical gaps in knowledge for Maine’s iconic species.
“Given the importance of lobster to the economy and culture of Maine, I’m thrilled to have these new projects join the growing initiative,” said Amalia Harrington, a marine extension team member with Maine Sea Grant at the University of Maine. “The more we learn now, the better prepared our lobster industry will be in the future.”
Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander
November 9, 2021 — American Aquafarms, a Norwegian company that hopes to install a $300 million salmon farm in the waters of Frenchman Bay, recently announced the appointment of Keith Decker the company’s CEO, based in the U.S.
Decker is a 30-year industry veteran with experience in seafood production and processing, with leadership roles in some of the largest North American seafood companies. He’s a board member and investor in an Oslo, Norway, company that plans to build and operate an industrial scale land-based Atlantic salmon operation outside of Reno, Nev.
American Aquafarms proposes to lease 120 acres in Frenchman Bay, between Bar Harbor and Schoodic Peninsula, to install 30 “closed pens” and produce 66 million pounds of salmon annually, and to install a hatchery and processing facility in Gouldsboro.
Mainebiz asked Decker what drew him to the firm and about his plans going forward.
Here’s an edited transcript.
Mainebiz: Where were you up to now?
Keith Decker: For 17 years in New Hampshire I ran High Liner Foods, the largest manufacturer of value-added seafood in North America. At the peak, I had seven manufacturing plants and 2,000 employees. Then for the last four years, I was building and running the largest groundfish fishing company on the East Coast, Blue Harvest Fisheries LLC, headquartered in New Bedford, Mass.
I’m in the process of moving to Maine.
MB: What drew you to American Aquafarms?
KD: A couple of people from American reached out to me.
What I’ve seen through my career is what I believe is the need to onshore our seafood production and rebuild our production capacity on the East Coast and throughout the United States. As a country, we import about 90% of our seafood. Five of the top eight species we consume are farm-raised and, effectively, the majority of it is grown globally and either air-freighted into the United States or put onto container ships to the United States. One thing that’s become really evident, over the last 18 months, is that COVID has exposed our global supply chain problems, not to mention climate change issues of flying seafood to the United States.
I’ve been interested in farm-raised salmon, kelp, oysters and other species — I think that’s a fantastic industry that will only continue to grow.
November 8, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
Please note there has been a slight change to the notice below:
In order to prevent the waste of Atlantic herring, the closure time has changed from 6 PM to 9 PM today. Several vessels sent messages they had fish on-board when the closure notification was released and they would not make it back to port by 6 PM, thus, requiring them to dump fish without an extension.
NOAA Fisheries and the states of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts project the Atlantic herring fishery will catch 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL by November 8, 2021. The Area 1A directed fishery will close effective 6:00 p.m. on November 8, 2021 and remain closed until further notice. Vessels that have entered port before 6:00 p.m. on November 8, 2021 may land and sell, from that trip, greater than 2,000 pounds of herring from Area 1A.
During a closure, vessels participating in other fisheries may retain and land an incidental catch of herring that does not exceed 2,000 pounds per trip or calendar day. In addition, directed herring vessels traveling through Area 1A must have all fishing gear stowed.
In accordance with the Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring, the fixed gear set-aside of 30 metric tons will continue to be available to fixed gear fishermen operating in Area 1A west of Cutler, Maine through December 31, 2021.
Please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0716 or efranke@asmfc.org for more information.
The closure announcement can also be found at http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/AtlHerring1A_Closure_Nov2021.pdf
November 8, 2021 — Joanna Fogg, perched at the prow of her boat, looks out at the 350 oyster cages rocking in the Mount Desert Narrows that make up the bulk of Bar Harbor Oyster Co., the business that she and her husband, Jesse, have spent the past seven years building from the ground up.
The black plastic floats, spread across about 22 acres, may not look like much to some – and may even be an eyesore to others – but Fogg hopes that one day, people will see them as beautiful.
Her farm may not conjure the same quintessential working waterfront images as a lobster boat and brightly colored buoy, Fogg said, but she thinks it should hold the same meaning: “This is what it looks like to feed people.”
And feed people she does.
Even with a projected harvest of about 100,000 oysters this year, Fogg can’t keep up with the demand of Bar Harbor, let alone a state that is rapidly growing its brand as a premier destination for farm-grown seafood.
Fogg’s business is just one of the hundreds of Maine sea farms contributing to the state’s successful aquaculture industry, selling oysters, mussels, seaweed and salmon as fast as they can be grown. The practice has been around for thousands of years, but only in the past few has it become a vital economic engine for the state.
But as more farms have cropped up, so have coalitions and interest groups concerned about Maine’s coastline being overrun by industrial-size operations that pollute the state’s pristine waters and take valuable bottom from Maine’s iconic, nearly half-billion-dollar lobster industry.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald
November 8, 2021 — Gov. Janet Mills on Friday urged the federal government to include fishermen in plans for commercial offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.
In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Mills said she supports the Biden Administration’s commitment to offshore wind but encouraged them to take a research-driven approach.
“My administration has committed to pursuing offshore wind energy in a way that works best – a thoughtful, deliberate and responsible approach that leads with listening to those for whom offshore wind may not be viewed as opportunity but as a threat to their way of life,” she wrote.
Read the full story at Spectrum News 13