Saving Seafood

ASMFC Atlantic Striped Bass Board Continues to Move Forward on the Development of Draft Amendment 7

May 7, 2021 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board met to review public comments and Advisory Panel (AP) recommendations on the Public Information Document for Draft Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP), and provide guidance on which issues to include in the Draft Amendment. The purpose of the amendment is to update the management program in order to reflect current fishery needs and priorities given the status and understanding of the resource and fishery has changed considerably since implementation of Amendment 6 in 2003. The Board intends for the amendment to build upon the Addendum VI (2019) action to end overfishing and initiate rebuilding.

Prior to the Board’s deliberations, Commission Chair Patrick Keliher provided opening remarks urging the Board to take action to address the downward trend of the Commission’s flagship species. He stated, “While we are not at the point we were in 1984, the downward trend of this stock is evident in the assessment. For many of the Commission’s species, we are no longer in a position to hold hope that things will revert to what they have previously been if we just hold static. The change is happening too fast and action needs to be taken.” He further requested the Board to consider “what is best for this species, and also what is best for the future of the Commission.”

After its review of the AP report, input received at the 11 virtual public hearings (targeting stakeholders from Maine to Virginia), and the more than 3,000 submitted comments, the Board approved the following issues for development in Draft Amendment 7: recreational release mortality, conservation equivalency, management triggers, and measures to protect the 2015 year class. These issues were identified during the public comment period as critically important to help rebuild the stock and update the management program. In its deliberations, the Board emphasized the need to take focused and meaningful actions to address the declining stock and allow for the expedient development and implementation of the amendment.

While the coastal commercial quota allocation issue will not be included for further consideration in the Draft Amendment, the Board requested staff from the Commission and the State of Delaware prepare background information, options, and timelines for possible inclusion in a separate management document. The remaining issues that will not be developed as part of the amendment will remain unchanged from current management measures. However, they can be included in the adaptive management section of Draft Amendment 7 and addressed in a separate management document following approval of the final amendment.

As the next step in the amendment process, the Plan Development Team (PDT) will develop options for the four issues approved by the Board for inclusion in Draft Amendment 7. The Board will meet again during the Commission’s Summer Meeting in August to review the PDT’s progress on the Draft Amendment and recommend any further changes to the document. Based on progress made on the Draft Amendment, the Board’s next opportunity to meet and consider possible approval of the document for public comment will be in October during the Commission’s Annual Meeting.

For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at efranke@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Maine Cod Fishery Posted Smallest Catch in History in 2020

April 5, 2021 — One of the oldest marine industries in the United States suffered the least productive year in its recorded history last year, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Maine cod fishery stretches back centuries but has been in dire straits in recent years because of tough new management measures and a lack of fish.

The 2020 fishery brought 58,730 pounds of fish to the docks. That is more than 20,000 pounds less than 2017, which previously was the least productive year. The fishery routinely topped 10 million pounds per year in the 1980s and early ’90s.

Members of the industry said the pandemic played a role in last year’s low total because of such factors as the disruption to the broader seafood industry and the closure of restaurants.

“We had a pretty lean year,” said Jodie York, general manager of Portland Fish Exchange, a Maine auction house. “It really is in large part due to the pandemic.”

The fishery has also struggled in recent years because of cod population levels that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has described as “significantly below target levels.” The cod population off New England has suffered due to past years of overfishing and environmental change, marine regulators have said.

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

MAINE: Stonington top port in state for 2020

March 29, 2021 — Maine’s commercial fisheries are thriving in spite of a pandemic year, tariffs on trade with China and looming issues affecting lobsters and lobstermen. The Maine Department of Marine Resources announced on March 24 an ex-vessel value of $516,796,614 for the state’s 2020 commercial landings.

Even Governor Janet Mills weighed in: “Maine fishermen and seafood dealers weathered one of the most difficult years in memory, but through hard work and an unwavering dedication to quality, they were able to once again provide tremendous value for seafood consumers, and a vital economic foundation for Maine’s coastal communities.”

Lobsters account for nearly 80 percent of the ex-vessel value, hauling in $405,983,832 worth of lobsters to Maine ports. DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher noted a 5 percent decline in lobster landings by pound compared to 2019. Nonetheless, the 96-million-pound catch was the ninth highest in Maine’s history. A higher than usual boat price of $4.20 per pound — compared to the $3.76 average — helped bring up the ex-vessel landing value for 2020.

The elver fishery, which saw dealer prices drop 75 percent to just over $500 per pound, still netted $5,067,521 for harvesters.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

In historically tough year, Maine fishermen brought in history’s 9th-most valuable catch

March 26, 2021 — Despite unprecedented market losses, Maine fishermen brought in over a half-billion dollars for their catch in 2020.

Valued at $516.8 million, the ex-vessel value, or price paid at the dock, of Maine’s commercially harvested marine species was the ninth-highest on record.

Maine’s lobster fishery once again accounted for most of the state’s overall landed value, with the lobster catch totaling $405.98 million.

While the landed value was down from $491.2 million in 2019 and the 2016 peak of $540.7 million, it was the seventh straight year that the lobster fishery exceeded $400 million.

“Maine’s lobster industry faced tremendous uncertainty in 2020,” Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a news release. “At this time last year, the industry was facing a pending market collapse due to COVID-19, but industry’s response was remarkable.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Maine officials seek to lower temperature of wind power protests

March 26, 2021 — With accusations flying between midcoast Maine lobstermen and offshore wind power advocates, state officials worked to reduce tensions as survey vessels chart a future cable route for a planned wind turbine site south of Monhegan Island.

