New England Archives - Page 781 of 788

Battle on Lobster Fishery Entry Brewing in Maine Legislature

September 9, 2015 — There’s another battle brewing in Maine’s lobster industry, but this is one that likely will be fought in the Legislature rather than on the water.

Out to about 12 miles offshore, Maine waters are divided from east to west, into seven Lobster Management Zones. Lobstermen are required to declare which of the zones they will fish in based, generally, on where they live.

Six of those zones have waiting lists established under the state’s “limited entry” law, of people who have completed a state-mandated apprenticeship program and want a license to fish for lobster in the zone. The number of new licenses available each year depends, in eastern Maine, on the number of licenses surrendered each year. In western Maine, new issues are based on the number of trap tags surrendered. Every licensed commercial lobsterman is entitled to fish up to 800 traps, each of which must be marked with a plastic tag purchased each year from the Department of Marine Resources.

In some of those zones, the waiting list, and the waiting times for a new license, are extremely long.

In Zone D — around western Penobscot Bay — there are 59 on the list, which stretches back to November 2005. In Zone B, around Mount Desert Island including Frenchman Bay over to Schoodic Point, the waiting list includes 55 names and stretches back to May 2005.

With decade-long waits for a new license (the shortest list contains 28 names and dates to 2007,) fishermen on the list have been pressing Governor Paul LePage and their state legislators, and the Governor and the legislators have been pressuring the Department of Marine Resources to develop a new limited entry system with what DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher described last Monday as “a predictable time frame” for people waiting for licenses.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Menhaden Fishing: from the 1860s through Present Day

September 9, 2015 — It is an oily little fish only surpassed by its ugliness. But to the Native Americans and subsequently the early settlers along the eastern seaboard, it was more valuable than caviar. When the settlers came to Virginia and New England, methods of growing food were much different than from their homelands. The soil was sandy and less fertile than home which made farming difficult. The Native Americans taught the colonists how to place two small fish in each hill where seeds were planted. The decomposition of the fish added the required nutrient, and corn, introduced to the colonist by the Indians, became a staple food for settlers. In long rows, the fish were laid end to end and covered up. As they decomposed, the usually sandy loam soil became much more fertile and would support crops.

The fish was called munnawhateaug  by the Native Americans. It has been called a variety of other names in English such as bunkers, porgy, fat back, yellow tail but mostly menhaden. The fish usually does not exceed 10-12 inches in size and its main diet is plankton making it a very important part of the aquatic food chain in the waters from Maine to the Mid-Atlantic.

The menhaden schooled very close to shore. They were harvested by haul sein nets from the shore, in gill nets worked by canoes or small boats, in pound nets, or in some cases schools of fish were pressed against the shoreline and scooped up in baskets.

Quite by accident, the oil produced by rendering the fish was found to be satisfactory for use instead of whale oil. In about 1850, an old lady named Mrs. John Barlett from Blue Hill, Maine was cooking some menhaden to feed to her chickens. She noticed as the fish boiled, there was an abundance of clear oil left on top of the water. According to an 1874 statement by Eben Phillips, an oil merchant in Boston, Mrs. Barlett skimmed the oil from the kettle and brought him a sample of the oil. He told her that he would pay $11 per barrel for all she could produce. The next year she produced 13 barrels and then 100 barrels the next year and so forth. As in the case of most “discoveries” by accident, a lady cooking chicken feed was the beginning of the menhaden industry along the East Coast from Maine to the Carolinas. The oil from these small fish huddled close to shore became competitors with the ocean going New England whalers producing lamp oil and oil for other uses. The by-product of boiling the fish was collected, ground and sold as fertilizer and refined for animal feed.

Read the full story at The House & Home Magazine

Experts Say Wasteful Fishing Regulations Not Keeping Pace With Climate Change

September 6, 2015 — Hundreds of thousands of pounds of valuable fish caught off Connecticut’s coast are thrown overboard every year, and 80 percent of them are dead by the time they hit the water, experts say.

Commercial fishermen, environmentalists and state officials say a prime reason for such a stunning waste of a natural resource is an out-of-date federal regulatory system that hasn’t kept up with the realities of a changing climate and shifting fish populations.

“It’s just a wholly unjustifiable practice,” said Peter Auster, a senior research scientist at Mystic Aquarium. “This waste … is pervasive in the way we’re managing fishing.”

“The whole construct of the [regulatory] system needs to be questioned,” said Curt Johnson, executive director of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound.

