Saving Seafood

Scientists looking to understand future ocean acidification effects on commercial fishing

August 26, 2016 — NEWPORT, Ore. — The future is now at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

In the facility’s laboratories scientists are creating conditions to resemble ocean conditions years from now. The goal is to find out how sea life will react to higher levels of ocean acidification that climate change scientists predict will occur in the not-to-distant future.

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs a lot of this CO2, raising its level of acidity. It is feared an ocean that is more acidic will negatively affect sea life, including commercial fishing.

So for those whose livelihoods depend on commercial fishing the scientists’ work is important in understanding what ocean acidification will mean to the fish stocks of the future.

“There is a lot of general concern about the fact that we don’t know a lot about this,” said Lori Steele, the executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, which is based in Portland. “It’s potentially having an impact, and it’s going to have a much more significant impact, and unless we can really get a handle on it, there’s a potential that fisheries managers aren’t going to be able to do a lot besides controlling fishing.”

Read the full story at KATU

More closures ahead for beleaguered lobster bait fishery

August 24, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The lobster industry’s difficulty getting enough bait could be about to get worse because of upcoming closures in the herring fishery.

Herring is the preferred bait for lobster fishermen, who use the fish to lure the valuable crustaceans into traps. But herring have been in short supply this year because fishermen aren’t catching many of them in offshore New England waters.

Fishing managers have instituted limits on inshore herring fishing to try to ensure a steady supply of herring throughout summer.

The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is also closing an area off eastern Maine to herring fishing from Aug. 28 to Sept. 24.

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

North Atlantic, Inc. presents fisheries management model at sustainable fisheries conference in Jakarta

August 18, 2016 — JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Economist magazine convened a group of investors, government representatives, non-profit organizations and multi-lateral agencies to discuss how to drive investment aimed at addressing the decline of wild fish stocks.

Presenting as a panelist at the South-East Asia and Pacific Regional Fisheries Summit, Jerry Knecht, founder and President of Portland, Maine based North Atlantic, Inc (NAI), reviewed the progress of his team’s community based fishery management model. On the heels of successful fundraising in 2015, NAI broke ground on their first fisheries management center in March. This is one of four planned in Indonesia.

The NAI story quickly became a focal point in discussing how to increase investment in sustainable fisheries. When asked about keys to attracting capital, Knecht explained a fisheries company must first mitigate risk. “[We] work with the value chain. By understanding the whole value chain and working with the fishery itself, we start to distribute some of the rents from the value chain to fisheries, incenting them to follow sustainable practices.” Knecht believes long term sustainability begins with the coastal communities harvesting the fisheries.

See the full press release here

Regulators to Vote on New Lobster Fishing Restrictions

August 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – New restrictions might be proposed for southern New England’s lobster fishery as it deals with a steep decline in population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to save the lobsters and might cast a vote on Thursday.

A report from the commission says that one way to slow the loss of lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size for the crustaceans.

Scientists say the population off of southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut has declined during a time of warming oceans. Lobsters have remained plentiful to consumers because of heavy supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story at the Maine Public Broadcasting Network

Plan to help lobsters survive climate change due in fall

August 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — A plan to try to save southern New England’s fading lobster population will come up for review as soon as fall.

The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is working on changes to the way fishermen harvest lobsters south of Cape Cod.

Scientists say the population of southern New England lobsters has declined as ocean waters have warmed.

The fisheries commission is going to consider new management measures that could include seasonal closures and changes to the minimum and maximum harvesting sizes of lobsters. A plan will come before the commission as soon as October and will likely go out for public comment next year.

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

Regulators to vote on new lobster fishing restrictions

August 4, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — New restrictions might be proposed for southern New England’s lobster fishery as it deals with a steep decline in population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to save the lobsters and might cast a vote on Thursday.

A report from the commission says that one way to slow the loss of lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size for the crustaceans.

Scientists say the population off of southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut has declined during a time of warming oceans. Lobsters have remained plentiful to consumers because of heavy supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

Regulators look for solutions to lobster bait shortage

July 20, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Interstate fishery managers will meet to discuss how to regulate the catch of a key lobster bait fish they say is at risk of heavy fishing.

