Tag Archives: Genevieve McDonald
Mills Wants PETA Ad Slamming Seafood Gone from Portland Jetport
In a letter sent to the director of the Portland International Jetport, Maine Governor Janet Mills says she would like an ad created by animal rights group PETA removed. The banner ad, which is on a wall above a busy escalator, shows a whale inside of a fishing net. It reads “save the whales,” “don’t eat fish, “go vegan,” and urges passengers to avoid seafood. That sentiment does not sit well with Mills and other lawmakers, given that Maine has a fishing industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Video, >click to read< 18:56
Maine: Whale rules, pending lawsuits focus of gloomy Lobster Advisory Council meeting
A complicated and potentially grim future is predicted for the commercial lobster industry, with environmental groups, gear changes, the closure of offshore waters to lobster fishing and judicial rulings painting a “doom and gloom” picture, in the words of Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher. “I think there’s going to be a lot of moving pieces,” Some of those pieces could spell the end of the commercial lobster fishery in Maine, DMR Deputy Commissioner Meredith Mendelson said, as she ran through the current lawsuits aimed at preserving the North Atlantic right whale. If any or all prevail, the lobster fishery will bear the brunt of the results. >click to read< 08:12
Maine Lobstering Union, lobster dealers sue over offshore closure
The union and its co-plaintiffs allege that the closure is “the product of an arbitrary and capricious agency action” and argued that the federal government’s own data showed there has not been an entanglement in Maine lobster gear for nearly 20 years. Instead, the National Marine Fisheries Service made the closure “simply to spread risk reduction responsibility across jurisdictions, without regard to the fact that lobster fishing is far more important to Maine’s economy than it is to that of any other state.” >click to read< 13:26
Documents Reveal ‘Catastrophic Impact’ Right Whale Protections Could Have On Lobster Industry
Newly released documents by Maine’s Department of Resources are providing a glimpse of what federal action to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales could look like — including the closure of extensive areas of offshore ocean to lobstering. In an August letter to the head of the agency that reviews proposed federal regulations, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher asked for a meeting to go over options for reducing the risk of right whales becoming dangerously entangled in lobster trap gear and rope. That was after conversations with the federal Northeast Fisheries Science Center that brought to light a proposal that could put big swaths of ocean off-limits to lobstering in federal waters known as Lobster Conservation Management Areas, or LCMAs. >click to read< 18:46
Maine: 1 in 3 Lobstermen got small Paycheck Protection Program loans
About $14.9 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loans of less than $150,000 have been handed out to 1,358 Maine lobstermen, according to an analysis of newly released U.S. Small Business Administration data. That puts lobstermen ahead of full-service restaurants, real estate offices, beauty salons and home builders, which rounded out the top five Maine industries receiving small PPP loans. Maine’s $1.4 billion-a-year lobster industry – including those who buy, sell and process lobster as well as catch it – have received 1,495 forgivable PPP loans worth at least $24.2 million, so far. Fishermen got the lion’s share of the industry’s total PPP money, but only because they outnumber dealers, retailers and processors. Some dealers got loans of up to $1 million. >click to read< 07:15
Island Democrats to help pick House nominee – Both women are lobster boat captains
There are few contested primaries on the ballot this year but one is the Democratic nomination to represent the House district that includes Vinalhaven and North Haven. Incumbent State Rep. Genevieve McDonald of Stonington is being challenged in the July 14 primary election by Julie Eaton of Deer Isle. Both women are lobster boat captains. McDonald is serving her first two-year term in the House, being elected in 2018.,, Eaton was born in Ellsworth, grew up in Surry, is a lobster boat captain starting her 35th season working on the water. >click to read< 08:20
Hustle and Innovation: Maine fishermen turn to direct-to-consumer outlets
Fishermen and seafood farmers are struggling with markets that have recently slammed shut. But over the past week, at least a few outlets have been established to connect the businesses directly to consumers. A new Facebook group called Maine’s Working Waterfront-Seafood Connect began offering consumers the chance to pre-order lobster, oysters and other seafood. Two pick-ups have been held in Rockland. >click to read< 06:40
Rep. Genevieve McDonald seeks re-election to House District 134
Representative Genevieve McDonald, D-Stonington, has announced her re-election campaign as a candidate for the Maine House of Representatives for District 134. “It has been my honor to serve this district and I hope to continue working for the people as their representative in Augusta,” she said in a news release. McDonald is a commercial lobsterman and serves on the Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources, according to a press release. more, >click to read< 08:25
“Earlier in the season it looked like it could be bad,” – Maine lobster landings down about 16% last year, commissioner says, but still beat expectations
“They caught a lot of lobsters in the last few months of the year and made up a lot of ground.” Keliher told the show’s hosts that initial landing reports suggest the lobster industry would finish 2019 with a 100 million-pound harvest. If that number holds, it would be 16 percent lower than 2018’s 119.6 million pounds landed, and nearly 15 percent less than the five-year average. On Tuesday, Keliher said Maine’s most valuable fishery, which had a dock value of $485 million in 2018, seemed to be in good shape. >click to read< 08:22
Meetings this week – Lobster industry braces for right whale changes amid turbulent times
“Right now, we’re all fishing hard, so it’s taking our mind off it some, but it feels like we’ve been waiting and worrying about what whales might do to us for so long now,” said Jake Thompson, a Vinalhaven lobsterman. “We can manage the rest of it, but whales? Everybody’s worried about whales.” Lobstermen will have a chance to weigh in on Maine’s plan to protect the endangered right whale from buoy line entanglements at Maine Department of Marine Resources meetings in Ellsworth, Waldoboro and South Portland this week. >click to read< 06:51
Changing climate boosts Maine lobster industry — for now
Maine’s lobster industry has found itself in something of a climate change sweet spot. The state’s coastal waters are still cold enough for lobster to thrive, but warming ocean temperatures are now encouraging them to settle here, mate and eventually shed their hard shells.,,, “Maine has enjoyed this abundant, expanding resource but everything that comes up must come down, and that is very related to climate change because that is very related to water temperature,” said Genevieve McDonald, a lobsterman and Stonington’s new representative in the Maine Legislature. >click to read< 16:44
Genevieve McDonald — a lobster boat captain and legislator — to graduate with highest distinction
Some people call Genevieve McDonald, Captain. Five months a year, she fishes for lobsters in Western Penobscot Bay. Others know her as Rep. McDonald. The Democratic legislator represents 8,000-plus people living on island communities around Stonington, Maine. In 2018, 67 percent of House District 134 voters elected to send her to Augusta. Students at Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School, where she’s worked as a long-term substitute, call her Mrs. McDonald. To Evalina and Elise, the 1-year-old twins she parents with husband Cory, she’s Mom. And May 11 at Commencement at the University of Maine, she’ll be a college graduate, summa cum laude. >click to read<11:42
Maine is running out of lobster bait. Is salmon the answer?
Genevieve McDonald fishes out of Maine’s largest lobster port aboard the F/V Hello Darlings II. Last November, she became Maine’s first female commercial fisherman (“fisherman” and “lobsterman” are the strongly preferred terms for both women and men in the industry, she says) elected to the Maine House of Representatives, representing a district that includes Maine’s two biggest lobster ports. Not surprisingly, McDonald ran on a platform many in the fishing industry support. But above all else, one issue stood out. “Our biggest issue is the bait crisis,” she said in November,,, >click to read<11:51
Painting the ‘Lobstering Women of Maine’
“It started with Suzanna, that one right there,” White said in late March, pointing to a large painting in her Church Street studio, just around the corner from Belfast Historical Society Museum. In November 2017, White said she watched the painting’s subject unloading lobster traps at Belfast Harbor. A sternman on her husband’s boat, the woman was clearly in charge of her territory. White said she watched in awe. “She unloaded every one of them and, hey, there’s no way! My husband fishes; there’s no way I’d be doing that,” White said. The experience that snow-dusted day got White thinking. She’d painted many lobster fishermen over the years — but never a woman. That was going to change. “I get these ideas, you know? But I don’t think I’ve ever been so obsessed about >click to read<
Commercial lobsterman and new mom Genevieve McDonald wins District 134
“I’m excited to get to work,” McDonald said from Route 1 as she headed home on Wednesday. “I’m excited to serve under Maine’s first female governor.” District 134 represents the towns of Southwest Harbor, Tremont, the Cranberry Isles, Swan’s Island and Frenchboro. McDonald defeated Brady in all towns except Swan’s Island, where Brady had 11 more votes in a 109–98 tally. In every other town McDonald had the majority vote, often nearly twice the vote for Brady. >click to read<12:20
Trawl limit in Blue Hill Bay not an end to cross-zone fishing issue
A possible compromise with Zone B lobstermen over the boundary lines of a new five-trap trawl limit occupied a Zone C lobster council meeting October 1, the day the rule went into effect. The trawl limit covers a Zone B that is also fished by Zone C license holders, about six miles off Frenchboro around Mt. Desert Rock. A Zone B-proposed boundary line change would move the trawl-limit area from the west side to the east side of the rock. Zone B council initiated the trawl limit rule change because they “were getting boxed out by trawls,” Maine Department of Resources Lobster Council Liaison Sarah Cotnoir said,,, >click to read<14:42
McDonald announces candidacy for House District 134 – Commercial fishing issues ‘significant part’ of platform
Island resident Genevieve McDonald seeks to join the Maine House of Representatives as legislator for District 134, she recently announced. She filed papers in 2017 as a Democratic nominee for the district that covers Stonington, Deer Isle, Isle au Haut, Southwest Harbor, Swan’s Island, North Haven, Tremont, Vinalhaven, Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, and the unorganized territory of Marshall Island Township.,, McDonald, a commercial lobsterman, is also the Downeast Region Representative to the Maine Lobster Advisory Council, and said issues surrounding the commercial fishing industry are “a significant part of my platform.” >click here to read< 12:47
This article more than appalled me, I was hurt and offended. Genevieve McDonald, F/V Hello Darlin’ II
I am a commercial fisherman out of Stonington, Maine, and though I do not speak on their behalf I am the Downeast Region Representative on the Maine Lobster Advisory Council. I was utterly appalled by the article, What it’s like to kill hundreds of lobsters a day, written by “coastal reporter” Alex Acquisto. click here to read the story The Maine lobster industry is not only vital to the economy of coastal Maine, but is also one of the last natural resource revenue builders in the state of Maine. Through the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative fishermen have invested millions of dollars to promote Maine lobster. But it’s more than that – the Maine lobster industry is iconic. For many of your readers in Washington, Hancock, Waldo, and Knox counties lobster is integral to our culture, identity, and sense of place. click here to read the opinion piece by Genevieve McDonald, F/V Hello Darlin’ II, Stonington, Maine 10:59
New organization for ‘chix who fish’ in the works
A group of women commercial fishermen — brought together via a social media campaign to bring attention to the lack of fishing gear for women — has expanded its scope and is now working toward forming the first Women’s Commercial Fisheries Alliance. In 2013, Genevieve McDonald, captain of lobster vessel Hello Darlin’ II, launched a Facebook page called ‘Chix Who Fish’ which successfully raised awareness to the lack of foul weather gear for women commercial fishermen, as they refer to themselves, who often resort to duct taping men’s gear that is too large or settling for ill-fitting children’s sizes. Read the article here 13:35
