Tag Archives: fixed gear fisheries

P.E.I. fishermen getting more time to start using breakaway lines that protect right whales

When the deaths of dozens of right whales made headlines in 2017, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans took notice. It saw that whales were getting tangled in fishing gear and dying when they couldn’t escape. So, the department set a deadline for Canadian fixed gear (trap) fisheries to begin using breakaway lead lines that would allow anything weighing 1,700 pounds or more to break free. That deadline was extended last year until 2023, and last month it was extended for another year, said Melanie Griffin, a marine biologist with the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association. >click to read< 10:48

Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation: A Statement on Today’s NOAA Right Whale Decision

Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation calls on state and federal authorities to do all they can to change the decision handed down by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan today. “This is incredulous. Maine lobstermen and women are not killing right whales. Why would you penalize an iconic Maine industry for the sake of being able to say you are saving right whales? It’s like cutting off an arm when it’s the foot that is the problem and pretending you have fixed the problem. This industry is under fire from every direction – right whales and large industrial aquaculture. The whale deaths are not in Maine nor at the hands of Maine lobstermen.” >click to read< 13:15

Fed Lobster Rules Call For Seasonal Closures Off Maine, Weak Rope To Help Protect Right Whales

Federal regulators on Tuesday morning issued new rules for lobster and other trap-pot fisheries that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from harmful entanglements. The new rule includes a seasonal closure of a large area of fishing grounds dozens of miles off Maine’s midcoast, requires the use of weak “breakaway” rope and increases the number of traps that must be used per line, thus reducing the overall amount of rope in the water. >click to read< 13:00

A Statement from Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation>click to read<

Second phase of regulation changes to protect North Atlantic right whales include groundfisheries

The federal Large Whale Take Reduction Team instituted sweeping changes in the rules governing the Northeast lobster and Jonah crab fisheries to help reduce gear entanglements. Now, the team is turning its attention to other fisheries in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic The second phase is expected to significantly impact a number of commercial gillnet fisheries in New England and elsewhere along the East Coast, including monkfish, spiny dogfish, skate and other groundfish fisheries. The second phase also will address trap/pot fisheries not covered in the first phase, including Atlantic deep-sea red crab, slime eels, black sea bass, shrimp, scup and others. >click to read< 18:25

Fed Right whale plan could mean lobster industry changes – a reinvention of the fishery as we know it

Federal officials recently released plans,,, But it’s the risk reduction target, an aggressive 98 percent, that Maine Department of Marine Resources officials said means only one thing, “a complete reinvention of the fishery as we know it.” The conservation framework, an addition to the 582-page biological opinion, creates a four-phased approach to all but eliminate the death and serious injury of the whales in federally managed fishing grounds. The first phase calls for a 60 percent reduction in right whale deaths and serious injuries this year. Patrice McCarron, Maine Lobstermen’s Association, fears the industry can’t sustain that level of change.  “If you look at the changes we’ve made over the last 25 years, there’s not a lot left to give,”, >click to read< 10:27