Saving Seafood

Where have Maine’s mussels gone?

CASCO BAY, Maine  — August 30, 2015 — The survey map in Ann Thayer’s hand showed fat red splotches that wrapped around two-thirds of Bangs Island’s shoreline, meaning that the intertidal zone – the zone between the high and low water marks – was supposed to be densely packed with mussel beds. The tide was nearly three hours past high, leaving plenty of rockweed exposed.

Thayer began systematically flipping over the weed, looking for mussels, aka Mytilus edulis, attached to the rock below.

“Nothing,” she said. She said this over and over.

By the time she got back into her dinghy to row back to her Boston Whaler, she’d found only two mussels. Two where surveys from the 1970s and 1990s indicated there should be thousands, mollusks wedged into almost every nook and cranny in the rocks, the blue-hued shellfish nearly as commonplace as the barnacles living on their shells.

Thayer, who serves on the board of directors of Friends of Casco Bay, was not surprised by her findings.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

Mark Latti: Anglers, charter captains fume over cod regulations

Last Saturday, with the ocean calm, the forecast right and the sun peeking over the horizon, we cruised out to Jeffreys Ledge to fish.

It was a good day 30 miles offshore. The seas were flat, whales were plentiful, the sun shimmered on the water and we caught fish.

The three of us landed 14 cod, 12 haddock, 15 pollock, a cusk and as always – too many dogfish.

In fact, it was our best day for cod in a couple of years. Twelve fish were over 24 inches.

And once the cod were boated, they went right back overboard, with six of the haddock.

New regulations in the Gulf of Maine prohibit the possession of cod. They also limit anglers to three haddock.

The regulations have groundfisherman grumbling, charter captains canceling trips, many boats for sale and businesses on the brink.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

 

Lobstermen play waiting game while early prices spike

July 5, 2015 — Maine’s lobster industry is gearing up for another big year as the state’s 4,500 commercial fishermen wait for lobsters to migrate to the coast and shed the hard shells they’ve been carrying all winter.

And wait they must.

Fishermen and consumers probably won’t see those “shedders” until the middle of July – one to two weeks behind schedule – because of colder-than-normal water temperatures, according to scientists. The shortage has led to above-average lobster prices over the Fourth of July weekend, just when the state’s summer tourism season is coming into full swing. The Fourth of July weekend is considered the normal start date for the lobster fishery in Maine.

Fishermen who have traps in the water now aren’t catching much except for a few hard-shell lobsters, and those lobsters don’t seem eager to molt any time soon, said Peter McAleney, who runs New Meadows Lobster, a wholesaler in Portland.

“This winter has really messed us up,” he said. “The dealers and the fishermen are wondering what the heck is going to happen.”

Still, industry veterans say there’s no reason to panic. The lobsters will come again, just like they do every year, said Tom Flanigan, co-owner of Seaview Lobster Co. in Kittery.

“The old saying is: ‘The weather gets better before the lobster catch does,’” he said. “It takes awhile for the water temperatures to warm up and for the lobsters to do their thing.”

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald