Saving Seafood

Maine’s governor objects to petition requesting vertical-line prohibition

June 26, 2020 — The U.S. state of Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, has written a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross objecting to a recent petition that aims to prohibit the use of vertical lines in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries in four areas off the New England coast.

The petition was submitted by The Pew Charitable Trusts earlier this month, with the intention of protecting the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale. Right whales are one of the most endangered mammal species in the world, and entanglement with vertical lines have led to new regulation that the Maine Lobstermen’s Association has objected to.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Green Plate Special: Eat more lobster — this is the kind of ask we really like

June 22, 2020 — Maine’s iconic lobster industry has taken its share of lumps in the past year. Stricter 2019 quotas on the herring catch drove bait prices up. A cold 2019 spring meant the bugs molted later than usual, delaying when lobstermen could bring popular soft-shell lobsters (sometimes sold as “new-shell”) to market. On Sept. 1, China raised tariffs on live, American-caught lobster by 10 percent. And throughout the winter, scientists, environmentalists and the courts demanded the lobster fishery change to better protect endangered right whales  (the population hovers at just 400). The overall lobster haul dipped by 16% between 2018 and 2019, although harvesters were buoyed to some extent by higher than normal prices.

Yarmouth resident Rebecca Spear — wife, daughter-in-law and mother of lobster fishermen — explains that when the COVID-19 crisis first hit Maine in March, she didn’t immediately panic over how the pandemic might affect the 2020 income of the lobstermen and boys in her life (her 10-year-old son, Jack, holds a student lobster and crab license). “That’s always the slow season for us,” Spear said.

But as restaurant service in Maine and across the country remains truncated leading into prime lobster-eating season, she is worried now. Selling direct to customers was a good springtime stopgap solution. Spear is grateful that Maine eaters have sought out more locally sourced food as the national food supply has struggled in response to the pandemic. She urges Mainers to continue to buy lobster early and often this summer to help keep the fleet afloat. Here’s my suggestion: buy a few extra, cook them all for dinner, and serve the leftovers with eggs for breakfast.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Pew petitions for vertical-line fishing closures off New England “to protect right whales”

June 18, 2020 — The Pew Charitable Trusts submitted a petition for rulemarking to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on 18 June urging him to take immediate action “to protect North Atlantic right whales from entanglement in federal waters off of New England.”

In a letter to Ross, Pew proposed a series of fisheries closures it says are “designed to afford the greatest protections for right whales, while minimizing the impact on fishermen.” The organization identified four areas off of New England where fisheries employ high-risk gear – such as lobster and crab traps with thick vertical ropes – and suggested that Ross designate closures during times when right whales are likely to be present.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Pew requests area closures in the name of right whales, suggests trap and line limits as next step

June 18, 2020 — On Thursday, June 18, Pew submitted a petition to the Commerce Secretary requesting an immediate shutdown of some federal waters off the coast of New England to commercial lobster and Jonah crab fishing. A letter signed by Peter Baker of Pew Charitable Trusts and attorney Purcie Bennett-Nickerson accompanied the petition.

“Specifically, we request that you designate one year-round closure south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and three seasonal offshore closures in the Gulf of Maine in which the use of vertical lines in the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries is prohibited,” the letter states. “The proposed areas have been scientifically identified as posing the greatest risk of entanglement to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.”

U.S. lobster fleets and fishery leaders have long been leaders in reducing interactions with marine mammals, often voluntarily implementing expensive gear changes, and time and area closures. The fleets targeted by the petition have also been working through NMFS’ Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team to develop a NOAA-mandated 60 percent reduction in vertical lines in the water.

“Why are they bringing these proposals forward at this point?” asked Dave Borden, executive director of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association and an Area 2 lobsterman. “Pew as an organization never offered a comprehensive fix that I know of.”

Atlantic commercial lobstering organizations are also working on a deadline to provide material for a federal case and did not receive notice on the petition from Pew.

“They did not distribute a copy to us,” Borden said. “I’ve been working on the depositions for the right whale case that are due tomorrow.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

National Report on Large Whale Entanglements Confirmed in the United States in 2018

June 11, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries has released a National Report on Large Whale Entanglements Confirmed in the United States in 2018. Many large whale populations are increasing in the United States, but entanglements in fishing gear or marine debris are a growing threat to the continued welfare and recovery of these species. Severe entanglements can kill or seriously injure large whales. Entanglements involving threatened or endangered species can have significant negative impacts to the population as a whole.

