Category: July ’14

FISH SAFE – ME apprenticeship program putting safety-trained lobstermen on the water

The Maine Lobster Apprenticeship Program is the first of its kind in the US that requires not only hours of apprenticeship but also the successful completion of a US Coast Guard Fishing Vessel Safety Drill Conductor Course, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), which administers the program. This was not always so.  …

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EDITORIAL – Time for a quota increase for western bluefin

Summertime is when the thoughts of people in the bluefin business turn to fishing.  Chasing bluefin is potentially profitable, true.  But on that perfect day when the fish are biting or skimming the surface in a harpooner’s sight, it also can be a tremendous rush, the thrill of a lifetime. Still, the tangled mess of …

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Harpooners get a jump on the ‘14 bluefin season

HARWICH, MA – The 2014 bluefin tuna fishery opened on June 1 and harpooners soon sprung into action.  By midmonth, fish had been landed in ports from Maine to Cape Cod, although fishermen and dealers still characterized it as a relatively slow start due to cool water temperatures and strings of bad-weather days. “It’s quiet, …

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Lessons from BP spill: Crude oil toxic to large pelagic embryo hearts

SEATTLE, WA – In March, researchers announced that the disastrous BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico four years ago had the same devastating effects on the embryonic stage of large pelagic fish, including bluefin tuna, as those suffered by Pacific herring and pink salmon after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in …

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Maine’s dilemma: Growing scallop resource leads to effort increase

ROCKLAND, ME – In a rare case of “be careful what you wish for,” the state of Maine is wrestling with the problem of how to deal with an influx of fishermen attracted by the impressive rebound of its scallop resource. The recent effort increase was a hot topic at a June 3 meeting at …

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Wind Energy Area socioeconomic study on fisheries ‘exposure’ nears completion

MONTAUK, NY – At the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s April 8-10 meeting here, A. Justin Kirkpatrick and Sharon Benjamin from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center presented spatial and revenue analyses that will help the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) evaluate the impacts of offshore wind farms on fisheries. That data …

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DMR calls Maine’s 2014 glass eel IFQ-swipe card fishery a ‘success’

HALLOWELL, ME – Despite lower landings and lower prices, Maine’s 2014 glass eel (elver) fishery, which came to an end on May 31, was deemed to be a “success” by fishery managers. Elver season opened on April 6 – two weeks later than usual due to administrative issues – under an 11,749-pound hard quota, which …

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ASMFC broadens glass eel options, refines yellow/silver eel proposals

ALEXANDRIA, VA – States that currently are not allowed to have glass eel fisheries may be able to earn quota in the future by carrying out “stock enhancement programs that increase glass eel passage.”  And, in another potential shift in strategy, states also may get the chance to harvest small amounts of glass eels from …

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ASMFC shrimp section initiates draft amendment to consider limited entry

PORTSMOUTH, NH – For the third time since 2011, fishermen will have a chance to weigh in on whether or not the northern shrimp fishery should come under limited entry. During a June 4 meeting here, the Northern Shrimp Section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) voted to initiate Draft Amendment 3 to …

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