MYSTIC, CT – If Jonah crabs are one thing and rock crabs are another, then what’s a sand crab or a grass crab or, especially in Maine, a peekytoe crab? Widespread local differences in nomenclature and confusion over what to call the Northeast region’s two major species of Cancer crabs led the Atlantic States Marine …
Category: 2014
Shrimping moratorium continues for 2015 season
PORTLAND, ME – Despite calls from industry for a 500-metric-ton (mt) research program or, alternatively, a very short shrimp season to at least provide a limited amount of product for consumers, things didn’t turn out that way, to no one’s real surprise. Instead, during a Nov. 5 meeting here, the Northern Shrimp Section of the …
SAFE-BOAT SMART-BOAT: Simple steps to avoid bad but common mistakes
Originally printed – October 2011 He was fairly new to trawling and he made a bad mistake. Maybe it was a lack of sleep or physical fatigue that caused a lapse in concentration. Whatever the reason, the break in attention was long enough for him to forget to remove his hand from the stern rail …
Gulf of Maine Cod – SPECIAL REPORT
New England council requests emergency action for GOM cod HYANNIS, MA – Following hours of difficult discussion punctuated by impassioned testimony from numerous commercial and recreational fishermen who had much at stake, the New England Fishery Management Council on Oct. 1 voted to ask the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to take emergency action to “reduce …
EDITORIAL – Science must acknowledge climate change effects
Populations of many fish species – summer flounder, butterfish, squid, black sea bass, cod, and bluefin tuna to name a few – are clearly being impacted by changing ocean water temperatures. The challenge now is to realign fisheries stock assessment science and fisheries management protocols to acknowledge this new reality. Climate-related changes in migration, abundance, …
A welcome ‘good news’ story: GOM haddock stock healthy and growing
HYANNIS, MA – The most recent stock assessment for Gulf of Maine haddock indicates that the resource is not overfished or subject to overfishing and, in fact, is projected to increase thanks to the recent addition of several large year classes to the population. Jim Weinberg of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center presented these findings …
GMRI report: Plan for emerging fisheries in the Gulf of Maine
PORTLAND, ME – If fishery population centers keep trending northward due to warming water temperatures, and if quotas continue to be allocated based on historical landings, the summer flounder dilemma could extend to more stocks – Mid-Atlantic states having large quotas with low stock abundance and New England states having high stock abundance with low …
New bluefin stock assessments show stunning reversal in abundance
by Rich Ruais As recently as 2009, the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) was warning that the eastern Atlantic stock of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea faced “a high risk of fisheries and stock collapse.” This implied terrible stock condition led …
New Maine company offers seafood freezing, packaging, frozen storage
BUCKSPORT, ME – Central Maine Cold Storage is now open for business. The privately funded company formally unveiled its $2 million state-of-the-art, on-demand seafood freezing, packaging, and storage facility on Oct. 9 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony attend by Gov. Paul LePage. The company is offering IQF (individually quick frozen) and blast freezing processes for all …
LMR – Lobster supply increases; prices hold steady
The October lobster market combined dramatically improved catches with many Maine fishermen saying they were now on par with their 2013 numbers, pleasing prices, and mammoth catches from Canada’s Bay of Fundy fishery. The Fundy fishery, Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 35, opened Oct. 15. Though catches varied for each of the fishery’s 95 or so …