November 15, 2022 — The St. Croix River once teemed with millions of migratory fish. New federal funding announced Thursday should give a boost to the recovering fish runs.
The river’s runs of alewives, Atlantic salmon, eels, and shad declined after a series of dams blocked the fish from their spawning grounds, and the state of Maine blocked fish passage at those dams.
March 10, 2021 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has instituted an emergency scallop fishing closure in the St. Croix River in Zone 3; and expanded existing closures in Frenchman Bay, Swan’s Island and Isle au Haut rotational areas.
“The department is concerned that continued harvesting for the remainder of the 2020-21 fishing season in these areas will reduce scallop broodstock further, as well as jeopardize sublegal scallops that were observed in the 2020 spring scallop survey that is essential to the ongoing recruitment, regrowth and recovery of the scallop resource,” according to the notice of emergency rulemaking. “An immediate conservation closure is necessary to reduce the risk of unusual damage and imminent depletion of the scallop resource in these four scallop resource areas.”
February 12, 2021 — Maine fishing regulators are closing the state’s richest scallop fishing grounds in the coming days.
The state is closing Cobscook, Whiting and Dennys bays for the rest of the fishing season starting Sunday to help conserve the scallop population, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said Friday. Cobscook Bay is home to some of the most productive scallop fishing in the state.
Scallops may still be harvested by drag boats only on Feb. 15 and by divers only on Feb. 20, the marine department said. The St. Croix River, another key scallop fishing area, will remain open until further notice, the department said.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
February 27, 2019 — Maine fishery regulators are closing a handful of areas to scallop fishing as the season begins to wind down for the year.
Maine is home to a fishery for some of the most sought-after scallops in the seafood world. The fishery begins in late fall and runs to early spring every year. The Maine Department of Marine Resources says it closed down four fishing areas on Sunday to protect the scallop populations.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public
July 17, 2017 — Motorists crossing the bridge over the Kennebec this spring and early summer were afforded dramatic views of one of Maine’s mightiest rivers, a chain of islands and warships under construction at Bath Iron Works.
But one of the most awesome sights was hidden from view: millions of fish swimming under the bridge in a pilgrimage from the Atlantic Ocean to their spawning grounds in lakes, rivers and ponds scattered over hundreds of square miles of southern, central and western Maine.
River herring – in the midst of a dramatic comeback in Maine’s rivers with the recent removal of dams that blocked their spawning runs for decades – had a banner spring run this year, with millions of fish traveling up the Kennebec and Penobscot and the best run in decades recorded on the St. Croix. This was despite heavy rains this spring that created extra challenges for the fish.
The recovery of the small schooling fish is having dramatic secondary effects, as they represent a perfect food source for everything from bald eagles to Atlantic cod, and researchers anticipate future benefits as the herring’s numbers grow in the coming decade.
“You just don’t expect ecosystems to bounce back so quickly,” says Joshua Royte, a conservation scientist at The Nature Conservancy in Maine, which played a key role in a collaborative project to remove the Penobscot dams. “These rivers are coming back gangbusters and there will be children growing up now who will never know there was a time when you couldn’t run out to see fish running in these rivers.”
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald
March 30, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — Friday is April Fools’ Day and the joke may be on Maine’s scallop fishermen, though they may be laughing all the way to the bank.
In December, the last month for which the Department of Marine Resources has released figures, dealers reported Maine scallop landings of 159,845 pounds with a boat price of about $13 to $14 per pound — just over $2 million in all for the month. Although the price was high, the reported December landings were the lowest since 2012.
Maine waters are divided into three scallop fishing zones and in two of them — along all of the coast except in Cobscook Bay way Downeast — the fishing season lasts until April 15. The question is whether there will be anyplace left to fish.
The 50-day season in Cobscook Bay, where harvesters have a daily limit of 10 gallons of shucked scallop meats, ended last Friday although, after the DMR implemented emergency closures on Whiting and Dennys bays in early February, only the sliver of water in the St. Croix River remained available to harvesters. Even in that area, fishing was limited to one day per week.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine fishing regulators are shutting down more key scallop grounds as fishermen exceed targeted levels for the year.
The state Department of Marine Resources says it is closing Cobscook Bay, the most productive scallop fishing area in Maine. It is also shutting down the Owls Head area of Lower Penobscot Bay and limiting the St. Croix River to one day per week for draggers and one day per week for divers.