Saving Seafood

MAINE: What the Seafood Watch ‘avoid’ designation really means

September 16, 2022 — Earlier this month, Seafood Watch, an influential seafood sustainability list published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, changed the designation of lobster from Atlantic communities to avoid. The organization indicated that fishery management isn’t going far enough to protect the endangered right whale. Maine’s lobstermen, seafood dealers and politicians have been up in arms about the recommendation ever since.

Read on to see what the “red-list” rating really means, and how lobster ended up on the avoid list.

What does it mean to be put on the Seafood Watch “avoid” list?

The Seafood Watch list reviews fisheries and aquaculture operations to determine environmental sustainability. After those reviews, the organization divides fisheries into three different categories: best choice, good alternative and avoid. The list is used by some restaurants, seafood buyers and other companies as a guide for what seafood they should be stocking.

“Best choice” fisheries are ones that Seafood Watch has determined are well managed and caught responsibly. “Good alternative,” a category the U.S. and Canadian lobster fisheries were previously under, are good buys, but there are some lingering concerns.

The “avoid” category is a designation that Seafood Watch uses to advise customers to “take a pass” on, either because they are overfished, lack strong management practices or are caught in ways that harm other marine life.

Lobster has been downgraded to “avoid,” according to Seafood Watch, because the fishery has not dealt with its risks to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. In July, a federal court judge, for the second time in recent years, deemed that the federal management of the U.S. lobster fishery is not in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, forcing regulators to come up with new ways to reduce the chances the fishing lines have in hurting whales.

Who’s behind the Seafood Watch list?

Seafood Watch is a program created and run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium that has been around for 20 years.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Maine’s leaders seek more time on whale protection rules

September 15, 2022 — Maine Gov. Janet Mills is seeking to delay new federal whale protection rules, citing fears the state’s commercial lobstermen won’t be able to comply.

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Mills urges federal fisheries regulators to extend the period for collecting public comment on the new regulations, which are aimed at protecting critically endangered north Atlantic right whales by setting a seasonal closure and requiring modifications to gear.

Mills said she believes it is “unconscionable” that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration only plans to hold one remote public hearing on the new regulations, which call for reducing by 90% the number of Atlantic Coast fixed gear fisheries, including lobster industry.

Read the full article at The Center Square

Maine fishermen are fighting to harvest more pogies, used as lobster bait

September 15, 2022 — Maine fishermen say they need a bigger piece of the East Coast menhaden fishery because the fish have become the primary source of lobster bait.

More than 75 people attended a hearing in Augusta on Tuesday night about proposed changes to state quotas for the fish, also known as pogies.

Attendees at the meeting said they wanted a larger quota because the fish have become plentiful in Maine over recent years. The menhaden population rises and falls in roughly 20-year cycles, and landings data show the number of fish has been on an upswing since 2016. Menhaden are often seen breaking the surface as they flip and jostle in thick schools, even close to shore.

Maine fishermen are currently allotted 0.52 percent of the total catch allowed across all Atlantic states. About 78 percent of the catch goes to Virginia, home to the Eastern seaboard’s only plant for producing fish oil from menhaden. The next-highest allocation goes to New Jersey, at 10 percent.

The Virginia plant makes fish oil used in animal feed, as well as omega-3 supplements for human consumption, and is operated by Omega Protein, a subsidiary of Cooke Aquaculture of New Brunswick, Canada. Cooke also owns salmon aquaculture farms, including in Maine. Omega Protein uses an average of 309 million pounds of menhaden per year, almost three times the amount that is used for bait.

In Maine, the fish have been widely used as bait in lobster traps, replacing herring after that fishery collapsed and catches were drastically limited.

“The New England lobster fishery relies solely on menhaden now, basically,” said lobster fisherman Dustin Delano, of Friendship. “Herring’s gone. We need to be able to catch everything we can. We need as much quota as we can get. You’ve got 15 or 16 states that are fighting for crumbs here while two states are taking it all.”

Read the full article at Central Maine

The Gulf of Maine is simmering, but its lobsters seem fine — for now

September 14, 2022 — Many tourists visiting coastal Maine may at some point purchase a lobster roll, with big chunks of lobster meat, a dash of mayo and a bag of potato chips on the side. But as summers become hotter and sea temperatures rise in the Gulf of Maine, there’s concern that warmer waters will cause the cold water crustacean to move elsewhere, making it harder to satisfy lobster cravings for the region’s tourists.

The Gulf of Maine has been a hotspot for ocean warming, increasing at a rate of 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit each decade in the last 40 years — about three times the global average. At higher water temperatures, lobsters hit what is known as a “stress threshold,” where they become more vulnerable to disease and less likely to reproduce.

But at least in recent years, it seems, the lobster — and some locals who depend on them for their livelihoods — have found success even as their future in warming ocean waters is more uncertain.

Read the full article at the Washington Post

MAINE: Mills urges feds to hold in-person hearings in Maine on fishing changes to protect right whales

September 14, 2022 — Gov. Janet Mills and members of Maine’s congressional delegation are raising concerns about the pace of federal efforts to prevent whale entanglements and whether Maine’s lobster industry will have a chance to provide input on potential changes.

In a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Mills accused the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of moving at a “breakneck pace” as it develops new plans to reduce the risks of whale entanglements in fishing gear. Mills also strongly criticized the agency for scheduling only a single webinar to gather feedback from the fishing community and other stakeholders as well as for suggesting that state officials hold additional scoping sessions on the potential federal changes.

“It is unconscionable for NOAA to only hold a single public hearing and a virtual meeting at that,” Mills wrote. “As NOAA well knows, effectively reaching an audience of fishermen with challenging schedules absolutely requires in-person meetings and opportunities for comment.” Instead, Mills is calling on the agency to hold multiple meetings in Maine so that NOAA staff can meet in-person with fishermen.

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: Portland restaurant acknowledges misinformation about lobster sales

September 14, 2022 — A Portland seafood restaurant and several national companies are correcting misinformation circulating in the wake of the announcement by Seafood Watch that it was red-listing American lobster because of the risk lobster gear poses to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Shortly after the announcement, national news outlets reported that meal kit delivery services Blue Apron and Hello Fresh pulled lobster from their menus. Calls to boycott those companies began circulating on social media in response to the red-listing by Seafood Watch, a seafood sustainability project of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.

However, a spokesperson for Blue Apron says the company did not pull lobster from its meal kits because of the red-listing.

“The lobster on (Blue Apron’s) menu was a limited seasonal box that was no longer available for purchase prior to the report,” the spokesperson said in an email Tuesday. “It was not removed as a response to the red-listing.”

Read the full article at Sun Journal

Lobsters Placed on “Red List,” Angering Maine Fishing Community

September 14, 2022 — American lobster are being pulled from menus after a conservation nonprofit placed them on its ‘Red List’ of unsustainable seafood to avoid.

The organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, cited lobster traps as threats to endangered North Atlantic right whales, which can become tangled in the nets.

Through its partnerships with major food companies, including HelloFresh, Whole Foods and The Cheesecake Factory, the nonprofit has the potential to significantly affect demand for lobsters with this listing. Already, both HelloFresh and Blue Apron have pledged to stop selling lobster in their meal kits, writes Patrick Whittle for the Associated Press.

But the Maine lobster industry has swiftly pushed back against the move, saying that Seafood Watch has no evidence of right whale entanglements in the state’s fishing gear. Senator Angus King from Maine called the listing “outrageous and egregiously irresponsible,” at a press conference. “What in the hell are these people thinking?”

Read the full article at Smithsonian Magazine 

Lobstermen, supporters push back hard on Seafood Watch ‘red listing’

September 13, 2022 — The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program is facing harsh criticism and pushback over its new “red list” designation for Northeast lobster, recommending seafood suppliers and consumers avoid lobster.

The influential Seafood Watch rating system has informed retailers and food service  providers since 1999, listing what it considers sustainable, environmentally responsible fisheries – and what species to avoid.

In February 2022 the aquarium signaled it would consider red-listing Northeast lobster, over the danger of entanglement in vertical trap lines for endangered North Atlantic right whales. The Sept. 6 announcement is provoking a furious campaign to reverse the designation.

“Your accusation that Maine lobstermen are to blame for the troubles of North Atlantic right whales is flat out wrong,” Maine elected officials declared in a letter harshly rebuking the aquarium. “Right whales are not dying in Maine lobster gear and the report blindly ignores everything that Maine lobstermen have done to create a sustainable industry. Make no mistake, your designation will have a real world impact – with the industry already facing challenges, the inaccurate designation will hurt the thousands of hardworking lobstermen, their families, and businesses across our state.”

The letter from Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden slammed the aquarium’s new report on lobster as “irresponsible conjecture, a baseless smear, and an egregious violation of the scientific principles you claim to stand for. This is among the most irresponsible actions we have ever seen in our years of public service, and we are deeply disappointed that you have allowed this action to – perhaps irreparably – tarnish the name of your previously-respected institution.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Federal judge strikes down challenge by Maine, lobstermen to rules aimed at protecting right whales

September 12, 2022 — A federal judge has rejected a bid by lobstermen and the state of Maine to block new rules aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued new rules last year that described where and how lobstermen can fish in federal waters. The agency has said the new rules are intended to protect the remaining population of right whales, which is estimated at about 340.

The plaintiffs, which included both the Maine and Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Associations, as well as Maine’s Department of Marine Resources and the Maine Lobstering Union, asked a federal judge to block those rules, contending that they overstate the risks caused by their trap lines and create needless economic harm to the lobster industry.

They argue that in drafting those rules, the NMFS committed “scientific errors,” in part, because Maine lobstermen say their gear hasn’t been involved with a right whale entanglement in nearly two decades.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Maine lobstermen, politicians rally in protest of fishing restrictions and boycott

September 12, 2022 — Maine lobstermen and their elected leaders are fighting back over two setbacks this week — one in court and one in the marketplace — that could threaten their livelihood.

At a rally in Portland on Friday, they protested a federal judge’s ruling allowing the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to impose limits on where and how lobstermen fish in order to protect endangered North Atlantic Right Whales.

Gov. Janet Mills said, “Regulations that are not based on sound science, not proven fact, and will often pose a risk of devastating Maine’s lobster industry! These guys are fed up. I’m fed up. We’re all fed up!”

The rally was also protesting Seafood Watch, a California-based sustainable seafood advocacy group now advising food distributors and restaurants to boycott Maine lobster.

Read the full article at WABI