Herring is the most popular bait fish for lobsters, and fishermen aren’t catching many far off New England. Regulators fear heavy herring fishing closer to shore will result in the fishery hitting its quota before the end of September.

Members of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s herring board will meet Wednesday to discuss how to manage the rate of catch off states like Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Baltimore Sun

MASSACHUSETTS: State fisheries survey underway in Gulf of Maine

July 18, 2016 — SCITUATE, Mass. — Over the past seven years, Kevin Norton watched the number of commercial groundfish vessels working out of his home port drop precipitously from 17 in 2009, to just four today.

“If not for the (federal fisheries) disaster money, there’d be no one left,” Norton said about fishermen who catch New England’s most familiar species like cod, haddock and flounder.

On July 11, Norton stood at the wooden wheel of Miss Emily, his 55-foot dragger. He was the only groundfisherman leaving from Scituate Harbor that day. He said he’d be tied up at the dock like the other three if he hadn’t been selected by the state to help Division of Marine Fisheries scientists conduct eight months of scientific research.

“All of our lives depend on this (the scientific data used to set fishing quotas),” he said. “That’s why this survey is so important.”

Massachusetts received more than $21 million in federal fisheries disaster aid, most of which was distributed to fishermen. But the state kept some for research projects, including $400,000 for an eight month Industry-Based Survey of random tows throughout the Gulf of Maine, from Cape Cod Bay up to Portland, Maine, focusing on cod, but counting and cataloging the fish and other species they catch.

“Science is the key to getting it right,” said Matthew Beaton, the state secretary of Energy and the Environment. Beaton and state Department of Fish and Game Commissioner George Peterson were on board the Miss Emily July 11 and helped sort the catch.

The state survey is part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s promise to help fishermen answer some of the key questions plaguing fishery management, Beaton said. Fishermen contend they are seeing a lot of cod in the Gulf of Maine, but their observations don’t match NOAA stock assessments that show historically low populations. The disconnect, fishermen say, results from the federal government using a vessel and net that have had trouble catching cod and performing surveys in the wrong places at the wrong time of year.

While it catches and documents all species it encounters, the state survey was designed to evaluate the status of Gulf of Maine cod, said principal investigator and DMF fisheries biologist William Hoffman. Its timing — April to July and October to January — mirrors peak spawning times for this cod stock. Similar surveys were done from 2003 to 2007 and, with the summer work now complete, Hoffman said they have found fewer cod in the places they previously sampled and didn’t find any major aggregations in deep water areas.

“We really need to do this for at least three years before we can draw any solid conclusions,” Hoffman cautioned. “But right now, surveying at the same time, in the same area, (as the previous survey) we’re seeing less fish.”

The trip on July 11 netted just one cod.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Industry hopes emergency plan can help lobster bait crisis

July 11, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Members of the commercial fishing business are wary but hopeful that an emergency rule will succeed in helping curb a crisis of bait availability that threatens to impact the New England lobster industry.

The lobster fishing industry is facing the bait shortage because of a lack of herring being caught far off of New England. Regulators in Maine say they have found a way to hopefully provide a steady stream of herring over the summer.

Fishermen are still catching herring in Maine’s inshore waters. Maine’s emergency rule limits herring fishermen’s weekly catch. The state says it wants to prevent fishermen from reaching their inshore quota too fast.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at NBC Providence

MAINE: Bait shortage could impact lobster industry

July 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Maine regulators are considering intervening to help fix a bait shortage that threatens to affect its signature lobster fishing industry.

Lobstermen typically use herring for bait, and regulators and members of the fishing industry say there’s a shortage of them. The shortage is happening at the time of year when lobster catches usually start to pick up — and just as New England’s high tourist season is arriving.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources met Tuesday afternoon to discuss what role it can play. Meredith Mendelson, the deputy commissioner of the department, tells The Associated Press that it anticipates passing rules at a later date based on Tuesday’s discussion.

The problem is that not enough herring are being caught on Georges Bank, a key fishing area off Massachusetts, members of the fishing industry said. That means there could be heavy pressure on the inshore herring fishery, and they say fishermen could reach their quota for that area before the summer is out.

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