Saving Seafood

MAINE: Aquaculture Operation to Support Novel Approach to Wild Atlantic Salmon Restoration

October 3, 2019 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) will employ a novel approach to rearing Atlantic salmon for restoring native populations on the East Branch of the Penobscot.

The project, funded through a NOAA Section 6 Species Recovery Grant totaling $1,075,000, will involve a partnership between DMR, Cooke Aquaculture USA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, and the Penobscot Indian Nation to grow juvenile Atlantic salmon to adult size in aquaculture pens located near Cutler Maine. The adult salmon will then be released into the East Branch of the Penobscot to spawn, a river with large amounts of high-quality salmon habitat.

Smolts raised from native broodstock by the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery in Ellsworth, Maine, and smolts captured in the wild by rotary screw traps will be used to stock the marine net pens in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Smolts will include only those from Penobscot River origin to ensure the genetic integrity of salmon released into the river.

Plans call for increasing the number of smolts captured in the wild from the East Branch to be used to supply juveniles that will be grown out in the net pens. While hatchery spawned fish help ensure an adequate supply of fish for recovery goals, those spawned in the natural environment are more robust due to the impact of natural selection which results in fish that are better suited to survival in the wild.

The smolts will be placed in net pens under a limited-purpose aquaculture lease in Cutler, Maine where they will be fed and managed in cooperation with Cooke Aquaculture USA for 16 to 30 months, during which time they will grow to mature adults. The DMR will hold the lease on the pens while Cooke will supply the pens and feed for the salmon as they grow.

“We are committed to be part of this wild Atlantic salmon enhancement project in Maine. Cooke Aquaculture has the experience working with Atlantic salmon in their natural environment based on proven aquaculture and fish-health science. Working with the Penobscot Nation and government partners, together we will make this restoration program a success by seeing the fish return to their native waters,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO, Cooke Aquaculture USA.

Approximately 5,000 adult fish will be transported from the net pens to target tributaries and the mainstem of the East Branch of the Penobscot River in the fall of 2021 or 2022 where they will find suitable habitat to naturally spawn. This will result in more spawning adults than have been present in the Penobscot River for decades.

While net pens are not new in Maine for cultivating Atlantic salmon, using them to cultivate salmon for conservation purposes at this scale is new in Maine and showing promise in a Bay of Fundy partnership between Cooke and Canadian provincial and federal governments, First Nations and academia.

The Penobscot Indian Nation has inhabited the Penobscot River drainage since time immemorial. The deep cultural, spiritual and historical connections between the Tribe and the Atlantic salmon of the Penobscot River go back thousands of years, said Dan McCaw, Fisheries Program Manager for the Penobscot Nation. The Penobscot Nation is hopeful that this new program can help to restore this iconic species to its ancestral homeland and applauds the collaborative nature of this multi-stakeholder endeavor.

As populations expand, the goal is to build healthy wild populations of Atlantic Salmon on the East Branch, including the potential for downlisting. The estimated 5,000 adults produced by this effort could result in 20 times more eggs in the gravel in the Penobscot River basin compared to existing stocking and natural reproduction, said Sean Ledwin, Director of DMR’s Searun Fisheries and Habitat Division.

The program will involve surveys of redds in spawning areas to assess spawning success of released fish. Released fish will also be tracked using Passive integrated transponders (PIT tags) and radio telemetry. Electrofishing surveys and use of rotary screw traps, along with genetic analysis, will be used to assess the abundance of offspring from this effort.

The program will also include a public outreach effort undertaken by the department and other program partners that will provide information on salmon and other sea-run species, and the impact of protecting ecosystems on which they rely.

https://www.maine.gov/dmr/news-details.html?id=1597983

The Last Presidential Salmon

August 7, 2019 — For almost a century, the first Atlantic salmon caught each season was delivered to the President of the United States. The first of these fish, an eleven-pound silver, was sent by Karl Andersen, a Norwegian house painter in Bangor, Maine, to President William Howard Taft, in 1912. Andersen had caught the fish in the Penobscot River, on April 1st, when the water would have been flush with ice, and cold enough to numb his legs. He used a pliant bamboo rod, and sent the fish as a gift from Bangor; he hoped it would “contribute to the city’s need of honor and respect.” (His bet didn’t pay off: Bangor is now best known as the model for Stephen King’s Derry—a fictional town populated by cannibalistic clowns and reanimated zombie pets.) On April 12th, he packed the salmon with straw and ice and placed it on an overnight train to the capital. Taft ate it poached whole, with cream sauce and a garnish of parsley.

The Penobscot River had long been famous for its salmon runs. But by the time Andersen landed his fish the salmon population was already in freefall. Hundreds of dams were installed on New England’s rivers during the industrial revolution, presenting unnavigable walls for the migratory fish. As early as the nineteenth century, the Penobscot begged the governor of Maine to address the falling salmon numbers, but the condition of the waterways only worsened. Kenduskeag Stream, which in the language of the local Penobscot Nation means “eel weir place,” runs through Bangor and into the river. It was also the site of some particularly questionable, and illustrative, environmental practices. A 1960 report by the city’s health department claimed that Bangor was using “the same sewage treatment facilities as that given to the crewmen of Samuel de Champlain’s ship in 1604.” It described “sewage solids” accumulating on the Kenduskeag’s banks, children and animals playing in a mixture of feces and “thick green scum,” and, strangest of all, a city program that drew water from a particularly sewage-heavy section and sprayed it on I-95—apparently in an effort to control dust.

Read the full story at The New Yorker

MAINE: Belfast lobstermen fear Nordic Aquafarms’ discharge pipes will harm fishery

May 22, 2019 — Some Belfast lobster fishermen told the local Harbor Advisory Committee that they were concerned that dredging for installation of Nordic Aquafarms’ discharge and intake pipes along submerged lands could release mercury in the ocean sediment and pose a hazard to navigation.

Mercury contamination has closed lobster and crab fishing in part of Penobscot Bay in recent years.

The Belfast Town Council heard about the concerns at its May 7 meeting.

“The fishermen have concerns,” advisory committee member Dan Miller told the council. The committee doesn’t have any purview over Nordic Aquafarms’ proposal, he noted. “Our place is to ask you to make sure those concerns are in some way addressed by the appropriate agency.”

Miller said “a handful of fishermen” voiced concerns that dredging for installation of the pipes could stir up mercury. He noted that some testing for mercury has been performed in the area. Further testing would likely identify whether it’s a valid concern, he said.

“We would suggest that, if we run into mercury during the [installation] process, we would stop the process and look again,” Miller said. “But we won’t know until we get there, short of considerable testing.”

The committee also heard concerns that pipe operation could increase water temperature in the surrounding area and affect lobster fishing, he said.

With regard to the possibility of mercury being stirred up through dredging, “Is this something that we as a city should contact the state to have them address?” Councilor Paul Dean asked the city’s director of code and planning, Wayne Marshall.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

See long hidden historic photos of the gritty, compelling lives of tough Maine fishermen

April 30, 2019 — This month, the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport finished preserving, scanning and cataloging National Fisherman magazine’s massive photographic archive. The images were stuffed into filing cabinets at the publication’s Portland office for decades. Now, every image is online, in a searchable database, for the whole world to see for free.

The broad ranging archive reveals the compelling, gritty world of commercial fishing. The collection of prints and negatives originally accompanied stories and advertisements. They show emerging technology, as well as everyday fisherfolk hauling nets, processing the catch, repairing trawlers, building boats and setting Coast Guard buoys.

The Penobscot Marine Museum’s mission is to preserve, interpret, and celebrate the maritime culture of the Penobscot Bay region. The museum dedicates significant resources to preserving historic photographs. It currently holds more than 140,000 negatives, prints, slides, postcards and daguerreotypes. All are available for research, reproduction and licensing.

National Fishermen is still published by Diversified Communications. It’s headquartered on Commercial Street in Portland. It covers the fishing industry all over the country. It began publishing in Camden in 1946 as Maine Coast Fisherman. Over the ensuing decades, it bought and consolidated several regional fisheries magazines. It became National Fisherman in 1960.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Maine to study sea level rise impact for Penobscot Bay towns

March 29, 2019 — Ten communities surrounding Penobscot Bay will be the subjects of a state study to determine what actions to take to deal with rising sea levels.

The Maine Coastal Program, part of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, received a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct the study in Rockland, Camden, South Thomaston, Lincolnville, Belfast, Searsport, Vinalhaven, North Haven, Castine, and Stonington, said Coastal Program Deputy Director Matthew Nixon.

The goal of the project is project the sea level rise for each community and develop recommendations on protecting public infrastructure such as piers, public landings, and causeways.

“If there is going to be public investment, we want to make sure it’s spent wisely,” he said of public infrastructure projects.

Read the full story at The Courier-Gazette

Maine fish farm foes ask legislators to let agriculture commissioner kill projects

March 1, 2019 — The debate over two land-based salmon farms in Penobscot Bay spilled inland to Augusta on Thursday during a public hearing on a proposed law that would affect the licensing of such projects.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jan Dodge, D-Belfast, would allow the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to refuse to issue or to revoke an existing license for a land-based aquaculture project if it alone or in combination with another project is found to present an unreasonable risk to native species or the environment.

Some of those who testified in favor of LD 620 are veterans of the fight over Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed land-based salmon farm in Belfast, which has consumed the community for more than a year. Another project, Whole Oceans, to be located in the former Verso paper mill in Bucksport, has received much less criticism locally, but has been challenged by some in Belfast and Waldo County.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Good scallop season may be bound for a change

January 9, 2019 — Maine’s scallop season got off to a good start last month, with supplies plentiful and a strong price, but that may be about to change.

Early on, according to Melissa Smith, the scallop resource manager at the Department of Marine Resources, along most of the coast between Penobscot Bay and Cobscook Bay landings varied were “variable depending on the location.”

Scallop meat sizes also ranged from quite large to relatively small depending on where they were brought up, “as is the norm for any fishing year.”

Harvesters were generally able to get their daily limits — three 5-gallon buckets or about 135 pounds of shucked scallop meats — by the early afternoon or even earlier.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Maine: Scallop farm first of its kind in local waters

November 30, 2017 — Just about one year after father-and-son fishermen Marsden and Bob Brewer returned from Japan, where they learned new scallop-farming techniques firsthand, Bob Brewer was granted a 3.23 acre experimental aquaculture lease southwest of Andrews Island. It is the first scallop farm of its kind in Penobscot Bay.

The Brewers can grow up to 200,000 Atlantic sea scallops using lantern nets, where mesh nets, each 10 floors deep, hang from a 600-foot longline.

“It’s a big circular tube with floors,” Bob Brewer said. “They’re used in Japan. That’s where we learned how to do it.”

Brewer grows the scallops from seed, caught in spat bags while he and Marsden are out lobstering.

Read the full story at Island Ad-Vantages

 

Maine’s Scallop Season Nearing End for 2016-17

March 28, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s scallop season’s winding down as dragger boat operators are entering their final week in some parts of the state.

This is the last week of fishing for draggers in the state’s central and eastern coasts. The only open days from the Penobscot Bay area to far eastern Maine are Monday and Tuesday. Limited parts of far eastern Maine are open on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Monday is also the last day of the year for people who dive for scallops in far eastern Maine.

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

MAINE: Scallop season opens with high hopes

November 29, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — After an eight-month hiatus when, like summer tourists, the only scallops in local stores are “from away,” the Maine scallop fishing season is finally opening, at least for a handful of harvesters.

All along the coastline, licensed scallop divers are allowed to start fishing for the succulent bivalves today, Thursday, Dec. 1. Dragger fishermen will have to wait to wet their gear until next Monday, Dec. 5.

The season opens on an optimistic note. Over the past five years, scallop landings have increased steadily, from just over 175,000 pounds of scallop meats (about 1.5 million pounds in the shell) during 2011 to almost 453,000 pounds in 2015.

As in the past several years, fishermen will have a 60-day season in state waters between the Maine-New Hampshire border and western Penobscot Bay (Zone 1), a 70 day season in the waters between eastern Penobscot Bay and the Lubec Narrows bridge (Zone 2) and a 50-day season in Cobscook Bay—the state’s most productive scallop fishing grounds.

Fishermen are subject to a daily possession limit of 15 gallons (about 135 pounds) of scallop meats in all state waters except Cobscook Bay where the daily limit is 10 gallons.

Because commercial fisheries landings are generally reported on an annual basis, it is can be difficult to tease out how well the fishery did during a single season which incorporates parts of two calendar years. Dealers can also be slow in reporting landings information.

That said, during the 2014-2015 fishing season Maine harvesters landed about 525,000 pounds of scallops worth some $6.5 million. Virtually all of those scallops came from state waters—inside the three-mile limit.

The number of active scallopers has increased steadily over the past seven years.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American