Saving Seafood

Lobstermen rescued offshore after wave causes boat to sink

January 16, 2017 –YORK, Maine — The Coast Guard says it rescued two lobster fishermen off the coast of Maine after their vessel began to sink.

The sinking happened Friday when a wave hit the 45-foot lobster boat Miss Mae & Son about 17 miles off shore from York. The Coast Guard says the boat’s pumps couldn’t keep up with the water.

The Coast Guard says the fishermen jumped into the water when a response boat arrived and the boat’s crew was able to pull them on board. The water temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit.

The fishermen were returned to Portsmouth Harbor without injuries. The Coast Guard says the fishermen did the right thing by signaling for help and bringing survival gear.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

How a national craze caused lobster prices to boil over

October 26th, 2016 — Your next fresh lobster dinner, drizzled in butter and lemon, might crack your budget.

Restaurants are having to fork over more money this year to get their hands on prized Maine lobsters, and that means your dinner bill could soar to $60 a plate. Blame robust demand.

The coast-to-coast craze of lobster roll food trucks has made lobster more affordable, and abroad the appetite for the crustaceans is growing as well, experts say.

“The demand for this product now is really unprecedented,” said Annie Tselikis, marketing director for Maine Coast Co., a live lobster wholesaler based in York, Maine. She spoke Monday just before boarding a flight for a seafood trade show in South Korea, a major customer of North American lobsters along with China and others.

Live lobster prices on a wholesale basis reached $8.50 for a 1.25-pound hard-shell lobster in August, the highest level in a decade, according to Urner Barry, a leading seafood price tracker and a partner in Seafood News.

You’d have to go back to 2008 for the last time lobsters were even above $5 for this time of year, said John Sackton, editor and publisher of Seafood News. Since that time they’ve fluctuated between $3.90 and $4.85 until this year when they’re up again over $7.

“Lobster demand usually follows the stock market and general economy,” said Bob Bayer, director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine. “When the economy is good, lobster demand is good.”

Read the full story at CNBC

Herring fishing to be closed off New England in October

September 28, 2016 — YORK, Maine — Herring fishing off of part of the New England coast will be shut down for most of October.

The closure begins on Sunday and lasts until Oct. 29. It is the product of a spawning forecasting method that interstate regulators approved earlier this year.

Regulators say an analysis of samples necessitates a closure of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area for most of October. The area stretches from the north side of Cape Cod to southern Maine.

Vessels will not be allowed to possess Atlantic herring caught in the area during the closure.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Greenwich Time

MAINE: Rep. Lydia Blume submits bill to help scallop, urchin fisheries

August 24, 2016 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Rep. Lydia Blume, D-York, is proposing legislation to require license holders in the scallop and urchin fisheries to own and operate their own vessels. Owner-operator provisions help to increase stewardship in a fishery and help to ensure that the fishery’s revenues stay in local communities.

“Maine’s lobster fishery has an owner-operator requirement, and this is one of the reasons why it is looked upon as a textbook example of a sustainable fishery,” said Blume. “We should try to replicate what works with lobster in harvesting other species.”

Entrance to both the scallop and urchin fisheries is now closed, but there are several factors, like the rebuilding of stocks and increased dockside prices, that are increasing pressure to open them to new license holders.

“Implementing measures like owner-operator requirements should be done before opening the fisheries,” Blume said. “We need to act to sustain the Maine marine economy through encouraging good stewardship of these valuable and precious resources.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Expanding lobster supplier hires New England seafood veteran

June 14, 2016 — York, Maine-based live lobster wholesaler Maine Coast has hired a general manager for its new Boston Fish Pier facility, which will open later this month.

Peter Kendall, a New England seafood sector veteran who’s previous role was operations manager at Mazzetta’s Gloucester Seafood Processing factory, is joining Maine Coast.

“We are happy to welcome Peter Kendall to our growing team,” said Tom Adams, founder and owner of Maine Coast, in a release. “This is a critical position as we expand our live lobster wholesale business to Boston. I needed someone with a strong understanding of the seafood business and real leadership skills. We found both with Peter.”

Kendall started in the seafood industry when he was 15 working summers as a lumper at the Portsmouth fisheries co-op. He studied resource economics at the University of New Hampshire and continued working seasonally at the co-op.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Maine Names New Fisheries Division Director

June 7, 2016 — AUGUSTA, Maine — Francis Brautigam, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife head fisheries biologist in the southern Maine/Sebago region, was named IFW’s Fisheries and Hatcheries Division Director today.

“As commissioner and an avid angler, I am very pleased to have Francis as our director. He brings a combination of experience, passion and innovation to the position that will serve him and the state well,” said IFW Commissioner Chandler Woodcock.

For the past 13 years, Brautigam was the lead biologist in the southern Maine/Sebago region where he oversaw the management of Sebago Lake and other waters in York and Cumberland counties. During that time, Brautigam has overseen a change to the Sebago salmon fishery to a primarily native salmon fishery driven by natural reproduction in the Crooked River, from a hatchery-based salmon fishery.

Innovative fisheries management programs are a hallmark of Brautigam’s career as he has been instrumental in either creating or enhancing year-round fishing opportunities in southern Maine, creating sea-run trout fisheries through the stocking and management of coastal streams and rivers, and implementation and expansion of the state’s rainbow trout program.

Read the full story at The Fishing Wire

Maine Coast Co. delivers lobsters around the world

May 31, 2016 — YORK, Maine – Every day is a “crazy juggling game” for Tom Adams, owner of the wildly successful lobster wholesaler Maine Coast Company. His product is live and perishable. His customers are in Seoul, South Korea, Madrid, Spain, or San Francisco. He has to worry about Homeland Security regulations, endless paperwork for China exports, planes that don’t take off on time.

“There’s a lot of risk when your product is controlled by Mother Nature,” said Adams. “We have to get it where it’s going in 48 to 60 hours. Any delay means it doesn’t get there alive. My strong point, I think, is that I have the gut instinct to most of the time play the market correctly. It’s no different than oil futures or some other commodity. It’s just that I’m dealing in lobsters.”

Located in a nondescript warehouse on Hannaford Drive in York, Maine Coast Company has had the kind of meteoric success other businesses would envy. Founded by Adams in 2011 with a $1.5 million loan, sales in 2015 were $43 million – a growth rate of 20 to 30 percent a year.

The company has expanded its space to accommodate tanks that can hold 155,000 pounds of lobster. At the end of June, it will open a $500,000, 5,000-square-foot facility on the Boston Fish Pier that will hold another 25,000 pounds — all the quicker for getting those lobsters on airplanes.

This growth is to accommodate an exploding global demand for Maine’s premier crustacean. According to the U.S. Census foreign trade division, lobster is the No. 1 commodity exported from Maine, and its growth has increased substantially from $231 million in 2012 to $331 million in 2015.

Read the full story at Seacoast Online