September 12, 2019 — Commercial fishing of an important species of bait fish is going to be shut down in one of its key areas in New England for about six weeks.
Interstate regulators say the Atlantic herring fishery in the inshore Gulf of Maine is nearing a quota limit and will be subject to restrictions from Sept. 15 to Oct. 31. That means fishermen will not be allowed to bring the fish to land until that date.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public
August 30, 2019 — Gov. Ned Lamont and the governors of four other East Coast states are urging federal regulators not to put any additional roadblocks in the way of the country’s nascent offshore wind industry.
The governors of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia joined Lamont in a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that said offshore wind power will help strengthen America’s energy independence while creating thousands of jobs.
The group, including Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, said they’re disappointed by a recent decision to delay final permitting of the planned 84-turbine Vineyard Wind project.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Hartford Courant
August 29, 2019 — The governors of five East Coast states are urging federal regulators not to put any additional roadblocks in the way of the country’s nascent offshore wind industry.
The governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Virginia said in a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that offshore wind power will help strengthen America’s energy independence while creating thousands of jobs.
The group, including Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, said they’re disappointed by a recent decision to delay final permitting of the planned 84-turbine Vineyard Wind project south of Martha’s Vineyard.
August 13, 2019 — I would like to correct some misconceptions and rebut some of the statements made by Ms. Johanna Thomas in her Aug. 2, 2019, opinion in the Seacoast Newspapers. Ms. Thomas sites the West coast Groundfish fleet as a success story. That is not the case as told by the fishermen on the West coast. She also fails to mention that 50% of the fleet was bought out in a $60 million-plus dollar buy out prior to the implementation of catch shares. This alone should have rebuilt stocks.
Ms. Thomas extolls the virtue of cameras on vessels but fails to point out that the fish must be placed, one at a time, on a measuring board in front of the camera which makes them just as dead as the at-sea monitoring program. She also fails to point out that this system is just as costly as at-sea monitoring but with one added detraction. Our vessels are our bathroom, bedroom and boardroom. The camera records everything and is a massive invasion of privacy and civil liberties. The city of Manchester, N.H. has been sued by the ACLU over this issue and courts in British Columbia ruled that fishermen could not be constantly recorded in the name of fishery management.
May 3, 2019 — All 10 U.S. senators in coastal New England reintroduced a proposal Friday to bar oil and gas drilling from the region’s shores.
The group said President Trump’s administration was stalling on the release of a new draft of its five-year offshore leasing plan. The group of senators, led by Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, said that means the Atlantic continental shelf off New England is still at risk of being opened up to drilling.
The senators said drilling off New England would be bad for the economy, tourism, wildlife and the environment. New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan said the region’s coast needs to be “off limits.”
The senators said tourism, fishing and recreation generate more than $17 billion for New England annually, according to the National Ocean Economic Program, and it would harm the five coastal states to jeopardize that revenue with drilling.
April 24, 2019 — The top marine resources officials from Maine and New Hampshire, joined by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District, are sharply criticizing the federal government’s efforts to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale and are calling for a slowdown of plans to impose new rules that could be costly for New England’s lobster fleet.
In a letter sent Friday to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, Patrick Keliher, and his counterpart in New Hampshire say federal fisheries managers botched the rollout of a new and apparently flawed risk-assessment model.
It’s supposed to help measure the effectiveness of various strategies to reduce the chance that whales will be injured or killed by entanglement in fishing gear, from using weaker rope or breakaway rope for hauling traps to a specialized gadget that would cut line when a whale becomes entangled, imposing trap limits or targeted closures of areas where whales are known to be swimming.
“There are some things that are coming out of that tool and some questions that we have about the model or some of the ideas in it that doesn’t really pass the straight-face test for us,” says Erin Summers, Maine DMR’s point-person on the whale issue, during a NOAA webinar introducing stakeholders to the risk-assessment model.
April 12, 2019 — Fishermen on the Seacoast are catering to customers who want to trace where their seafood is coming from.
“Localvores and foodies really want to know where their food is coming from. They want to know, ‘What is the origin of this seafood?’” Andrea Tomlinson said.
Tomlinson, manager of New Hampshire Community Seafood in Portsmouth, said traceability of seafood is a value-added product because it is estimated that 30 to 70 percent of what is sold in a retail environment is mislabeled either intentionally or accidentally.
April 9, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set effort control measures for the 2019 Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery for Period 1 (June), Period 2 (July and August), and the September portion of Period 3.
The Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 3,850 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for the research set-aside, the 39 mt fixed gear set-aside, and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL). Additionally, in October 2018, the Atlantic Herring Management Board implemented quota periods for the 2019 fishery, with the Area 1A sub-ACL allocated between the Periods as follows: Period 1 – June (16.1%); Period 2 – July-August (40.1%); Period 3 – September-October (34.0%); and Period 4 – November-December (9.5%).
Days Out of the Fishery
Period 1 (June)
Period 2 (July and August); and Period 3 (September only)
Weekly Landing Limit
Period 2 (July and August); and Period 3 (September only)
At-Sea Transfer and Carrier Restrictions
Period 2 (July and August); and Period 3 (September only)
The following applies to harvester vessels with an Atlantic herring Category A permit and carrier vessels landing herring caught in Area 1A to a Maine, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts port.
Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until July 14 or 15, 2019, depending on the state. Landings will be closely monitored and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when the period quota is projected to be reached.
Please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.
A PDF of the announcement and meeting motions can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/M19_25AtlHerringDaysOutMeasures_April2019.pdf
April 2, 2019 — Regulators are taking comments on plans to expand a lucrative new crab fishery that’s stirring interest in the Gulf of Maine.
Jonah crabs are a native species that, until recently, was mainly caught as bycatch – by accident – in lobster pots.
Now, as warming waters push the lobster fishery north, more fishermen – especially in southern New England – are targeting Jonah crabs on purpose to supplement their income.
New Hampshire Fish and Game biologist Josh Carloni says in Northern New England and the Gulf of Maine, lobster is still king – but that could change.
March 15, 2019 — The offshore wind gold rush has largely blown past the Gulf of Maine.
Not anymore.
German utility EnBW just joined a lobbying and trade group, Clean Energy New Hampshire. Normally, such a minor corporate move goes unremarked. But this one represents an important milestone: EnBW becomes the first offshore wind developer to publicly show an interest in developing waters near the New Hampshire coastline.
Bill White, EnBW’s North American managing director, says his company is also eyeing the wind potential in waters off Maine and northern Massachusetts. EnBW competed in the federal government’s December auction for offshore wind leases south of Martha’s Vineyard, but was outbid.