Saving Seafood

Gulf of Maine Research Institute Webinar to focus on Farmed Shellfish Market Analysis and Historic Growth

May 14, 2024 — The following was released by Gulf of Maine Research Institute:

An upcoming webinar will take a deep dive into the analysis of the farmed shellfish market released earlier this year by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute that showed Maine’s farmed shellfish industry is projected to bring in well over $20 million in yearly revenues by 2028.

In this free webinar, experts from GMRI and Pentallect will share valuable information on the current market scenario, growth opportunities, and key challenges in the industry.

This webinar is for aquaculture farmers who want to better understand current shellfish markets, as well as financial intuitions who may be involved or are interested in the market outlook of aquaculture businesses (to give loans or invest in) and seafood distributors. Presenters will discuss current market trends, highlight growth opportunities and key findings from the Shellfish Market Analysis published in February.

The report finds that Maine has a “significant opportunity to expand its farmed shellfish industry” and that based on projections, the Maine shellfish industry could achieve revenues of over $28 million by 2028, or a 40 percent growth from 2022.

In total, shellfish represents a $700+ million in the U.S. marketplace for domestic harvesters, and $1.1 billion including imports. Maine accounts for approximately 3.5 percent of the total shellfish domestic-sourced landings, delivering approximately $26 million in landed value.

Oysters in particular are seeing dramatic growth since the last report in 2016. The Northeast region of the United States has been the only region to expand oyster capacity over the past six years, and is well positioned to capitalize on that growth and demand not met by other markets.

Maine specifically has been the Northeast share growth leader since 2015, gaining a staggering 8 share points from Massachusetts, the current greatest share holder.The best, or mid-point, projection estimates that demand for Maine oysters will grow by almost 50 percent over the 5-year planning horizon, generating approximately 5.5 million oysters. Demand for Maine aquaculture-sourced mussels is projected to grow approximately 40 percent over current supply by 2028, which exceeds the largest harvest achieved in 2019 by close to 20 percent, the report found.

While Maine’s scallop industry is only 2 percent of scallop volume nationally, Maine scallops fetch the highest average price per pound. The report finds that scallops are a newer aquaculture market and are less impacted by federal quotas than other regions, given the majority of scallops coming from day-boats in state waters.

For more information, read more about the shellfish market and opportunities for growth here: GMRI_Farmed_Shellfish_Market_Report_2.0.pdf (d3esu6nj4wau0q.cloudfront.net)

To register for the webinar, please visit: Shellfish Market Analysis Webinar – Gulf of Maine Research Institute (gmri.org)

WHO: GMRI Scientists, Pentallect experts, aquaculture famrers, financial institutions
WHAT: A deep dive and discussion on the Market Shellfish Analysis
WHEN: Thursday, May 23, 4 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
WHERE: Zoom

About the Gulf of Maine Research Institute:
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute develops and delivers collaborative solutions to global ocean challenges. Located in Portland, ME, the institute is dedicated to the resilience of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem and the communities that depend on it. For more information, visit www.gmri.org.

Seafood increased in New England school lunches

April 3, 2024 — About 45,000 New England students have been offered locally sourced seafood as part of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s (GMRI) initiative to increase fish consumption in school lunches. The initiative is called “Sea to School,” and the sustainable seafood team aims to increase the access and amount of seafood in public schools.

As of 2024, GMRI has partnered with nine school districts throughout the area to help introduce seafood to students through education. Money was used from federal and local grants to implement the distribution in K -12 schools. Their goal is to improve access to local seafood and have fish offered more than once a month.

The Sea to School goals are to:

  • Increase the amount of local seafood served in schools in New England by partnering with school food service staff and student ambassadors.
  • Develop culturally diverse local fish recipes to provide immigrant students and students from diverse backgrounds with familiar flavors and preparations.
  • Develop and strengthen education around local seafood in schools throughout New England.