The Maine Aqua Ventus project would be a 12-megawatt floating turbine to test the feasibility of using such anchored generators to build commercial-scale wind power arrays in the deepwater Gulf of Maine. The survey now is over a 23-mile route where an export cable would carry electricity to landfall and tie into the mainland power grid at South Boothbay.

In a bulletin to fishermen Wednesday morning, state Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher urged continued restraint in protests, after a peaceful demonstration Sunday by more than 80 vessels that cruised the cable route flying banners of protest.

“The purpose of this seabed survey is to map the seafloor in order to determine if the cable bringing power to shore can be buried. The purpose of burying the cable is to allow both mobile and fixed gear to fish around the cable without a problem,” Keliher wrote. “The developer has committed to working with the Department to ensure that fishing will be allowed around and over the cable route. I hope that we can find a way forward to complete this survey and achieve that goal.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: Marine Patrol Directed To Remove Gear From Path Of Wind Power Survey If Fishermen Won’t

March 24, 2021 — The state is telling Monhegan Island-area lobstermen to remove fishing gear from the path of a survey vessel — or the Marine Patrol will. That’s after the Department of Marine Resources determined that there is enough gear in that area to prevent the vessel from doing its work.

The 150-foot Go Liberty is surveying possible routes for an electricity cable that would stretch from a planned floating wind turbine developed by New England Aqua Ventus to the mainland. Earlier this week, lobstermen protested the effort at sea, and in some cases sailed near the survey ship.

In text and email messages sent to lobstermen Wednesday morning, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher says he has been directed to ask the state Marine Patrol to move gear away from the route if the vessel is unable to continue its work. He also says DMR is working with the vessel to make sure it keeps its operations within a defined pathway.

Keliher and other officials in Gov. Janet Mills’ administration did not immediately return requests for comment.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MAINE: Short film on baitfishing a rare, real look at the lives of lobstermen

March 8, 2021 — Brooke Mohnkern’s movie “Networks” about migratory baitfish is so authentic, he added subtitles so viewers can follow the fishermen’s accents.

The eight-minute movie opens with Phippsburg fisherman Clint Wallace leaning over the bow of his lobster boat Grace and looking right into Mohnkern’s camera as he unties from the mooring before heading out. Mohnkern captures the dialog from a nearby boat as Wallace speaks over the lumbering hum of the diesel motor.

“That funny looking water’s moving closer, Brooke,” Wallace says, motioning off in the nearby distance with his head as his hands work on the mooring.

“That’s awful funny looking.”

“Networks” is Mohnkern’s first film, and it tells a tightly focused story of a group of lobstermen from the Phippsburg village of West Point who hope to catch the shiny, surface-breaking fish known as pogies, or menhaden, causing all the ruckus in the water. It’s a story for the ages – men chasing fish and the consequences of their quest. But in just a few minutes, Mohnkern also manages to tell a story of a community of fishermen coming together for their common good and spotlights the economic impact of the migratory patterns of baitfish.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Lawmakers propose 5-year extension of Maine’s lobster marketing group

March 3, 2021 — A year after the coronavirus pandemic devastated Maine’s usual lobster markets, and as the industry braces for yet another onslaught of changes brought about by right whale regulations, state legislators are proposing a bill to reauthorize the organization that markets Maine’s signature shellfish for at least five more years.

The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, created in 2013 to replace the Lobster Promotion Council, promotes Maine lobster to restaurants, cruise ships, casinos, hotels and, especially within the past year, to grocery stores and home cooks.

Its $2.2 million annual budget is funded by surcharges on state-issued lobster licenses. The surcharges are not set to change under the proposed legislation.

The collaborative’s five-year authorization is set to expire in October, but according to Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, it’s more important than ever that the group’s work continues.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: Gov. Mills: Future of lobster industry is threatened

February 25, 2021 — A draft federal biological opinion on the impact of fisheries on endangered North Atlantic right whales would “necessitate the complete reinvention of the Maine lobster fishery,” Governor Janet Mills wrote in a forceful Feb. 19 letter to NOAA Fisheries, citing “grave concern” and “inequities.”

The draft biological opinion includes a conservation framework that calls for a 98 percent reduction in risk to whales from U.S. federal fixed gear fisheries, including lobster fishing, over the next decade.

“The survival of Maine’s iconic lobster fishery, and in fact, our heritage, through the future of Maine’s independent lobstermen and women, depend on your willingness to act,” Mills wrote to Michael Pentony, NOAA Fisheries regional administrator. The letter was included with the state Department of Marine Resources’ comments on the draft opinion.

In his comment letter, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher wrote that his agency is “deeply concerned” that while several human causes of whale mortality are cited, “the draft Bi-Op places the overwhelming majority of the burden to reduce mortality/serious injury on U.S. fisheries, and specifically the U.S. trap/pot fishery.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Some unemployed Maine residents to get one-time $600 payment

December 9, 2020 — Some Maine residents who are unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic will receive a one-time payment of $600, Gov. Janet Mills’ administration said Wednesday.

Mills, a Democrat, said the payments are part of the state’s new Pandemic Relief Program and they are intended to assist unemployed people in Maine who might lose federal unemployment benefits at the end of the month. Mills and other Maine leaders have called on the federal government to extend unemployment benefits nationwide.

The payments will go to self-employed people, people who are sole proprietors and other business owners who are unemployed and losing federal benefits this month, Mills said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press