NOAA Fisheries coordinates the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, which includes partners in the Large Whale Entanglement Response Network. They help us track and document as many of these incidents as possible. Entanglements represent a serious human-caused threat to large whales at the individual and population levels. Scientists and managers analyze entanglement data to determine:

  • Rates and severity of entanglements
  • Type of gear or debris causing the entanglement
  • Injuries and impact to the animal

Managers use that information to evaluate existing conservation measures and implement new ones as warranted to reduce the threat of entanglements in the future.

There were 105 confirmed entanglement cases nationally in 2018. This was above the 11-year average (70.8 + 21.8) and more than 25 percent higher than the number of cases in 2017. Some of the entanglements involved North Atlantic right whales on the East Coast, which could impede recovery of that critically endangered species. The National Large Whale Entanglement Response Network responded to 37 of 92 cases involving entangled live whales and successfully removed entangling gear from 16 whales. This increased their chances of survival as well as collected important documentation.

Read the full release here

Maine Looking for New Ways to Save Whales From Fishing Gear

June 3, 2020 — Maine is in the final year of funding for a project that seeks to better protect endangered whales in the Gulf of Maine from entanglement in fishing gear.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is using the project to collect data about vertical line fishing in the gulf, and develop a model to determine the fishing industry’s current use of the lines. The department is also hoping to use the model to predict the conservation benefits of new proposed regulations.

The state is slated to receive more than $200,000 in federal funds for the project this fiscal year, bringing the total federal money it has received to more than $700,000, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Less Effort, More Lobster? New Research Suggests That Fewer Traps Can Still Yield Profitable Results

June 1, 2020 — New research suggests that the U.S. lobster industry could place fewer traps in the water and still gain just as much profit. And that finding could play a role in the debate over what should be required of Maine lobstermen to reduce entanglements with endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The study was published this week in the peer-reviewed Marine Policy Journal. Lead researcher Hannah Myers is a graduate student at the University of Alaska’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Studies. She took a close look at landings and other data from lobster-fishing territory that crosses the international Hague Line between Nova Scotia and Maine.

“We found that Canadian fishers in the Gulf of Maine caught about the same amount of lobster using seven and a half times less effort than Maine fishers on the U.S. side,” she says.

The researchers found that while the Canadians spent fewer days at sea and fished fewer traps, the traps they pulled had almost four times as many lobsters in them.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Lobstermen don’t need all the traps they use, research claims

May 29, 2020 — New research suggests that the U.S. lobster industry could place fewer traps in the water and still gain just as much profit. And that finding could play a role in the debate over what should be required of Maine lobstermen to reduce entanglements with endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The study was published this week in the peer-reviewed Marine Policy Journal. Lead researcher Hannah Myers, a graduate student at the University of Alaska’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, examined landings and other data from lobster-fishing territory that crosses the international Hague Line between Nova Scotia and Maine.

Myers’ research might help to end an impasse between animal-rights activists who are looking to reduce entanglements injurious, if not fatal, to the whales and have said that Maine fishing lines are at least a statistically-significant threat to the creatures. Maine lobstermen criticize activists and researchers as advancing poorly-researched and economically damaging arguments to their way of life. A plan recently advanced by Maine fishermen was criticized by researchers as not going far enough, while Maine’s federal and state government leaders have called on the federal government to back down on encroaching upon Maine lobstermen.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Conservation groups seek vertical line ban off Massachusetts coast

May 19, 2020 — The conservation groups that filed a federal lawsuit two years ago to force the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to do more to protect endangered right whales from entanglement with fishing gear have asked U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg to ban lobster fishing gear with vertical buoy lines off the coast of Massachusetts.

The affected area would be south of the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity and several other plaintiff conservation groups, the area “has increasingly become important right whale foraging and socializing habitat in recent years.”

The conservation groups filed their request last Friday, three weeks after the judge ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the federal Endangered Species Act when it continued to allow lobster fishing with gear that used fixed vertical buoy lines in which whales could become entangled.

As a practical matter, a ban on the vertical lines that connect traps on the sea floor to marker buoys on the surface would amount to a total prohibition against lobster fishing in the area south of the two Massachusetts islands.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Lobstering group wants to raise $500,000 for legal defense fund

May 7, 2020 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has launched a campaign to raise $500,000 to fund its legal efforts to protect the state’s most valuable fishery from the consequences of a recent federal court ruling that calls for more government protections for the endangered right whale.

Last month, a federal judge found the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated the U.S. Endangered Species Act by its authorization of the U.S. lobster industry – including Maine’s $485 million-a-year fishery – because it failed to report the fishery’s harmful impacts on the endangered right whale.

“This case could lead to closure of the world’s most sustainable fishery,” said executive director Patrice McCarron, whose association is the oldest and biggest lobstering group in Maine. “We cannot let that happen. Right whales are not dying in Maine lobster gear.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald