Saving Seafood

Still no shrimp in sight for Mainers

May 2, 2025 — For more than a decade, the sweet, pink Maine shrimp has been little more than a memory for fishermen and seafood lovers alike. Once a staple of a winter fishery, the northern shrimp has vanished from docks and dinner tables across New England, its fishery shut down due to warming waters and dwindling biomass.

This winter, there was hope-tempered but real that the tides might shift in favor of Maine shrimpers. A limited test fishery allowed seven veteran Maine fishermen to haul small catches in the name of science, raising spirits along the state’s coast. Still, the results were disappointing, and the waiting game continues.

Gary Libby, a commercial fisherman in Port Clyde, Maine, was among those hopeful for better news. Libby, who began fishing at the age of 18 and now chairs a regulatory shrimp advisory panel, told Marketplace reporter Caroline Losneck he’s long advocated for more comprehensive, year-round sampling to better understand the species’ health. But with little sign of recovery, Libby has shifted his winter focus to maintaining gear for other fisheries.

“This is what I do in the winter when I’m not fishing: try to keep my gear in good shape,” Libby told Losneck, speaking from his workshop.

The shrimp fishery, once an economic cushion during winter’s leaner fishing months, officially closed 11 years ago. Libby recalled pulling 1,000 pounds of shrimp daily during the 1980s and 1990s. By the early 2000s, he was landing 5,000 to 6,000 pounds a day, and all at a going rate of just 50 cents per pound.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Boston Globe: What’s fair in breaking up Carlos Rafael’s empire?

December 18, 2017 — Randy Cushman, a fourth generation fisherman in Maine, knows what the crimes of Carlos Rafael cost him.

Cushman fishes out of the bucolic village of Port Clyde, population 307, the sort of place many New Englanders might still associate with the region’s storied, struggling fishing industry. Last season, he had to pay $49,000 for fishing quota, most of it for American plaice, a species of groundfish commonly known as dabs. Cushman’s own allowance on the fish ran out after only four days on the water, forcing him to bargain with other fishermen for more.

Up the coast, Rafael had been catching dabs in the Gulf of Maine too. But in an elaborate criminal scheme, the New Bedford fishing tycoon, owner of about 40 vessels, was directing his captains to report dabs as other kinds of fish, often haddock, which is subject to much higher limits. Breaking the rules let Rafael evade the kind of payments that Cushman made. It also depressed prices by flooding the market with black-market fish. Worst of all, the scheme also meant fishing regulators were getting inaccurate information about how many fish Rafael’s empire was scooping out of the Atlantic, bad data that fishermen suspect distorted how scientists analyzed ocean trends, and Cushman believes skewed the way regulators set the amount each fishermen can catch before having to start paying.

“He definitely hurt my business,” Cushman said. Bottom line: “I should have ended up with more allocation on dabs,” he said.

Rafael, whose downfall came after he boasted of his scheme to undercover IRS agents posing as Russian mobsters, is now serving a 46-month sentence in federal prison. The made-for-TV story, complete with an illicit cash buyer in New York, bank accounts in Portugal, allegations of corrupt sheriff deputies, and broad hints that other players on the waterfront must have been in the know, has transfixed New England’s close-knit fishery. Rafael’s arrest has thrust arcane fisheries policies into the spotlight, touched off a political battle between Massachusetts and Maine about the future of his businesses, and raised questions about how fishing regulators can provide justice for his victims and prevent a scheme like his from infecting the fishery again. The feds have already seized some of his permits and four of his boats, but more punishments are widely expected. A spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jennifer Goebel, said the regulatory agency was considering further sanctions against Rafael but that “it’s longstanding NOAA policy not to discuss pending enforcement matters.”

Read the full editorial at the Boston Globe

Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association recognizes the other fish in the sea

Hook, Line & Dinner raised money to support Maine fishermen who catch scallops, shrimp, clams and groundfish.

August 14, 2017 — Imagine the sun setting on a cool summer night with fresh lobsters and steamers and all the fixings, local beer and Maine-grown folk tunes by The Ghost of Paul Revere – and no crowds, because, well, there’s only so much room for vehicles at Cook’s Lobster & Ale House on Bailey Island.

If that wasn’t perfect enough, this July 15 event dubbed Hook, Line & Dinner raised $11,000 to support the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA).

“MCFA is a nonprofit run by commercial fishermen,” said Executive Director Ben Martens, explaining that the organization tries to balance the concerns of the industry and those of the environment.

Two hundred MCFA supporters made the winding drive from as far away as Port Clyde to the north and Kennebunkport to the south and, in a few instances, arrived by boat.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: This lobsterman’s boat was sunk 3 times in 7 weeks. He says he knows who did it.

October 17th, 2016 — Tony Hooper, who has lobstered out of area harbors on and off for years, says he knows who sank his 35-foot lobster boat, Liberty, three times in seven weeks: a fellow fisherman operating out of Port Clyde, one of three villages that constitute this peninsular town that extends 15 miles south of Rockland.

The fisherman, Hooper alleges, turned a routine dispute over the placement of lobster traps into an ongoing drama that’s turned heads up and down the Maine coast. “The guy has a personal grudge against me, and I don’t know why, because I’ve never done anything to the guy,” Hooper says. “He’s just a young, arrogant kid who didn’t like it when I called him out for messing with my traps.”

Boat sinkings are rare in the Maine lobster fishing community, but when they occur they often result from disputes between lobstermen from different harbors over fishing turf. But sinking the same lobsterman’s boat three times in quick succession – once on the very night it was repaired and put back on its mooring – is extremely rare.

“I’ve never heard of such a case ever,” says James Acheson, a University of Maine anthropologist who for 40 years has studied the ways lobstermen defend their territories and wrote the seminal book on the subject, “The Lobster Gangs of Maine.” “I would emphasize that this is very, very unusual and very serious, and no fooling matter. There’s real hate behind this.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald 

MAINE: Marine Patrol Investigates Third Sinking of Lobster Boat in two Months

October 3, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Marine Patrol is investigating the third sinking of a lobster boat belonging to Anthony Hooper of Tenants Harbor in two months.

The most recent sinking occurred at some point between Friday evening, September 30, and Saturday morning, October 1.

Marine Patrol Officers Brandon Bezio and Matthew Wyman were notified Saturday morning by the boat’s owner. Marine Patrol is investigating the sinking in cooperation with Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

The first sinking occurred between the evening of August 16 and the morning of August 17. The second sinking occurred between the evening of September 28 and September 29 and the third just two nights after the boat was raised and repaired. Each incident occurred in Port Clyde where the boat is moored.

The 35 foot fishing vessel Liberty has again been raised by its owner and is under repair.

This investigation is on-going. Anyone with information about the sinking of the fishing vessel Liberty is encouraged to contact their local Marine Patrol Officer or the State Police at 800-452-4664. Contact information for Maine Marine Patrol can be found here.

MAINE: Port Clyde lobsterman recounts how he rescued fellow fishermen

January 29, 2016 — PORT CLYDE, Maine — A Port Clyde fisherman is being credited with saving the lives of two fellow lobstermen after their boat caught fire four miles south of Port Clyde.

Gerry Cushman was out on the water Thursday morning at around 10 a.m. when he heard a distress call from the Miss Lynn.

The mayday call said there was an engine fire.

Cushman realized he was only about three miles away from the boat and he rushed to the area.

When he found the distressed vessel it was engulfed in flames and the two men aboard were at the tip of the boat with the fire just about a foot away.

Read the full story at WCSH