Saving Seafood

ME, NH & MA Schedule Hearings on Atlantic Herring Draft Addendum II

February 20, 2019 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The States of Maine and New Hampshire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have scheduled their hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum II to Amendment 3 of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Herring. An additional hearing will also be conducted via webinar. The details of the hearings follow.

Maine Department of Marine Resources
March 6, 2019 at 5 PM
ME DMR Augusta Office
Room 118
32 Blossom Lane
Augusta, Maine
Contact: Pat Keliher at 207.624.6553
 
New Hampshire Fish and Game
April 2, 2019 at 7 PM
Urban Forestry Center
45 Elwyn Road
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Contact: Doug Grout at 603.868.1095
 
Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
April 1, 2019 at 6 PM
MA DMF Gloucester Office
Annisquam River Station
30 Emerson Avenue
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Contact: Cate O’Keefe at 617.626.1512
 
Webinar Hearing
March 26, 2019 at 6 PM

Webinar link – https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/121211557

For Audio, dial 1.888.585.9008 and 
enter the passcode: 853-657-937

Contact: Kirby Rootes-Murdy at 703.842.0740 

 

The Draft Addendum proposes options to strengthen spawning protections in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine). The Draft Addendum responds to the results of the 2018 benchmark stock assessment, which show reduced levels of recruitment and spawning stock biomass over the past five years, with 2016 recruitment levels the lowest on record.

 Currently, the Board uses a series of closures to protect spawning aggregations in the Gulf of Maine. These closures, which were implemented through Amendment 3, use biological samples to annually project the start of spawning. The closures are initially implemented for four weeks but can be extended by two additional weeks if samples indicate the continued presence of spawning herring. Recent analysis by the Atlantic Herring Technical Committee found that while the current spawning closure system was significantly improved under Amendment 3, the protocol could continue to be strengthened by considering when, and for how long, a closure is initiated. Specifically, the analysis showed, under the current protocol, spawning closures are initiated when there are approximately 25% spawners in the fishery; greater protection could be provided by initiating a closure when a lower percentage of the population is spawning and extending the closure for a longer time. As a result, Draft Addendum II considers extending the length of the spawning closures as well as altering the point at which closures are triggered in order to provide greater protection to the stock.
 
Fishermen and others interested in Atlantic herring management are encouraged to provide input on the Draft Addendum by attending state public hearings, participating in the webinar hearing, or providing written comment. The Draft Addendum is available here. It can also be obtained via the Commission website (www.asmfc.org) under Public Input. Public comment will be accepted until 5:00 PM (EST) on April 4, 2019 and should be forwarded to Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior FMP Coordinator, 1050 N. Highland St., Suite 200 A-N, Arlington, Virginia 22201; 703.842.0741 (fax) or at comments@asmfc.org (Subject line: Herring Draft Addendum II). For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.                             
PR19-08
A PDF of the press release can be found here
The Draft Addendum can be found here 

Rule change for shuttered shrimp fishery could be coming

November 5, 2018 —  Fishery managers are seeking feedback on potential changes to New England’s long-shuttered shrimp fishery if it ever reopens.

Shrimp fishing has been shut down off Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire since 2013. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering changes to the way it allocates quota in the fishery.

The commission’s holding public hearings in Augusta, Maine, on Monday and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund grant improves Marine Patrol surveillance abilities

November 2, 2018 — AUGUSTA — With a $3,200 grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund and matching funds of $2,339.50 from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the Maine Marine Patrol has purchased binoculars that will improve officers’ ability to conduct surveillance for enforcement and search and rescue.

The new 14×40 Fujinon Image Stabilization binoculars have been distributed to the Marine Patrol’s fleet of large patrol vessels throughout the state, replacing previous models that had only 7x magnification.

“The enhanced magnification allows Marine Patrol officers to survey more area in greater detail,” said Marine Patrol Colonel Jon Cornish. “This is especially important as more fishing activity is moving farther offshore.

Read the full article on Bangor Daily News

Maine critics throw cold water on Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan

The proposal to open 90 percent of the nation’s coastline – including the North Atlantic – to oil and gas exploration draws widespread opposition at an event held by federal officials in Augusta.

March 8, 2018 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Fishermen, environmentalists and lawmakers from Maine’s coast called on the Trump administration Wednesday to exclude the North Atlantic from a plan to potentially reopen much of the nation’s coastline to oil and gas exploration.

Representatives with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management were in Augusta for an open house-style event to field questions about President Trump’s controversial offshore energy proposal. The draft plan released in January calls for reopening 90 percent of the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards to oil and gas drilling, a seismic shift from the 6 percent now available to energy companies. The public comment period on the draft plan closes Friday.

Just two of the 47 proposed lease sales would be in the North Atlantic region stretching from Maine to New Jersey. But the mere prospect of oil drilling in the Gulf of Maine or Georges Bank – and the accompanying environmental risks – was enough to draw more than 60 people to a pre-emptive event held before the bureau’s open house.

Kristan Porter, a fisherman from Cutler who is president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, recalled how one of his predecessors told Congress in 1970 that Maine fishermen were “100 percent against” allowing oil drilling in the Gulf of Maine. Nearly 50 years later, Porter said, nothing has changed.

“Allowing the exploration of oil and gas … could devastate our fisheries, our fishermen and our communities,” Porter said at a news conference. “Maine’s fishing industries are dependent on Maine’s clean water. Even minor spills could irreparably damage the Gulf of Maine.”

Porter was joined at the event by representatives of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and other environmental groups, the aquaculture industry, tourism advocates, and Democratic, Republican and independent politicians. All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation also oppose the plan.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine’s future depends on immediate action on climate change

May 3, 2017 — On Saturday, more than 2,000 Mainers marched to the State House in Augusta to demand action on climate change at both the state and federal levels. They made a compelling case that the future of the state is riding on the actions governments at all levels take right now to address the global threat.

“I have been a lobster fisherman out of Friendship Harbor for over 30 years. During that time I’ve seen firsthand the impacts of climate change to not only the Gulf of Maine, but also to our evolving fisheries, and to the coastal communities that depend upon them,” said Richard Nelson, speaking at the rally. “The Gulf of Maine, long battling ocean warming, now also faces off with climate change’s ugly stepsister: ocean acidification. Acidic waters make it more difficult for shellfish to produce their shells, and makes lobsters more vulnerable to prey and have less energies for reproduction. These changes will affect the oceans and the fishing communities that rely on them.”

The event was one of many People’s Climate Marches held across the country over the weekend in protest of the environmental policies of the Trump administration and to demand action to address carbon pollution and climate change.

Read the full story at the Maine Beacon

Maine fishermen hooked on Obamacare, but now benefits are threatened

January 19, 2017 — Chris Welch, a Kennebunk lobsterman, had never purchased health insurance before the Affordable Care Act started offering individual marketplace insurance in 2013. He’s maintained the benefits ever since, even though as a healthy 28-year-old he doesn’t need to use his insurance that often.

Welch is among the thousands of people who work in Maine’s iconic lobster and fishing industries who could have their ACA insurance taken away if the law is repealed without a comprehensive replacement. Congress has set the wheels in motion to repeal the ACA, and lawmakers are debating whether to immediately replace it, and if so, with what plan. Lawmakers have yet to coalesce around a replacement plan, and the incoming Trump administration has not yet revealed a proposal.

There’s no exact count of how many fishermen or lobstermen have purchased ACA insurance, but U.S. Census data indicate robust enrollment in the industry.

Coastal communities with large numbers of self-employed workers have some of the highest percentages of residents signed up for ACA insurance, according to a ZIP code analysis of 2016 enrollment data from the federal government and workforce data from the U.S. Census.

For instance, on North Haven and Vinalhaven islands, both on the midcoast and known for the lobster industry, 22 percent and 21 percent of the people on each island, respectively, have ACA insurance, among the highest rates in the state. Forty-seven percent of Vinalhaven households include a person who is self-employed, while on North Haven it’s 38 percent, among the highest levels of self-employment in Maine.

Other coastal fishing communities with high ACA enrollment levels include Pemaquid, Round Pond, Beals and Brooklin.

The ACA’s individual marketplace was designed to be a place where those who can’t obtain insurance through an employer – such as a self-employed fisherman or a part-time worker – can purchase subsidized insurance. About 80,000 Mainers have health benefits through the ACA.

“If a repeal happens, it’s going to be a big hurt for these communities,” said Emily Brostek, executive director of Consumers for Affordable Health Care, an Augusta-based health advocacy nonprofit. “These are industries that we care about in Maine, but that don’t traditionally offer medical benefits.”

Congressional Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump have vowed to repeal President Obama’s signature health care legislation, which could leave more than 20 million Americans without insurance, depending on what a replacement bill looks like.

Welch, who has operated his own lobster boat since he was 16, has had health insurance since 2014, seeing it as a way to protect his health and finances.

“I didn’t have insurance prior to the ACA, and I wouldn’t have got it if it weren’t for the ACA,” said Welch, who estimates he pays about $220 a month for the benefits.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald 

MAINE: Scallop season off to a good start

January 12, 2017 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Five weeks into the scallop season the winter weather has begun to take a toll on fishing days, but not on landings. According to the Department of Marine Resources, when fishermen have been able to get off the mooring they have been seeing good landing.

With snow, bitter temperatures and howling winds increasingly the norm since the last week of December, scallopers working outside the well-protected waters of Cobscook Bay got a break — or at least a chance for some relief — when several limited access areas opened to fishing on Monday, Jan. 2.

While four segments of the coast were closed to fishing on New Year’s Day after their harvest targets were reached, the opening of the limited access areas gave an additional opportunity to the drag fleet in more protected waters once a week.

“It was how the season was set up during rulemaking, with five-day weeks in Zone 2 in January and February,” DMR Resource Coordinator Trisha Cheney said Friday. Zone 2 stretches from Penobscot Bay eastward to the Lubec Narrows Bridge.

A number of areas that were subject to close monitoring were closed Jan. 1 after the fishery achieved harvest targets of between 30 percent and 40 percent of the “harvestable biomass” determined DMR using data collected during pre-season surveys. The department used emergency rulemaking in combination with in season monitoring efforts to ensure that the resource continues to rebuild by managing adaptively during the season and ensuring that areas are not overfished.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

MAINE: Rep. Lydia Blume submits bill to help scallop, urchin fisheries

August 24, 2016 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Rep. Lydia Blume, D-York, is proposing legislation to require license holders in the scallop and urchin fisheries to own and operate their own vessels. Owner-operator provisions help to increase stewardship in a fishery and help to ensure that the fishery’s revenues stay in local communities.

“Maine’s lobster fishery has an owner-operator requirement, and this is one of the reasons why it is looked upon as a textbook example of a sustainable fishery,” said Blume. “We should try to replicate what works with lobster in harvesting other species.”

Entrance to both the scallop and urchin fisheries is now closed, but there are several factors, like the rebuilding of stocks and increased dockside prices, that are increasing pressure to open them to new license holders.

“Implementing measures like owner-operator requirements should be done before opening the fisheries,” Blume said. “We need to act to sustain the Maine marine economy through encouraging good stewardship of these valuable and precious resources.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

MAINE: DMR closes pogie fishery

August 10, 2016 — AUGUSTA, Maine — The Department of Marine Resources has closed the menahaden fishery because fishermen have already landed more than the state’s annual quota for the fish commonly called pogies.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Atlantic Menhaden Management Board had approved a total allowable catch (TAC) of menhaden for both the 2015 and 2016 fishing seasons of 187,880 metric tons per year. The TAC is further allocated among the ASMFC member states.

The percentage of the TAC allocated to Maine for 2016 is 0.04 percent, or 161,466 pounds. Each state is required to close its directed commercial fishery after its quota has been reached.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Emergency rule amid bait shortage coming soon in Maine

July 7, 2016 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine regulators say they will issue an emergency rule in the coming days that will address a bait shortage that is affecting the fishing industry.

There is a shortage of herring, which is the most popular kind of bait used in the lobster fishery. Regulators and members of the fishing industry say the problem is that not enough herring are being caught on Georges Bank off Massachusetts.

State Department of Marine Resources deputy commissioner Meredith Mendelson says the agency will issue emergency rules on Saturday in response to the shortage.

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