Saving Seafood

MAINE: The ‘lobster capital of the world’ faces a crucial question

STONINGTON, Maine — When Deer Isle lobsterman Jeff Eaton peers into one of his traps, he sees a lot more than snappers and selects, hard-shells and shedders.

The part-time boat builder and avid lobster boat racer sees the heart of a $126 million regional economy that supports an even larger network of trap makers, bait dealers, marine supply shopkeepers and boat builders like himself.

That trickle-down shadow economy has transformed the island, which used to be known best for the granite quarries that built New York and Washington, D.C.’s most iconic buildings, into a thriving lobster economy, now best known as the home to a 300-boat lobster fleet and the town of Stonington, the self-proclaimed lobster capital of the world.

“Up here, the lobster business trickles down a lot further than just us fishermen,” Eaton said. “It feeds the whole economy.”

Although postcard-beautiful, with its neat, century-old houses looking out over its blink-and-you’ve-missed-it downtown, Stonington is a fishing village first and a stomping ground for summer people second. It’s the leader of a regional economy that traps more than a third of all lobsters landed in Maine, and an equal percentage of all the dollars earned from their sale. Last year the value of the state’s catch reached nearly $500 million. This stretch of coastline, and the lobstering islands of Vinalhaven, Isle au Haut and North Haven, landed more lobsters than any other managed zone, and has done so for the last four years.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Above the waves, Connecticut fishermen struggle to hang on

August 30, 2016 — STONINGTON, Conn. — Gambardella Wholesale Fish on the docks here is all but empty on an early afternoon, eerily quiet save for the rhythmic clack, clack of cardboard boxes being stapled together.

“We used to start at seven in the morning,” said Mike Gambardella, whose grandfather started the family’s original fish market more than a century ago. “And when we used to have the whiting boats coming in here, sometimes we wouldn’t get out of here ‘til two o’clock in the morning. Now if I open one day a week, I’ll be happy.”

The problem isn’t the fish. There are plenty of fish – but they’re the wrong fish.

Warming water and other shifting ocean conditions, probably caused by climate change and its cascading impact on the entire marine ecosystem, have pushed the longtime mainstays of Connecticut fishing, like winter flounder and most notably lobster, north to deeper and colder waters.

In their places are species that had been more common further south, also moving north in search of more hospitable conditions. But the way the fish management and quota systems work on the East Coast, fishermen in New England can’t catch many of those fish.

Instead, trawlers from North Carolina are traveling all the way to the ocean waters in Connecticut’s backyard and catching what used to be off their own coast – summer flounder, scup and the very valuable black sea bass – while Connecticut fishermen can only watch; throwback tons of fish – most of which will die; or risk a costly, difficult and long trip to where the fish they are allowed to catch in larger numbers are now.

The situation has resulted in an emotional dispute over how the U.S. fishing system operates, with Connecticut fishermen and politicians calling, if not downright begging, for immediate changes to fish allocations to save the state’s fishing industry from what many believe is its inevitable ruin. But others in the scientific and environmental communities are saying – maybe not so fast.

Read the full story at the Connecticut Mirror

Lobstermen in Maine’s historically open zone vote to close their waters to newcomers

August 26, 2016 — The lobstermen of Stonington and Vinalhaven, the busiest lobster ports in Maine, have voted to close their waters to additional fishermen, preferring that newcomers wait for others to leave before dropping traps there.

Almost three of every four local lobstermen who voted in a referendum this summer supported the adoption of a waiting list system. The majority included many of the small island communities that had previously opposed making newcomers wait for lobster licenses out of fear that it would discourage people from moving to their far-flung communities.

Of the nine districts within the regional lobster zone, only one, the district that includes Matinicus and Criehaven, voted against making newcomers go on a waiting list. Results show that local lobstermen of all ages, license types and business size support the closure.

The election results now go to the local lobster council for consideration Sept. 8. If the council approves the closure, its recommendation will go to the commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources, Patrick Keliher, who makes the final determination.

Approval would make permanent a temporary closure implemented in June, when the council voted to put the waiting list question to the 936 licensed lobstermen in the zone. It had been the last of Maine’s seven lobster zones to allow newcomers to fish without a wait.

Other regional councils had previously voted to close their fishing zones and make qualified applicants wait, sometimes for as long as a decade, to get their own lobster licenses.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald 

Connecticut Lawmakers, Proposed Atlantic Monument Met With Opposition From Commercial Fishermen

August 5, 2016 — The following is excerpted from a story published yesterday by the Hartford Courant:

A plan announced Thursday that would designate a unique undersea area 150 miles off the New England coast as the nation’s first Atlantic marine national monument was met with immediate opposition from commercial fishermen.

Connecticut’s congressional delegation, as well as environmental and educational groups, want President Barack Obama to preserve the “New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts” area, which lies along the continental shelf.

The proposal would dramatically restrict commercial fishing in that area and is drawing fierce opposition from commercial fisherman like Stonington’s Bobby Guzzo, who owns and operates two boats.

“That’s just the government trying to take all our water,” Guzzo said Thursday from aboard his fishing vessel. “I’m dead set against it.”

Joseph Gilbert’s Empire Fisheries operates four fishing boats out of Stonington, and he also has problems with the proposed undersea sanctuary. “Fishermen are conservationists, too,” Gilbert said, explaining that he believes the proposal “is well intentioned” but simply “goes too far” without considering the impact on commercial fishing operations and supplies of fish for consumers.

“A lot of these areas are protected already,” Gilbert said.

Commercial fishing groups such as the National Coalition for Fishing Communities argue that there already exist federal laws and regulatory commissions that are set up to protect valuable marine resources like those within the proposed marine sanctuary.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is responsible for regulating fishing in the region, is also opposed to creation of a protected marine monument off New England’s continental shelf. Commercial fishing organizations warn that the plan would hamper fishing for red crab, swordfish, tuna, as well as off-shore lobster fisheries.

Jon Mitchell, mayor of New Bedford, Mass., New England’s most important fishing port, has also objected to the proposal, as has Maine Gov. Paul LePage.

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant

In Maine’s last open lobster zone, a feud over limiting newcomers

May 25, 2016 — In most of Maine, adults who want to make their living trapping lobster must wait until a licensed lobsterman dies or forgets to file a license renewal.

There is only one place in the state, in the waters of eastern Penobscot Bay off Stonington, Vinalhaven and Isle au Haut, where a resident who completes the necessary training and safety classes can get a license to lobster without waiting for at least a decade. But the lobstermen who oversee Maine’s last open lobster territory are now fighting over whether to cap the number of lobstermen who can fish those waters, effectively closing the last open door to the state’s largest commercial fishery.

The debate is pitting islanders who worry that a cap would eliminate an incentive for adult children to return home against mainland fishermen who want to protect this lucrative industry from outside exploitation. After years of debate, the local lobster council has tried to put the issue to a vote twice before, but the meetings have fallen through, with members missing meetings or walking out moments before a closure vote could be held.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

CONNECTICUT: Fishing limits are too onerous, fishermen tell Rep. Joe Courtney

April 25, 2016 — STONINGTON, Conn. — U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, spoke with local fishermen Friday who shared their ongoing concerns about federal fishing regulations that limit the numbers of fish they can haul.

The regulations, which are intended to restore fish stocks, have forced local fishermen to throw back thousands of fish that are usually dead already, they said.

Mike Gambardella, owner of Gambardella Wholesale Seafood, who called the gathering of area fishermen, said if catch limits don’t change, he’ll be forced to close his business.

At the moment, Gambardella’s operation is only allowed to bring in 10 black sea bass per day, which he said is absurd. And since 2010, the state’s quota for summer flounder has gone down more than 100,000 pounds.

Gambardella showed Courtney photos of a local fisherman who brought in thousands of sea bass in one tow. The fisherman was then forced to pick 10 of them to keep and had to throw the rest back.

“These federal regulations are really in bad shape,” he said. “Something has got to change, or I’ll have to close my doors.”

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Fishermen Decry Catch Rules at Seaside Summit

February 16, 2016 — STONINGTON — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal met with a group of local commercial fishermen at the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society club Monday afternoon to discuss the challenges they face from seasonal regulations governing the amount and type of fish they are allowed to catch.

The regulations, which are intended to restore fish stocks, are the result of an outdated system, Blumenthal said.

“I don’t need to tell anyone here how antiquated and byzantine the system is,” he said to the group of more than 30 fishermen at the Main Street club. “The bottom line is fishermen are increasingly underrepresented and unrespected. Many of you are having to discard fish that are already dead before they hit the water again.”

Blumenthal said his reason for convening the meeting, which was sponsored by the Connecticut Seafood Council, was to listen to the fishermen, as they are the group that is most immediately affected by the rules.

“If the conversation is confined to this room, then we lose,” he said. “This is all about increasing public awareness. People’s voices need to be heard.”

Many of the fishermen who attended the meeting shared their opinions and concerns.

Chuck Fellow said the rules don’t just affect the Stonington fishing community, but also every fishing community across the nation as well as consumers.

“The people who made the decisions about the regulations are so misinformed and weren’t fishermen,” he said. “We’re hard workers and we’re doing this for our families and our communities. We need our fish back and don’t want to throw away any more fish that come across our docks.”

The issues include limits on catches, restrictions on gear, state quotas, rules intended to limit the mortality of bycatch, and seasonal closures of fishing grounds.

Fisherman Joel Hovanesian of Narragansett said if something isn’t done about the regulations, many fishermen might be forced to close up shop.

“I don’t often use this word, but what’s happening to us from the heads of these government agencies has become tyrannical,” he said. “It’s infuriating. Why are fishermen and farmers under attack from the federal government?”

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun