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.
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.”
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
November 7, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Interstate fishing regulators say prospects are good for menhaden, a fish that is critical to the health of the ocean.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says menhaden are not experiencing overfishing and their reproduction is good. The commission says the amount of menhaden that die from fishing operations is well below targeted levels.
Atlantic Menhaden Board Chair Robert Ballou says the stock’s good condition gives regulators an opportunity to reevaluate how to manage the fish.
Menhaden are an important source of bait for commercial fishermen and they are also a critical piece of the ocean’s food web. They’re also used to make dietary supplements.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
November 2, 2016 — The following was released by the International Pectinid Workshop:
Registration for the 2017 International Pectinid Workshop is now open.
Please visit the webpage for more information: www.ipw2017.com
The 2017 International Pectinid Workshop will be convened in Portland Maine, April 19 – 25, 2017. Dr. Stokesbury is serving as co-chair with Drs. Sandra Shumway and Jay Parsons. The International Pectinid Workshop (IPW) is the premier scientific meeting for academic, government, and industry scientists carrying out research on scallops, and over its 40 year existence has increasingly attracted delegates and sponsorship from the commercial fishing and aquaculture industries.
Scallop fisheries, around the world, face similar challenges; meetings such as the IPW facilitate the communication of research on an international scale. For example, stock-recruitment relationships are often poorly defined, but work in the English Channel, the Irish Sea, Georges Bank, the Gulf of Maine, and Iceland, are all leading to new understandings of stock connectivity. Marine Protected Areas are increasingly being employed as a management strategy to preserve stock spawning biomass and benthic community habitat, but the areas, and length of closures vary greatly depending on life history of the animal, purpose (increased production, sustainability, habitat conservation) and understanding of connectivity between aggregations. Disease, predation, bycatch, natural mortality, fisheries dependent and independent data sets, and stock assessment models are all measured and employed but vary a great deal between world fisheries, yet all these measures could be improved upon. Finally how to fund these research objectives is a key question.
We hope that many of you can join us in Portland for this important meeting.
For more information please visit the International Pectinid Workshop
November 1, 2106 – The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:
Two men have been charged with theft after a month-long investigation by the Maine Marine Patrol revealed they stole lobsters from two dealers.
Troy J. Woodman, 34 of Warren and Shane Hall, 29 of Portland have both been charged. Woodman was arrested by Marine Patrol Sergeant Robert Beal Monday, October 17 and taken to Cumberland County Jail.
Hall is currently in Knox County Jail facing a total of six other charges including aggravated assault and kidnapping for allegedly forcing a woman into his car as she walked home in Rockland in late September.
The Marine Patrol investigation revealed that the two men stole lobsters from Quahog Lobster in Harpswell. According to Marine Patrol reports, the thefts took place between late-September and mid-October.
The thefts were uncovered through surveillance conducted by Marine Patrol Officers Rebecca Kavanaugh and Christopher Hilton as well as Sergeant Beal.
“We take cases like this very seriously,” said Marine Patrol Colonel Jon Cornish. “Theft of this magnitude deprives hard working, law abiding Mainers of their livelihood and undermines our coastal economy. I’m very proud of the Officers and Sergeant for their thorough investigation.”
Woodman has been charged with one count of Class C Theft for allegedly stealing lobsters from Quahog Lobster on September 17. Additional theft charges against Woodman are expected for thefts that occurred at Quahog Lobster on September 24, 25, 27, and October 6, and at Maggie’s Seafood in South Bristol on October 9 and October 16.
Hall has been charged with one count of Class D Theft and one count of Class C theft for allegedly stealing lobsters from Quahog Lobster on September 25 and 27.
A total of 19 crates filled with lobster were allegedly stolen by the two over the course of the seven days. The estimated value of the stolen lobster and crates exceeds $9,000.
In Maine Class C crimes carry a penalty of up to 5 years in jail and a fine of $5,000 while Class D crimes are punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a fine of $2,000.
An investigation into the sale and purchase of the stolen lobsters is on-going.
October 21, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – Herring fishermen have begun catching herring in the waters far off New England, ending a shortage of the fish that has vexed the region’s lobster industry for months.
The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/2esLoXg ) reports the price of the bait fish has remained high through the end of the peak lobster season, anyway. Lobstermen say the shortage has hurt their bottom line this year.
The shortage has not trickled down to affect consumer prices, although lobster prices have been higher than average at times this year.
October 19, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Herring fishermen are nearing their quota along New England’s coast and the fishery will be shut down until further notice.
The National Marine Fisheries Service says fishermen in the inshore Gulf of Maine have caught about 90 percent of their quota and the fishery was shut down early Tuesday morning. The inshore fishing zone ranges from Cape Cod to the eastern edge of the Maine coast.
Herring are an important bait fish, especially in the lobster fishery. A shortage of the fish in offshore waters caused a bait shortage in New England during the summer.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Daily Progress
October 18, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – Herring fishermen are nearing their quota along New England’s coast and the fishery will be shut down until further notice.
The National Marine Fisheries Service says fishermen in the inshore Gulf of Maine have caught about 90 percent of their quota and the fishery was shut down early Tuesday morning. The inshore fishing zone ranges from Cape Cod to the eastern edge of the Maine coast.
Herring are an important bait fish, especially in the lobster fishery. A shortage of the fish in offshore waters caused a bait shortage in New England during the summer.
October 18th, 2016 — A group of Maine fishermen from Cape Elizabeth to Stonington traveled to northern Japan this month to study mechanized techniques for growing scallops.
Funded in part by a grant from the United States-Japan Foundation, the 10-person group traveled to the coastal region of the Aomori prefecture to learn about the machines that the fishing and aquaculture cooperatives there use to grow scallops on vertical lines suspended in the sea, a farming method proven to speed up their growth. The group also learned about shellfish processing and value-added shellfish products.
“We want to get key people there to see what’s possible in scallop farming and to believe it can be replicated in Maine, although at a much smaller scale,” said trip leader Hugh Cowperthwaite, fisheries director for Coastal Enterprises Inc., which promotes rural economic development. “This exchange allows us to make new and deeper connections. Can this industry find its footing and create jobs in Maine?”
This isn’t the first time that Mainers have traveled to Aomori, which is more than 6,200 miles from Portland. The Japanese shellfish community started the information exchange in 1999, with a focus on how to collect wild seed and grow scallops from juveniles to adults. During Cowperthwaite’s first trip in 2010, he learned how Japan has mechanized several of the most labor-intensive steps of scallop farming.