Saving Seafood

North American Local Catch Network Awarded $500,000 USDA Grant to Catalyze “Boat-to-Fork” Seafood Marketing in the United States

December 18, 2020 — The following was released by the North American Local Catch Network:

The Local Catch Network, based in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, has received a half-million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) to support better integration of seafood into local and regional food systems and fund the creation of ‘Scale Your Local Catch,’ the first nationwide training and technical assistance program to catalyze sustainable direct-to-consumer seafood operations.

The Local Catch Network has raised $624,331 for the project, which included a 25 percent match contribution from the University of Maine System, in addition to a $499,463 grant awarded by the USDA. With funding secured, the Local Catch Network is now in the beginning stages of building out the Scale Your Local Catch program’s infrastructure and expects to start recruiting its first cohort in the summer of 2021. To start, the program will prioritize seafood operations that serve consumers in low income and low food access areas.

Joshua Stoll, Assistant Professor of Marine Policy at the University of Maine and co-founder of the Local Catch Network, explained the significance of the project:

“We are thrilled that the Local Catch Network is receiving this incredibly important and timely grant. As we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, and repeatedly in recent history, fishers and seafood harvesters are vulnerable to social, environmental, and economic shocks. Direct and values-based seafood businesses have been a bright spot, stepping up during the pandemic when traditional supply chains have faltered. This grant will help to ensure that these alternative business models remain sustainable long-term and seafood is recognized as an integral part of local and regional food systems.”

A broad range of skills, from marketing and social media management to pricing and permitting, are required to successfully sell seafood directly to consumers. Scale Your Local Catch will reduce the learning curve for fishing communities by leveraging the collective experience of the Local Catch Network and partnering organizations through workshops, networking and mentorship opportunities, and digital tools, such as a next-generation Seafood Finder designed to link consumers with producers in their local area. Scale Your Local Catch is being modeled after ‘Ag of the Middle,’ a well-established training program for small and mid-sized agricultural businesses facilitated by the Oregon-based non-profit, Ecotrust.

“We’ve successfully built a training program for farmers in the Northwest to expand their ability to feed the region. Scale Your Local Catch will expand the model and reach communities across the country, especially low-income communities and areas with low food access,” said Tyson Rasor of Ecotrust, one of the grant program partners.

“As a seafood business owner, I am so pleased with this opportunity to expand the Local Catch Network and support business models like ours across the US,” said Kerry Marhefka of Abundant Seafood and Executive Committee member of the Local Catch Network. “We must work collectively to demystify seafood as a protein source for consumers, remove physical, financial and educational barriers to access, and foster greater understanding of community supported fisheries as a path to creating more resilient and thriving local economies.”

Online ‘Entangled’ film screening and panel discussion presented by University of Maine

December 7, 2020 — The University of Maine Hutchinson Center will host a free online screening of award-winning documentary “Entangled” at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11. The film will be introduced by filmmaker David Abel and followed by a discussion featuring a panel of researchers and industry experts.

The film will be shown online and the discussion will take place via Zoom. There is no cost to participate. To register, visit the Hutchinson Center website.

“Entangled” is an award-winning, feature-length film (75 minutes) about how climate change has accelerated a collision between one of the world’s most endangered species, North America’s most valuable fishery, and a federal agency mandated to protect both. The film chronicles the efforts to protect North Atlantic right whales from extinction, the impacts of those efforts on the lobster industry, and how regulators have struggled to balance the vying interests. Directed by David Abel and Andy Laub — makers of “Lobster War” and “Sacred Cod,” “Entangled” won a 2020 Jackson Wild Media Award, nature films’ equivalent to the Oscars. It also won Best Conservation Film at the Mystic Film Festival.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Proposal Would Build 16-Square-Mile Wind Farm Off Maine Coast

November 23, 2020 — Gov. Janet Mills on Friday announced an ambitious, state-led effort to build as many as 12 floating wind-energy turbines off Maine’s coast.

Mills is on the hunt for a location for the array, in partnership with the University of Maine and the big-money investors behind the pioneering Aqua Ventus turbine experiment near Monhegan Island. But that’s got some fishermen worried.

The effort to win a so-called research lease from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will be led by Dan Burgess, director of the Governor’s Energy Office.

“The opportunity to work with these developers using the Maine-made, Maine-developed floating technology is just a really significant opportunity for the state and for us to continue to take a national and even global leadership position for floating offshore wind,” he says.

The Mills administration is pitching the project as small scale, needing “only” 16 square miles of ocean as compared to lease areas ten times as large for wind projects off southern New England. Still, with as many as 12 turbines running at a capacity of 10 megawatts each, Burgess says they could provide enough energy for 70,000-100,000 homes.

Read the full story at Maine Public

University of Maine Lobster Institute Hosting Series of Webinars

October 15, 2020 — Those looking to learn more about what’s going on in the lobster industry will want to check out a series of webinars being hosted by the University of Maine Lobster Institute.

Last week the Lobster Institute hosted their first online event, titled “Collaborative Chats: Successful Research Partnerships in the Lobster Industry.” The webinar, which was co-hosted by Amalia Harrington from Maine Sea Grant and Jessica Waller from the Maine Department of Marine Resources over Zoom, included an hour-long slideshow presentation followed by a Q&A.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Study: Maine’s lobster co-management system offers lessons for other fisheries

September 25, 2020 — In the 1990s, Maine’s lobster industry and state regulators developed a co-management system that established seven lobster fishing councils, comprised of local fishermen, to oversee fishing practices in seven zones along the coast.

The system was designed to integrate the knowledge of local fishermen to help manage certain aspects of the fishery, as an alternative to top-down management by government regulators.

That model has lessons for fisheries beyond Maine, according to a new study by University of Maine conservation scientists.

“The Maine lobster fishery is a great example of how individual harbors can have localized control over managing fishing areas and over deciding on fishing practices in their local area,” UMaine researcher Kara Pellowe told Mainebiz. “In the 1990s, that was formalized as Maine’s lobster zones. How Maine manages lobsters has, over time, reflected increasing alignment between formal and informal rules.”

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Potential for fisheries co-management shaped by interplay between formal, informal institutions

September 25, 2020 — The following was released by the National Science Foundation:

Integrating local norms and fishers’ knowledge into regulations helps increase trust in management institutions, and can make it easier for co-management to work.

Those were the findings of U.S. National Science Foundation-funded research by University of Maine researchers Kara Pellowe and Heather Leslie. The scientists looked at the interplay between formal and informal institutions and implications for the co-management potential of a small-scale Mexican fishery.

The journal Marine Policy published their results.

Pellowe and Leslie contend that conflicts between formal institutions, such as government agencies, and informal institutions, such as unwritten agreements among families and friends, can represent a significant barrier to effective fisheries management.

They examined the potential for co-management, where power and decision-making are shared by fisheries managers and fishers, in a fishery that is currently managed through top-down control. They concluded that integrating local norms and knowledge into formal regulations, along with broadened community participation, are necessary precursors to co-management. Doing so would result in more successful fisheries management.

Pellowe regularly traveled to Baja California Sur, Mexico, to work closely with fishers, managers and stakeholders in the Mexican chocolate clam (Megapitaria squalida) fishery in Loreto Bay National Park, on the Baja peninsula.

Like the Maine lobster, the Mexican chocolate clam is a culturally and economically important species, providing food, income and cultural value to many communities in Baja.

Read the full release here

Study aims to find indicators of resilience in American lobster fishery

September 15, 2020 — A new study by the University of Maine, Orono – funded in part by NOAA Fisheries’ Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative – is aiming to find indicators of the industry’s resilience.

The study – lead by UMaine Assistant Professor of Marine Policy Joshua Stoll – aims  to collect data to find indicators of the health of the lobster industry. Currently, several different monitoring programs keep track of the health of the lobster resource itself, but there are no equivalent monitoring programs to determine the health of the industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: $2 million awarded for lobster research

September 10, 2020 — Maine’s Congressional delegation announced last week that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative will again receive $2 million in funding to support Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank American lobster research priorities. This is the second consecutive year that the program has received federal money for the research to address critical gaps in knowledge about how American lobster is being impacted by environmental change in the Gulf of Maine.

“Maine’s fishermen and women have been careful stewards of our natural resources for generations,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said last week in a statement. “This critical federal funding will build on their efforts to support the health of Maine’s lobster fishery and help ensure its continued success.”

Four of the nine research projects being funded will be conducted by Maine researchers and institutions:

1) Fishing in hot water: Defining sentinel indicators of resilience in the American lobster fishery – University of Maine Orono.

The intent of this research is to develop “sentinel indicators” of resilience for the lobster industry that can be used to detect early signs of vulnerability among harvesters. In pursuit of this research, the authors will use peer-reviewed methods to develop and evaluate sentinel indicators and work closely with the lobster industry, managers, and the Lobster Regional Extension Program to solicit input and distribute results. Although the status of the lobster stock is closely monitored in the Gulf of Maine, no indicators currently exist to detect vulnerability among participants in the industry. Understanding vulnerability is vital to informing future management decisions and coastal community resilience.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Do River Channels Always Change When Dams Are Removed? It Depends

September 8, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Dams are constructed for many purposes, including energy generation, water supply, flood control, and recreation. Dams can also impact the environment, both when they’re built and again when they’re removed. Researchers from the University of Maine, U.S. Geological Survey, and NOAA collaborated to determine what happens to the shape of rivers when a dam is removed. They found that the changes can be minimal under specific geologic and site conditions.

For more information about this study read our web story or the online journal article.

Pollution Has Slowed Around The World. Scientists Wonder How That Will Affect Maine

April 2, 2020 — Atmospheric and oceanographic scientists are just as concerned as anyone about helping their friends and family, the nation and the world make it through the trials of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is also their job to pay attention to a kind of grand experiment that’s underway — an unprecedented hiatus in human pressure on global ecosystems and what that hiatus could mean on the ground, and on the water, for Maine.

Paul Mayewski is the director of the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute. He says that the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the pause button on pollution worldwide.

“Unfortunately, like 9/11, this is a situation in which there is a tremendous shutdown in activity, even more dramatically than 9/11 because it is happening all over the world,” he says.

For scientists such as Mayewski, it’s a chance to study phenomena that hearken back to the pre-industrial era and, some believe, could provide a snapshot of what a post-fossil future could look like.

Read the full story at Maine Public