The problem is that federal fishing regulations are designed to protect fish species based on where they used to be most plentiful. Some of those fish populations have now shifted their range north as a result of global warming, but federal fishing quotas haven’t changed. As a result, Connecticut fishermen are saddled with low, out-of-date quotas, forcing them to throw back huge amounts of certain species, even though those fish have become plentiful off New England.

Read the full story at the Hartford Courant

New England’s ports, long past prime, seek to stage comeback

September 6, 2015 — The noise and bustle of nearby neighborhoods fade away at New Haven’s sprawling port. An oil and chemical tanker floats placidly at a dock. A tug pushes a barge out in Long Island Sound. Only occasionally do trucks rumble up to a scrap metal business or deliver materials for road work.

What was a key port for lumber and other goods dating to Colonial times is, like other New England ports, facing a reckoning after a lengthy decline.

In the region that nurtured the beginnings of New World commerce with whaling, fishing and shipbuilding, state and local governments are taking stock of aging infrastructure at deep-water ports. As they move to stake out their share of global trade, the challenge is how to stay relevant in an age of ever-larger ships.

“There are so few people who know about our deep-water ports,” said Judith Scheiffele, executive director of the New Haven Port Authority. “I think it’s kind of taken for granted.”

Read the full story from Savannah Now

Warming Oceans Putting Marine Life ‘In a Blender’

September 3, 2015 — Up in Maine, lobsters are thriving. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reported last month that stocks there reached a record high.

Down the coast, however, the story is different. In southern New England, lobster stocks have plummeted to the lowest levels ever recorded, putting many lobstermen out of business.

Lobster populations rise and fall for many reasons. But in its new report, the commission singled out one factor that is probably driving the recent changes: The ocean is warming.

At the northern edge of the lobsters’ range, higher temperatures may be speeding up their metabolism, leading to the population boom. But at the southern edge of the range, the waters may be getting too warm, putting the animals under extreme stress.

According to a 2013 study, marine species are pushing their range boundaries poleward, away from the Equator, at an average speed of 4.5 miles a year. That’s 10 times as fast as the speed at which species on land are moving.

Read the full story at the New York Times

AP: Proposal to Protect Offshore Sites Draws Support, Opposition

September 3, 2015 (AP) — Environmental advocates say the federal government should extend permanent protection to two underwater sites off the New England coast by making them national monuments.

Fishing advocacy group Saving Seafood said Wednesday it opposes more restrictions on the areas, already closed to fishing and monitored by federal regulators.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage wrote President Barack Obama last week saying he opposes the proposal, which he said would hurt the state’s economy.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

A Simple Map Shows Cashes Ledge Habitat Is Already Protected

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 2, 2015 — Yesterday, Saving Seafood released an analysis explaining how the proposal to use a National Monument designation to protect Cashes Ledge, as advocated by the Conservation Law Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Geographic Society, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, overlooks existing protections and overrides the current, successful system of open, democratic management. In short, we called the proposal “a solution in search of a problem,” one that removes the public from the management of public resources.

Read the full Saving Seafood analysis here

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) today provided Saving Seafood with an updated map (see below), one that is clear, simple, and easy to understand. It delineates the protections the Council voted for last June in Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2 (OHA2), which are currently being evaluated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for final approval. In light of this evening’s public event at the New England Aquarium which will describe the uniqueness and value of this region, Saving Seafood is sharing this map so that all interested parties can be fully aware of the protections already in place, additional protections currently in progress, and of the decade of work by numerous scientists, fishermen, regulators, environmentalists, elected officials, researchers, academics, and career government staff at the Council and the Agency that has gone into developing them.

As we noted in our analysis, the NEFMC and NOAA have successfully protected Cashes Ledge over the last decade though a collaborative, consultative process that built a consensus among the scientists, fishermen, regulators, and other valuable New England stakeholders. The Council has also ensured that the region remains protected well into the future with the recent approval of Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2 (OHA2), and is working to extend similar protections to the New England Canyons and Seamounts through their in-progress Deep-Sea Coral Amendment.

These developments support Saving Seafood’s conclusion that the process as it exists is working, and the a National Monument designation would only circumvent and undermine the public management of these areas that have been so beneficial to Cashes Ledge and other unique habitats.

See the updated map below:

Analysis: New England Marine Monument Proposals Overlook Existing Protections, Overstep Democratic Management

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 1, 2015 — Fishermen, fisheries managers, and environmentalists agree that the Cashes Ledge region of the Gulf of Maine is home to some of the most important marine environments in New England. These include lush kelp forests and the diverse ecosystem of Ammen Rock. Since the early 2000s, federal fisheries managers have recognized the value of these areas and have taken proactive steps to protect their unique habitats, preventing commercial fishermen from entering the areas and allowing them to develop mostly undisturbed from human activity.

But according to several environmental groups, including the Conservation Law Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Geographic Society, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, such long-standing and effective protections are suddenly insufficient. A public relations, media and lobbying campaign has launched to have Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts designated a National Monument. While such an effort may seem consistent with the current record of environmental stewardship on Cashes Ledge, such a designation would actually undermine the current management system by removing local and expert input from the process.

The current closures on Cashes Ledge are the result of an open, democratic and collaborative process. Managed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), the protections are the result of extensive consultation with scientists, fishermen, regulators, and other valuable stakeholders in New England. Through this process, the Council built a durable consensus in the region on the need to protect and preserve Cashes Ledge. As a result, no federally managed fisheries are allowed to operate in the area. Only the state-managed lobster fishery is permitted in the region, which is subject to the equally open and public management process of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC).

This process has been successful in making Cashes Ledge the hotspot for marine life that it is today. In fact, it has done everything that we usually ask of successful habitat management. The area has been closed for over a decade, and there are no plans to open it in the future. The bottom-tending gear that is likely to disturb habitats is already prohibited in this area. In the recently passed Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2 (OHA2), the Cashes Ledge closures remain untouched, and the current levels of protection are extended into the foreseeable future.

Since 2012, the NEFMC has been working on extending similar protections to the corals and other habitat features of the New England Canyons and Seamounts. Combined with efforts such as NOAA’s Deep-Sea Coral Data Portal, the Council is collaborating with a variety of stakeholders to fashion the best possible protections for the area. On September 23, the Council’s Habitat Committee will be discussing the Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment. Much like with the habitat protections on Cashes Ledge, this is being conducted through an open and public process that includes scientists, fishermen, regulators, and other interested parties.

So while CLF press secretary Josh Block has been recently quoted as saying a National Monument designation would ensure that the area “remains permanently protected from harmful commercial extraction, such as oil and gas drilling, commercial fishing and other resource exploration activities,” there are no actual attempts to remove the current protections, or to allow any of these activities on Cashes Ledge. Monica Medina of the National Geographic Society, who served in the Obama Administration as Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere at NOAA, acknowledges that the areas “are currently closed to industrial fishing,” but goes on to say “there have been calls to open them to fishing at some point in the future.” From who is a mystery, because during the OHA2 process, the only suggested openings were for scientific analysis.

National Geographic’s Monica Medina wrote, “scientists have recently uncovered some offshore treasures [in New England]: an area called Cashes Ledge, plus five canyons and sea mounts.” In fact, Cashes Ledge was mapped by R. Rathbun and J. W. Collins in 1887. National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia Earle herself acknowledged this after a recent dive, stating, “I saw for myself what scientists have been raving about for years.” And in what turned out to be a harbinger of the National Monument effort, Dr. Earle stated, “Cashes Ledge is the Yellowstone of the North Atlantic.”

In addition to being superfluous to the effective management of Cashes Ledge, a National Monument designation would undermine the management system already in place. A designation of a National Monument necessitates unilateral action by the President under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Such action circumvents and strips away valuable democratic processes that protect these regions and sustain their important commercial fisheries. The council system by which areas like Cashes Ledge are managed – and through which such areas are already off limits to most fishermen – would diminish in importance, as would the expert input from all relevant stakeholders, including scientists, fishermen, and conservationists.

The current management structures and systems now in place under federal guidelines, including the management of the NEMFC and ASMFC, and other regulatory procedures – including proposals to change protections – are fundamentally democratic. They allow ample time for stakeholder input from all perspectives. If organizations such as CLF and the Pew Charitable Trusts want to alter current habitat protections, there is a decades-old, established public process to accommodate them.

These procedures have led to remarkable recent success stories. In fact, just two months ago, both CLF and Pew Charitable Trusts praised the very procedures they now seek to circumvent. In June, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted to protect 38,000 square miles of marine habitat to preserve deep-sea corals. The same council process that produced such laudable results in the Mid-Atlantic is the same one that is in place New England. A unilateral marine monument designation, in contrast, would nullify existing management.

Recent history also demonstrates the risks and pitfalls of unilateral attempts to designate marine National Monuments of the exact sort as that being proposed for Cashes Ledge. The expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument by President Obama in 2014, for example, came under intense public scrutiny from native Pacific Islanders, commercial fishermen, and scientists alike, all of whom criticized the Administration for failing to consider crucial stakeholder input.

The current proposal for a National Monument on Cashes Ledge is a solution in search of a problem. It fixes a process that isn’t broken. It seeks an outcome that is already in effect. And it removes the public from the management of public resources.

Americold wins bid to build cold-storage warehouse on Portland, Maine waterfront

September 1, 2015 — The world’s largest cold-storage company has been chosen to build a modern refrigerated warehouse on the Portland waterfront, providing the port with a critical missing element to compete with larger, more congested ports on the Eastern Seaboard.

The state will lease a 6.3-acre site to Americold, which will design the warehouse, fund its construction and operate it. The project is part of a state-led effort to make the port more competitive with other ports and to boost Maine’s seafood, agriculture, and food and beverage industries.

The Maine Port Authority announced Monday that Americold Logistics LLC won the bid to develop the site, located adjacent to the expanded International Marine Terminal on West Commercial Street. The proposed cost of the project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2017, was not disclosed.

Americold already operates a 63-year-old cold-storage warehouse on Read Street in Portland. Company officials say they’re evaluating whether to close that outmoded facility or keep it open for overflow and long-term storage. Americold is partnering on the project with Eimskip, the Icelandic shipping company that made Portland its North American headquarters in 2013. Eimskip will be both an investor and an anchor tenant.

There is currently a shortage of cold-storage warehouse space in Maine, prompting many of the state’s food producers and processors to ship their products out of state for storage.

Eimskip primarily ships frozen fish from Europe to the United States through Portland. While Eimskip now stores some of its imported seafood at the Americold facility on Read Street, the company trucks most of its fish to cold-storage warehouses in the Boston area.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Saving Seafood Analysis: Campaign for New England Marine Monument a “Solution in Search of a Problem”

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 1, 2015 — An analysis released today by Saving Seafood examines a proposal from several environmental organizations to extend “permanent” protections to the Cashes Ledge region of the Gulf of Maine and the New England Canyons and Seamounts, by asking President Obama to declare the area a National Monument. The analysis notes that these efforts are largely duplicative of area closures already in place in this region, none of which are poised for opening. Saving Seafood further concludes that such a unilateral move would undermine the democratic and collaborative processes that to date have been highly effective in preserving and protecting the area.

Read the analysis from Saving Seafood here

The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and partners including the National Geographic Society, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Natural Resources Defense Council intend to ask that these areas be declared the eastern seaboard’s first Marine National Monument, according to emails sent by CLF to State House News Service. A sold out event scheduled for Wednesday, September 2 at the New England Aquarium, featuring National Geographic and the CLF, is expected to discuss this proposal. Last Friday, Maine Governor Paul LePage wrote to President Obama opposing the designation of areas within the Gulf of Maine as a national maritime monument, as reported by the Portland Press Herald.

Such a designation would be both duplicative of, and possibly damaging to, the current management of Cashes Ledge, according to the Saving Seafood analysis. Closures already in place, developed through an open, democratic and collaborative process under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, already prohibit fishing of federally managed species in the area. These prohibitions have been in place for over a decade, the analysis notes, and have been extended into the foreseeable future with the recent passage of Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2. The Council is actively working on extending similar protections to the New England Canyons through the Deep-Sea Coral Amendment.

A petition being circulated by CLF and promoted by National Geographic notes that a “trawl could strip clear the kelp forest on Ammen Rock,” but as noted in the Saving Seafood analysis, current protections for these areas – including regulations passed as recently as June of this year – already protect areas such as Ammen Rock and the kelp forests. Saving Seafood notes that none of these areas are being considered for opening to fishing.

The Saving Seafood report also cautions against proposals to create “permanent” protections for these areas that would circumvent the process already in place to manage New England’s marine habitats. It notes that the New England Fishery Management Council has responsibility for managing Cashes Ledge and other habitat areas. Through a deliberative, consultative effort involving input from scientists, public officials, regulators, and other stakeholders, the Council has consistently protected the unique habitats on both Cashes Ledge and other areas in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.

According to the analysis, efforts to circumvent these procedures in pursuit of ostensibly “permanent” protections, such as a National Monument designation via the Antiquities Act, would undermine the open and democratic management process that has already resulted in the long-term protection of Cashes Ledge. Upending the regulatory process that has worked so well for so long is likely to do more harm than good, the report concludes.

Read the analysis from Saving Seafood here

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