In a WMTW interview, Sophie Scott, the sustainable seafood program manager at GMRI, explained, “Whenever we talk to people about getting more fish in front of kids, the initial reaction is, ‘Oh, kids don’t like seafood. They’re not going to eat it.” However, that has not been what the institute has observed in the four years that this initiative has been in the works.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman 

Glenn Prickett, incoming Gulf of Maine Research Institute CEO, welcomes industry collaboration

August 9, 2023 — The Portland, Maine, U.S.A.-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), an independent marine nonprofit dedicated to studying the Gulf of Maine ecosystem and the people who depend on it, recently announced the hiring of Glenn Prickett as its next CEO. Prickett, who was previously president and CEO of the World Environment Center in Washington, D.C., has 35 years of environmental, climate, and business development experience working with NGOs, volunteer organizations, and the private sector. He will start his tenure at GMRI in September. In an interview with SeafoodSource, Prickett discussed his new role and what he hopes to accomplish during his time at the helm of GMRI.

The following was released by SeafoodSource

2021 was the hottest year on record in the Gulf of Maine, new data show

March 29, 2022 — Scientists say the highest water temperatures ever in the Gulf of Maine were recorded last year.

The Gulf is one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet, and fishermen are noticing signs of the change.

Data released by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute show that last year surface water temperatures in the Gulf were on average a half-degree higher than the previous record, with record highs recorded on 169 days — almost half the year.

The Gulf experienced what scientists now call a “marine heatwave” for the entire year.
“As unusually warm as 2021 was in a historical context, it’s likely to be one of the coolest years we’ll experience going forward, especially if we’re not able to reduce greenhouse gas emission globally,” says the institute’s David Reidmiller.

Reidmiller says the latest data punctuate a decades-long trend that shows no sign of abating.

“The warming trend is unequivocal in the Gulf of Maine. It’s been going on now for decades, and from a climatological sense we are assuredly in a new regime,” Reidmiller says.

Read the full story at Maine Public Radio

Gulf of Maine waters spiked to record warm temperatures in fall 2021

February 3, 2022 — Anyone who enjoyed the ocean last fall may have noticed the water felt unseasonably warm. That’s because it was.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute reported last month that between September and November 2021, the sea surface temperatures of water off the coast of Maine were the warmest ever recorded.

How much warmer are we talking about? Close to six degrees Fahrenheit warmer on any given day than the average, according to David Reidmiller, Climate Change Director at GMRI. The sea surface temperatures hovered around 60 degrees almost through the month of October.

Warming ocean waters are a global trend, but in 2010 scientists really started to notice an increase in the warming trend in the Gulf of Maine, which lies from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia and extends several miles into the open ocean.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

 

Waters off New England hit record fall temperature in ’21

January 19, 2022 — A body of water off New England and Canada had its warmest fall surface temperatures on record last year, a Maine science center reported.

The Gulf of Maine has long been a focus of climate scientists because it is warming faster than most of the world’s oceans. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute said last week that average sea surface temperatures in the gulf reached 59.9 degrees Fahrenheit (15.5 degrees Celsius).

Read the full story from the Associated Press

Gulf of Maine waters warmed to highest fall temperatures on record

January 13, 2022 — The Gulf of Maine – which has been warming faster than 96 percent of the world’s ocean areas – experienced its warmest fall surface water temperatures on record last year in what scientists tracking it call a “distinct regime shift” for the ecosystem.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland announced its findings Wednesday in its seasonal warming report, which showed average sea surface temperatures in the gulf hit 59.9 degrees, or more than 4 degrees above the long-term average.

Last fall’s figures exceeded even those in the infamous “Northwest Atlantic Ocean heat wave” of 2012, which triggered a two-year explosion in green crabs that devoured clams and eelgrass meadows and led to the starvation of puffin chicks. That warming cycle also triggered the early shedding of Maine lobsters, which fueled armed confrontations between Canadian lobstermen and truckers trying to carry the soft-shell boon to New Brunswick processing plants at the height of Canada’s own lobstering season.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Portland Press Herald

 

Pingree Announces $500K in USDA Funding to Support Growing Aquaculture Industry in Maine

December 10, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree:

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded a $500,000 grant to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) to establish a comprehensive aquaculture workforce training system to support Maine’s rapidly growing aquaculture industry.

“Maine’s aquaculture industry is vital to our state’s economy but needs a skilled workforce to continue to grow and innovate. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute has developed a forward-thinking solution. This comprehensive, collaborative training program will train aquaculturists with in-demand knowledge and skills, helping students to secure good jobs and supporting the workforce needs of this important sector,” said Congresswoman Pingree. “As a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, I have long worked to secure funding for these NIFA grants, which have helped to launch many careers in the nation’s food and agriculture sector. This substantial NIFA award will help ensure Maine’s aquaculture industry reaches its full potential now and in the future.”

The funding will:

  • Help GMRI develop and pilot a Maine Department of Labor Aquaculture (ME DOL) Aquaculture Apprenticeship Program where participants will gain valuable experience, receive mentoring, get trained and tested on defined occupational competencies, and learn to use cutting-edge technology at Maine’s most sophisticated commercial shellfish and sea vegetable farms.
  • Develop and administer a series of stackable, credentialed, aquaculture short courses at Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) that form the basis of an Aquaculture Certificate.
  • Update the Maine Aquaculture Occupational Standards for Shellfish and Sea Vegetables, Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, and Marine Finfish to ensure that aquaculture workforce training remains relevant to Maine’s rapidly evolving and growing industry.
  • Coordinate program development and delivery between SMCC, Washington County Community College, The Mid-Coast School of Technology (K-9 Career Technical Education High School), and ME DOL Apprenticeship to establish matriculation pathways and dual-credit programs that enable fast-tracked degree completion.

The programming developed will have the potential to be expanded to other community colleges in Maine and throughout the Northeast.

In April 2021, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center in Walpole was awarded $500,000 from NIFA to develop an aquaculture workforce training pilot in partnership with Washington County Community College.

Pingree serves on both the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and the House Agriculture Committee.

 

Maine relies on its marine life, but climate change will alter what that means

October 28, 2021 — Steve Train used to finish work by 1pm. In those days, Mr Train—who has worked as a lobsterman in Maine for more than 30 years—didn’t have to travel far to find the critters. Now he sometimes wraps up closer to 4pm. Some lobsters are still close to shore, but rising temperatures have pushed many of them into deeper, cooler waters that take longer to reach. Where Mr Train will find the creatures has turned into something of a guessing game. “More of us are hunting all the time,” he says, as he sips a mezcal margarita from Luke’s Lobster, a waterfront restaurant in Portland’s historic Old Port. This is where he docks his boat, sells his catch and, three or four days a week, stops in for lunch (often a lobster BLT, lobster roll or fried haddock bites). Lobstering is more than a job, he says. “It’s a culture.”

Warming waters have done more than change lobstermen’s schedules—they have disrupted entire ecosystems, the Gulf of Maine among them. The Gulf of Maine’s waters have warmed faster than 99% of the world’s ocean over the past 30 years. Experts attribute some of that to changing currents. The effects of the Gulf Stream from the south have grown stronger and have begun to constrict the flow of the Labrador current, which delivers cold water from the North Atlantic to the Gulf of Maine. “The magnitude of change is really going to be dependent on how much water temperatures change,” says Kathy Mills, a research scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. So far, the heat has altered the patterns of the state’s two most profitable species, lobsters and soft-shell clams, with some experts and industry folk worried about the potential for further population declines. Maine’s overall commercial landings brought in more than $500m last year, but maintaining those profits will require flexibility—at the least, it means acknowledging the gulf may look vastly different in years to come.

Read the full story at The Economist

 

Aramark partners with GMRI to up New England seafood sourcing

October 5, 2021 — Major U.S. hospitality supplier Aramark is committing to increase local seafood sourcing in New England via a partnership with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).

Coinciding with the start of National Seafood Month, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-based Aramark said in a press release that all of its higher education, healthcare, and business dining accounts in New England will pursue several local sustainable sourcing goals over the next three years.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource