Saving Seafood

Regulators changing fishing rules to protect endangered tuna

January 4, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government is changing some of the rules about how fishermen harvest tuna in an attempt to protect one of the species of the fish.

The National Marine Fisheries Service says the rule change is designed to steer fishermen who catch yellowfin tuna and swordfish via longline away from bluefin tuna.

Atlantic bluefin tuna are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Fishing boats sometimes catch them incidentally while targeting other species.

The fisheries service says the rule change will modify the way it handles distribution of quota transfers in the longline tuna fishery. The service says that flexibility will improve fishing opportunities while limiting the number of bluefin tuna that are incidentally caught.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

MAINE: Global scallop summit coming to Portland next year

December 27, 2016 — Maine’s largest city will host an international forum about scallops next year.

The event is called the International Pectinid Workshop and it is taking place in Portland from April 19 to 25. The event attracts scientists, students and seafood industry representatives from all over the world and has taken place biennially since 1976.

The organizers of the conference say its main goal is to bring stakeholders in scallops together to network and share research and practices. The event’s committee includes representatives from countries including Norway, England, Ireland, Chile and Australia.

Plan for imperiled shark doesn’t please all conservationists

December 19, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government isn’t going far enough with a plan to protect a threatened shark that lives off the East Coast and has been decimated by the fin trade, some conservationists argue.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing changes to federal fishing rules with the goal of protecting dusky sharks, a large species that is down to about 20 percent of its 1970s population off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico because of commercial fishing for the species that’s now illegal off the U.S.

Dusky sharks were long hunted for their meat and oil, as well as their fins, which are used to make soup in traditional Chinese cooking.

The fisheries service is proposing a suite of new rules for recreational and commercial fishermen designed to protect the shark, which is sometimes still killed via accidental bycatch by fishermen seeking other species. But conservation group Oceana said the rules aren’t strict enough and leave the sharks vulnerable.

Part of the problem is that the plan focuses on accidental catch of the sharks by swordfish and tuna fishermen, and they are often caught by fishermen seeking other species than those, said Lora Snyder, the Oceana campaign director.

“We see this as more of the same,” she said. “They are ignoring fisheries where dusky shark bycatch is happening.”

The government’s proposal is subject to public comment until Thursday. The proposal comes as a result of a legal settlement between the fisheries service in Oceana after the conservation group charged in federal court that the government was taking too long to protect dusky sharks.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CNBC

Fishermen Team Up With Scientists To Make A More Selective Net

December 14th, 2016 — Some New England fishermen are pinning their hopes on a new kind of trawl net being used in the Gulf of Maine, one that scoops up abundant flatfish such as flounder and sole while avoiding species such as cod, which are in severe decline.

For centuries, cod were plentiful and a prime target for the Gulf of Maine fleet. But in recent years, catch quotas have been drastically reduced as the number of cod of reproductive age have dropped perilously low.

For many boats, that turned the formerly prized groundfish into unwanted bycatch. And for fishermen, it can be tough to avoid cod while trying to catch other fish. The stakes are high.

“Say tomorrow I go out, have a 10,000 set of cod and I only have 4,000 pounds of quota, essentially your sector manager — the person that oversees this — would shut me down,” says Jim Ford, whose trawler is based in Newburyport, Mass.

Not only that, Ford would be forced to “lease” cod quota allowances from other fishermen to cover his overage. The cost of such leases, he says, can quickly outweigh the value of the cod that’s inadvertently caught.

“And I would pay a ridiculous price. And then you’re shut down, you can’t even go fishing,” he says.

But instead of joining the growing number of New England fishermen hanging up their nets, Ford has worked to modify the nets themselves. This summer he joined a net-maker and scientists at Portland’s Gulf of Maine Research Institute to design a trawl net that targets profitable species while avoiding cod.

Read the full story from NPR at WLRH

Coast Guard escorts four to safety after heavy winds, seas damage fishing boat off Portland, Maine

December 2nd, 2016 — The Coast Guard assisted four people to safety Wednesday after heavy winds and seas damaged a fishing boat about 40 miles southeast of Portland, Maine.

A fisherman aboard the Gracelyn Jane sent a distress hail to Coast Guard Sector Northern New England watchstanders Tuesday evening and reported their fishing boat was disabled with four people aboard. The man reported the crew lost their GPS, the boat was losing power, and their windows had shattered.

