Saving Seafood

Maine plans to intervene in lawsuit over new lobstering regulations

September 17, 2021 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources plans to get involved with a lawsuit over new lobstering regulations intended to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale – regulations that will impact the state’s lucrative lobster fishery.

Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher told lawmakers in the U.S. state during a hearing on 14 September that the department plans to intervene in an existing lawsuit that environmental groups brought against the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the new rules, according to the Portland Press Herald. Keliher told lawmakers that the department has hired an attorney and that Maine Governor Janet Mills has committed the state to covering all legal fees.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

MAINE: Mills Administration To Fight Right Whale Lawsuit That Could Lead To ‘Draconian’ Effects On Lobster Industry

September 15, 2021 — The Mills administration says it’s pursuing several actions to contest recently-released lobstering restrictions designed to protect endangered right whales. It’s also intervening in an ongoing lawsuit that officials say could be more devastating to the industry.

Marine Resources chief Patrick Keliher says that Gov. Janet Mills is hiring private attorneys to help fight a lawsuit in the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups that are challenging the data used by the federal government to issue lobstering regulations to protect right whales.

Keliher says prevailing in that lawsuit won’t undo the new federal lobstering regulations that effectively close off traditional lobstering for 950 square miles of the Gulf of Maine from October through January.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

Maine won’t sue over right whale restrictions, but isn’t giving up fight

September 15, 2021 — Maine won’t be suing federal regulators over new commercial lobstering restrictions intended to protect an endangered species of whale, but it isn’t giving up the fight entirely.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has been advised against suing federal officials over a controversial new set of rules designed to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale from being harmed by the lobster industry, but Commissioner Patrick Keliher told Maine lawmakers during a briefing Tuesday that the department has not abandoned all plans for legal action.

Instead of suing over the rules directly, he said, the department is planning to intervene in an existing case against the National Marine Fisheries Service that was filed by a group of environmentalists who contend the agency hasn’t done enough to protect the critically endangered whales.

The department has hired Linda Larson, a lawyer specializing in environmental and natural resource law, from Nossaman LLP in Seattle. According to Keliher, Gov. Janet Mills has already committed to covering legal fees in what he said will be a “very expensive process.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine lawmakers urge Biden to rescind whale protection rules

September 13, 2021 — Maine lawmakers are calling on President Joe Biden to rescind new whale protection rules that will make a nearly 1,000 mile section of the state’s coastline off limits to lobstermen during the lucrative winter months.

In a letter signed by more than 150 lawmakers – including House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, and Senate Minority Leader Jeffery Timberlake, R-Androscoggin – they said the new restrictions aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales “threaten to irreparably harm Maine’s iconic, sustainable lobster fishery.”

“Maine lobstermen will suffer significant economic harm for a measure that provides a little conservation benefit to right whales,” the lawmakers wrote. “For the sake of our fishermen and women, our coastal communities, and our great state, we request that you take the steps necessary for your administration to immediately rescind the closure area.”

Read the full story at The Center Square

 

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