Saving Seafood

Maine fishermen’s group doesn’t just want to catch fish

April 29, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — A group representing various parts of Maine’s seafood industry on Thursday will set to crafting a plan to build its future workforce, a problem it and other trades in the state see ahead.

Monique Coombs, who founded and leads the Maine Seafood Network, said the group so far has been loosely organized, but she “wanted to get to the point where we could affect the supply chain in a productive and useful way.”

Coombs said the focus on workforce development came from speaking with the group’s members about common challenges, with training posing a challenge for employers like seafood processors and fishermen alike.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Coast Guard tows Gloucester dragger 90 miles into Portland, Maine

April 29, 2016 — The U.S Coast Guard, with a good Samaritan boat serving as its closer, towed the Gloucester-ported Paulo Marc into Portland, Maine, this morning after the 63-foot boat became disabled due to engine problems, according to the Coast Guard.

The Paulo Marc, owned by a Maine-based limited liability company with David J. Osier listed as the permit holder, was trawling for groundfish about 90 miles off the coast of Maine at about 1 p.m. Wednesday when engine trouble related to a failed reduction gear left it wallowing in the water without power.

“It was pretty hectic for a little while,” Osier said this morning. “I was looking for another boat to tow it in, but that’s become hard because there’s just not that many draggers left out there fishing.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Ruling coming on monitors for beleaguered cod fishery

April 27, 2016 –PORTLAND, Maine — Federal regulators will soon release new rules for New England’s beleaguered cod fishery, including the role at-sea monitors will play.

At-sea monitoring is a controversial subject in the fishery because the government has shifted the cost of paying for monitors to fishermen. The monitors collect data that informs fishing regulations.

The new cod fishing season starts May 1, and the rules governing it are expected this week.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Fosters

Scallop fishermen poised for fight over shellfish

April 19, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Scallop fishing has increased dramatically off some parts of New England recently, and fishermen and regulators will soon meet to discuss how to avoid overexploiting the valuable shellfish.

The concern over scallop fishing centers on the northern Gulf of Maine, a management area that stretches roughly from the waters off of Boston to the Canadian border. Scallop grounds off of northern Massachusetts have been especially fertile, prompting increased fishing in that area.

The New England Fishery Management Council, a regulatory arm of the federal government, will hold a public meeting about the issue Wednesday and decide how to proceed.

Part of the concern arises from the fact that different classes of fishing boats harvest scallops in the area, and not all of them are restricted by a quota system. Alex Todd, a Maine-based fisherman who fishes off of Gloucester, Massachusetts, said he and others feel the rules are not equal.

“We’re playing by two different sets of rules,” Todd said, adding that fishermen who follow the quota system could reach quota as soon as next month.

But Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for Fisheries Survival Fund who represents many fishermen who don’t have to abide by the quota system, said he thinks the boats can coexist.

Read the full story at The Salt Lake Tribune

Sale of sea scallops to fund research on loggerhead turtles

April 12, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Organizations in five states will receive more than $15 million for marine science research projects funded by the sale of sea scallops.

One of the projects seeks to understand the impacts of sea scallop fishing on loggerhead sea turtles through the use of satellite tagging. Coonamessett Farm Foundation Inc. of Falmouth, Massachusetts, is the lead investigating organization on that effort.

Recipients of the grants are located in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia. They range from universities and educational organizations to commercial fishing businesses.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Virginian-Pilot

NOAA accepting final comments on new illegal seafood rules

April 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Federal fishing regulators who are hoping to crack down on illegal fishing imports are closing the public comment period on proposed new rules.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has supported changes that would create a new system to collect data about commercial fishing catch. The new rules would also track trips ashore and the chain of custody of fish and fish products imported into the U.S.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

Feds: Habitat, dams, hatcheries keys to saving Maine salmon

April 4, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The Gulf of Maine’s endangered salmon will need restored habitats, removal of dams, aggressive hatchery programs and other conservations actions if its population is to rebound, according to a federal government plan to save the fading and iconic fish.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a recovery plan for the Gulf of Maine salmon, listed as endangered in 2000, that is intended as a roadmap to sustainability for a fish whose populations have plummeted since the 1800s.

Recovery will take time and patience — the plan estimates 75 years and $350 million, which would have to come from some combination of federal, state and private money. The wildlife service estimates 100,000 adult salmon returned to the Penobscot River each year in the 19th century, and less than 750 of the fish returned to spawn in Maine rivers last year.

Maine’s salmon face numerous threats, and one of the biggest is the continued presence of dams that prevent them from spawning, said Dan Kircheis, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. He said there are 400 dams in the state in areas that affect salmon.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Gloucester Times

Is global warming causing marine diseases to spread?

March 29, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine –Global climate change is altering the world’s oceans in many ways. Some impacts have received wide coverage, such as shrinking Arctic sea ice, rising sea levels and ocean warming. However, as the oceans warm, marine scientists are observing other forms of damage.

My research focuses on diseases in marine ecosystems. Humans, animals and plants are all susceptible to diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. Marine diseases, however, are an emerging field.

Infectious agents have the potential to alter ocean life in many ways. Some threaten our food security by attacking important commercial species, such as salmon. Others, such as bacteria in oysters, may directly harm human health. Still others damage valuable marine ecosystems – most notably coral reefs.

To anticipate these potential problems, we need a better understanding of marine diseases and how climate change affects their emergence and spread.

Read the full article at the Portland Press Herald