On scene weather at the time was 30 knot winds and 10-14 foot seas.

The 270-foot Coast Guard Cutter Northland, homported in Portsmouth, Virginia, was approximately ten miles from Gracelyn Jane’s location and quickly diverted from their patrol to help. A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod also deployed to provide assistance.

After arriving on scene, Northland’s crew found the Gracelyn Jane regained power and made way toward shore escorted by the Coast Guard.

Once closer to shore, a response boat crew from Coast Guard Station Boothbay Harbor relieved Northland’s crew from their escort and accompanied Gracelyn Jane into Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

Read the full story at the Boothbay Register 

MAINE: Scallop diving season about to start off of Maine coast

December 1, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The season is about to begin for hearty souls who dive for scallops off Maine’s coast.

The diver season begins Thursday. The season for scallop fishermen who harvest their quarry using dragger boats gets underway on Monday.

Most of the state’s scallop catch is harvested by draggers, but dozens of divers also plunge into frigid waters to find the shellfish.

Maine’s scallop harvest has been growing in value along with the climbing value of scallops nationwide. Maine’s scallops were worth $12.70 per pound at the dock last year, which is the most in the state’s history. Price to consumers has also gone up.

The volume of the state’s harvest has been relatively steady, with divers and draggers bringing ashore more than 450,000 pounds of scallop meat for three straight years.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WCSH

Scallop Fishermen will be Allowed to Catch More Next Year

November 17, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – The federal government plans to allow scallop fishermen to catch more shellfish next year as consumer demand grows.

The New England Fishery Management Council on Wednesday approved rules for the fishing year that begins spring 2017. The rules are expected to yield about 47 million pounds of scallops.

The decision represents a slight increase from this year’s rules, which are expected to allow fishermen to catch 46.9 million pounds of scallops. That was a 30 percent increase from the 36 million pounds of scallops fishermen landed in 2015.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Maine Public Radio

Maine’s shrimp fishery to remain shut down in 2017

November 10, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — New England’s shuttered shrimp fishery will not be allowed to reopen this winter.

An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided on Thursday that it will keep the fishery closed because of concerns about poor reproduction in a warming ocean.

The fishery has been shut down since 2013. It was mostly based in Maine when it was open, though some fishermen brought the shrimp ashore in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WLNE

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission likely to keep Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery closed

November 8, 2016 — Maine shrimpers are all but resigned to another year of being unable to pursue their quarry in the Gulf of Maine, with a regulatory board set to decide this week whether to allow a season this winter.

Maine shrimp are fished in the Gulf of Maine and were a popular winter seafood for years, but regulators shut the fishery down after a collapse during the 2013 fishing season, and it has remained closed since. The shrimp have struggled to rebuild populations as waters have warmed.

A board of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is set to decide Thursday whether fishing will be allowed this year. A committee of scientists has advised the board it’s not a good idea, with temperatures off New England inhospitable to the shrimp.

Spencer Fuller, a shrimp and lobster buyer with Cozy Harbor Seafood in Portland, said his company was once the largest processor of Maine shrimp in the country, and it has suffered. He said that he is prepared for another year of closure, but that it will send residual troubles through Maine’s seafood industry.

“All you have to do is look back to the history of shrimp here in the state of Maine and the contributions it has made over the last 60 years,” Fuller said. “It’s a big deal not only for us, but for the wharfs we deal with, markets we deal with.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Cold-water shrimp industry poised for shutdown to continue

November 7, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine shrimpers are all but resigned to another year of being unable to pursue their quarry in the Gulf of Maine, with a regulatory board set to decide this week whether to allow a season this winter.

Maine shrimp are fished in the Gulf of Maine and were a popular winter seafood for years, but regulators shut the fishery down after a collapse during the 2013 fishing season, and it has remained closed since. The shrimp have struggled to rebuild populations as waters have warmed.

A board of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is set to decide Thursday whether fishing will be allowed this year. A committee of scientists has advised the board it’s not a good idea, with temperatures off New England inhospitable to the shrimp.

Spencer Fuller, a shrimp and lobster buyer with Cozy Harbor Seafood in Portland, said his company was once the largest processor of Maine shrimp in the country and has suffered. He said that he is prepared for another year of closure, but that it will send residual troubles through Maine’s seafood industry.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times