Saving Seafood

US lobster fisheries anxious over upcoming whale protections

July 6, 2021 — The profitable U.S. lobster fishery will soon have to contend with new rules designed to protect an endangered species of whale, and that could necessitate major changes for people in the industry.

The federal government is working on new rules designed to reduce risk to North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 360. One of the threats the whales face is entanglement in ropes that connect to lobster and crab traps in the ocean.

The new rules are expected to be released late this summer or early in fall, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. Early indications show that the changes required by the rules could be significant.

Right whales were once abundant off the East Coast, but they were decimated by hunting during the commercial whaling era. They’ve been listed as endangered since 1970, but the population remains small, and in jeopardy. Recent years have also brought high mortality and poor reproduction among the whales.

They’re also vulnerable to ship strikes, and face the looming threat of warming oceans. Acting NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Paul Doremus said in June that the U.S. and Canada, which also harvests lobsters, must “take and sustain additional efforts to reduce right whale mortalities and serious injuries.”

The rules will focus on reducing the number of vertical ropes in the water, and they’re also expected to modify restricted areas of ocean, the government has said. A conservation framework released by the federal government in May states that the first phase of rules will be designed to reduce risk to the whales by 60%.

The lobster industry is prepared to do its part to conserve the whales, but a near complete risk reduction would require a total overhaul of the fishery, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Federal plan to save whales could mean big changes for lobster industry

June 7, 2021 — Federal officials recently released plans to all but eliminate risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, but Maine lobster industry leaders fear the plan will only shift the risk of the extinction from the whales to the lobstermen.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its final biological opinion May 27 – a requirement under the federal Endangered Species Act. This document becomes the basis of rule-making surrounding the specific species, in this case, the North Atlantic right whale.

Officials found that, provided they meet the reduction targets in the implementation framework, none of the 10 fisheries included in the document, among them the lobster fishery, were “likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the North Atlantic right whales.”

Patrice McCarron, director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, fears the industry can’t sustain that level of change.

“If you look at the changes we’ve made over the last 25 years, there’s not a lot left to give,” she said.

By the final phase, “I don’t see how we would even have a fishery. There’s not a lot of obvious ways we could do this and still have our fleet intact,” she said. “It’s really hugely concerning.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Lobster industry still waiting for precise rules from feds to protect right whales

June 1, 2021 — Maine’s lobster fishermen are anxiously waiting to learn exactly what they will have to change to meet new federal requirements to protect the endangered right whale. On Thursday, the federal agency NOAA Fisheries released their final biological opinion about the threat to right whales, saying there have to be major changes by New England fishermen so whales won’t get tangled in fishing gear and die.

Fishermen have been worrying about and waiting for federal guidelines for more than two years. They had some of their fears confirmed by the latest report from NOAA, but still are waiting to get the needed details.

The big target to protect whales is called risk reduction, primarily by cutting the number of vertical ropes in the water that connect traps to buoy.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA Fisheries, said those ropes pose a big risk of tangling right whales, so they have to be reduced 60 percent right away. How that should happen is one of the details fishermen are waiting to learn, but previous documents from NMFS suggested a primary method should be requiring longer trawls, meaning putting many more traps on each line, in addition to using sections of weaker rope that can break away if snagged by a whale.

Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said Maine is being unfairly penalized for whale deaths actually happening in Canada and those from whales being hit by ships at sea. She said that while lobstermen will have to follow the rules, the industry will continue to pressure NMFS to improve its data and create more fair regulations.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Georgians boycott Maine lobster industry after right whale dies

April 27, 2021 — Maine’s lobster industry is keeping a wary eye on a consumer boycott launched in Georgia.

Conservation groups there charge that New England’s lobster gear and trap-rope risk entangling and killing endangered right whales, and they said seafood lovers should choose other options.

The right whale has been Georgia’s official “state marine mammal” since 1985.

“The North Atlantic right whale is beloved, and those of us who love the Georgia coast just really celebrate the season when the whales come south to give birth,” said Alice Keyes, the coastal conservation director for an organization called 100 Miles, so-named for Georgia’s hundred-mile shoreline.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine lobstermen crack a good year despite virus

March 24, 2021 — Maine’s lobster catch dipped slightly last year as fishermen dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, but the final totals were better than some feared.

Fishermen caught more than 96 million pounds of lobsters in 2020, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said Wednesday. That total broke a string of nine consecutive years in which harvesters brought at least 100 million pounds of lobsters to land.

Maine is by far the biggest lobster fishing state in the country, and the harvest is central to the state’s economy and heritage. Members of the industry feared at the outset of the pandemic that it would be difficult to equal previous years’ hauls because of the toll of the virus on the economy and the workforce.

However, the 2020 catch would have been a state record as recently as 2010. A boom in annual lobster catch began more than a decade ago.

Fishermen were selective about when they went fishing last year to avoid bringing too much product to land when demand was lower, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Statement from Maine’s Fishing Community on Offshore Wind Development

January 28, 2021 — Editor’s Note: This opinion piece is written on behalf of Patrice McCarron, Maine Lobstermen’s Association; Ben Martens, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association; Annie Tselikis, Maine Lobster Dealers Association; Rocky Alley, Maine Lobstering Union; Paul Anderson, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries; and Sheila Dassatt, Downeast Lobstermen’s Association

Maine fishermen are deeply committed to clean energy and protecting the environment. We draw our livelihoods from the ocean and recognize the fragility of our shared marine environment. Maine fishermen understand and support the need to develop clean renewable energy sources, but do not share the Governor’s vision to achieve this through rushed offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine.

While the Gulf appears vast and without borders, it is, in reality, an area well‐managed by generations of fishermen who feed our nation with healthy, sustainably harvested seafood.

Read the full story at Seafood News

MAINE: MLA unhappy with wind power initiative

January 25, 2021 — A Gulf of Maine offshore wind power initiative Maine Governor Janet Mills rolled out late last year has raised concern in the lobster fishing community, with Maine Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Patrice McCarron telling The Islander that “the area identified by the state of Maine for a potential offshore wind farm is prime fishing bottom for Maine fishermen.”

Mills first announced plans to explore offshore wind development last June, when she signed a bill requiring the Public Utilities Commission to approve a floating offshore wind demonstration project, the first of its kind in the United States. The program, Aqua Ventus, is run through the University of Maine and is funded through $39.9 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Energy.

At the same time, Mills formed the Maine Offshore Wind Initiative, a state-based initiative “to identify opportunities for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine and to determine how Maine can best position itself to benefit from future offshore wind projects,” according to a press release.

More information was released in November. The offshore wind research array would be sited 20 to 40 miles offshore into the Gulf of Maine at a yet-to-be-determined site, where the dozen or fewer gloating wind turbines would cover about 16 square miles of ocean. Maine is filing an application with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, as the array will be farther than 3 miles off the coast in federal waters. According to a Nov. 20 press release, the technology for floating arrays is still being developed, and their effect on marine life and fisheries requires further study.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

MAINE: Offshore wind project raises questions for lobstermen

January 19, 2021 — A Gulf of Maine offshore wind power initiative Maine Governor Janet Mills rolled out late last year has raised concern in the lobster fishing community, with Maine Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Patrice McCarron telling The American that “the area identified by the state of Maine for a potential offshore wind farm is prime fishing bottom for Maine fishermen.”

Mills first announced plans to explore offshore wind development last June, when she signed a bill requiring the Public Utilities Commission to approve a floating offshore wind demonstration project, the first of its kind in the United States. The program, Aqua Ventus, is run through the University of Maine and is funded through $39.9 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Energy.

At the same time, Mills formed the Maine Offshore Wind Initiative, a state-based initiative “to identify opportunities for offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine and to determine how Maine can best position itself to benefit from future offshore wind projects,” according to a press release.

More information was released in November. The offshore wind research array would be sited 20 to 40 miles offshore into the Gulf of Maine at a yet-to-be-determined site, where the dozen or fewer floating wind turbines would cover about 16 square miles of ocean. Maine is filing an application with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, as the array will be farther than 3 miles off the coast in federal waters. According to a Nov. 20 press release, the technology for floating arrays is still being developed, and their effect on marine life and fisheries requires further study.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

For New England lobstermen, resilience in ‘a season of uncertainty’

August 13, 2020 — “Gimmie a Hulla” motors across the glassy harbor, backed by the silhouettes of trees and the rocky shoreline. Yvonne “Beba” Rosen is heading out to haul her lobster traps at 5:30 a.m., as she does five days a week, April through November.

This is a tough season so far for Ms. Rosen, but over her 15 years of lobstering off Vinalhaven, Maine, she’s always been a better fall fisherman, she says. This season is like no other – the lobsters are slow to appear, but more than that, the coronavirus has caused trade to plummet and tourists to stay home.

Ms. Rosen squints into the sun, now sitting just above the horizon, and half shouts over the guttural diesel engine. “Tourists come to Maine to eat lobster. That’s what they do,” she says grimly, hands on the wheel.

Without the regular influx of tourists, and with restaurants across the country closed entirely or open with limitations, lobstermen in Maine and Cape Cod have gotten creative to keep operating their boats, exercising the resilience for which the industry is known.

A slow spring is not unusual, although this one was difficult because “markets were really feeling the brunt of the supply chain,” says Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story at The Christian Science Monitor

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