Tag Archives: lobster
The ‘Lobster Trap’, Part II – Protests and Prayers
When she heard the news, in the middle of her shift selling tickets at the ferry terminal, Cathy Watt broke down in tears. The U.S. government had just ordered the unprecedented closure of a 1,000 square-mile swath of ocean off Maine’s coast to traditional lobster fishing for four months a year, starting in October. It was a crushing consequence of climate change: Warming oceans have hastened an endangered whale’s journey to the brink of extinction, and now Maine fishermen would pay the price. photos, video, part II of a series, >click to read< 09:49 ‘The Lobster Trap’ >click to read<
‘The Lobster Trap’
You’d never know it to meet McCarthy, an unassuming, soft-spoken man who goes to work in a T-shirt and waterproof oilskins but he is, at 32, among the most successful lobstermen in a place where lobster is king. On this remote and rocky island, 15 miles offshore, virtually everyone from the grocery clerk to the family doctor traces their living back to the tanks full of lobster that these boats haul into port each day.,,, In the next decade, regulators will demand that lobstermen like him, who fish in federal waters, switch to a brand-new type of gear that minimizes risk for whales, by eliminating vertical ropes that can ensnare them. >click to read< 08:24
No Go: High winds again delay start of lobster fishery in southwestern NS
High winds have once again forced a delay in the opening of the commercial lobster fishery in southwestern Nova Scotia and along the province’s south shore in both LFAs 33 and 34. The season will not open on Nov. 29, the traditional ‘last Monday of November’ opening day. Due to the forecast, things are also a no-go for Tuesday, Nov. 30. Industry conference calls in the fishing districts were held with port reps and DFO on Sunday morning to discuss the marine forecast, which called for high winds and has a gale warning in effect. The wind was forecasted to increase to 35 knots southeast on Monday, Nov. 29, with seas building to three to four metres by the afternoon. >click to read< 17:32
Focus is on safety as lobster season opening nears in southwestern NS
Wharves are full of lobster fishing gear waiting to be loaded aboard the more than 1,600 vessels in Lobster Fishing Areas 33 and 34, which will head to sea on dumping day to set their gear. The season is scheduled to open on Nov. 29 in both LFAs, but an early two-day weather window flexibility agreement granted to the industry this year by DFO would allow for the season to open as early as Nov. 27 if the forecast is calling for strong winds on Monday. Saturday, Nov. 27 has already been called as a no-go due to the weather. The next conference call to discuss the weather is set for Friday morning, Nov. 25. >click to read< 11:52
1 in 100 Million! Rare ‘Cotton Candy’ Lobster Caught in Maine
A rare “cotton candy” lobster was caught in a trap off the coast of Maine over the weekend. The chances of finding such a creature, characterized by its beautiful iridescent, pale blue shell, has been estimated to be around one in 100 million. The rare lobster, dubbed “Haddie,” was caught by Bill Coppersmith from Get Maine Lobster,,, The lobsterman named his catch “Haddie” after his granddaughter. The team at Get Maine Lobster has no plans to sell or cook Haddie. Video, photos, >click to read< 14:04
Last ditch effort? MLU gets legislative backing for court fight over Right Whale closure
In some of Maine’s biggest lobster harbors such as Stonington and Deer Isle, the closure of nearly 1,000 square miles of fishing territory is a big worry. In some of Maine’s biggest lobster harbors such as Stonington and Deer Isle, the closure of nearly 1,000 square miles of fishing territory is a big worry. Virginia Olsen fishes there and is also a leader of the Maine Lobstering Union.,, The lobstering union is going to federal court next Friday, hoping to get a temporary restraining order to stop the closure.,,, In advance of that hearing, the Maine Legislature is getting involved. >Video, click to read< 13:35
Sipekne’katik concerned about DFO punching holes in FSC lobsters
Fishery officers have been punching the small circular holes as part of a new compliance initiative to track lobsters that Fisheries and Oceans Canada say “will aid in protecting the integrity of the FSC fishery.” It’s illegal to sell lobster harvested under FSC tags. While DFO maintains that punching holes (like V-notch in Me.) in the lobsters’ tails doesn’t harm them, Shy Francis and Shannon Oliver-Sack said they’ve witnessed otherwise. “They said that they’re not doing any damage to these lobsters, but as soon as we pulled them up, it wasn’t long before they started dying on the boat and they were bleeding out,” >click to read< 08:48
Prince Edward Island fall lobster season sees record prices
The fall lobster season, off the southern and western shores of P.E.I., closes this weekend, and it’s been a good one. Catches were about average, said Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of Lobster P.E.I. “The big change would be the price per pound. The last five weeks or so, it’s been pretty steady at about $8.60 and $9.60, canners and markets respectively,” said McGeoghegan. Those are record highs, he said. >click to read< 13:11
Sipekne’katik First Nation’s lobster study to assess impact of summer and fall fishing
The boat, Mamma Ain’t Happy, is owned by Sipekne’katik First Nation and is fishing under food, social, and ceremonial (FSC) tags. The tags are the licence under which the lobster can legally be fished and allow the band to harvest it for those purposes but not to sell it. After each trip, the catch is brought back to the community for lobster giveaways that feed most of the families in the second-largest Mi’kmaw band in Nova Scotia. But this boat doesn’t just fish for people’s supper. It’s also a data collection site for a study on lobster conservation. >click to read< 13:48
DFO arrests, release 3 connected with last week’s St. Marys Bay lobster shipment seizure
DFO arrested and released three more people in connection with last week’s seizure of a lobster shipment that originated from St. Marys Bay, N.S., where a controversial Mi’kmaw lobster fishery is underway. Last week, DFO said it seized a “significant quantity of lobster,” a vehicle and a trailer in New Brunswick. Two people were arrested and released. The lobsters were released back into the ocean. DFO did not say where or when the three other arrests took place. DFO declined to provide further details because both matters are part of ongoing investigations. >click to read< 22:26
US Lobster Market Price Trends 2021: Industry Overview, Size, Share, Growth and Forecast Till 2026
The United States lobster market is currently witnessing moderate growth and expects the market to continue its moderate growth during the forecast period (2020-2025). We are regularly tracking the direct effect of COVID-19 on the market, along with the indirect influence of associated industries. These observations will be integrated into the report.,, The increasing consumer inclination towards a protein-rich diet, including seafood variants, is currently driving the demand for lobsters in the United States. Furthermore, the rising availability of canned, frozen, and processed product,,, >click to read< 08:55
F/V Clo-Anne hauls up a rare orange lobster off Nauset
Paul Davis has been a commercial lobsterman for 12 years, and the orange lobster he pulled out of a trap just east of Nauset Beach Sept. 7 was the first time he’d seen one of that color. “I’ve never seen anyone else catch one,” he added. Davis, an Orleans resident who fishes on the F/V Clo-Anne that he launches from Town Cove, was pulling his traps off Nauset Beach last Tuesday. “We weren’t having the best day in the world, when all of a sudden my steering stern man said, ‘Look, we’ve got an orange lobster!’” Daniel Hohner held up the creature, and sure enough, it was bright orange, almost pumpkin colored, rather than the typical dark greenish blue or brown. >click to read< 07:57
Fisherman Catches Rare One-in-two Million Blue Lobster
Catching a rare blue lobster is the chances of which are said to be two-million-to-one. The 47 year old fisherman Ricky Greenhowe, engaged in fishing since he was a teenager but he didn’t find such rare blue lobster before and said it was his first such find. After he caught the lobster he had to pinch himself that he had found a rare blue lobster. After he caught the rare lobster he has decided not to sell it but would offer the lobster to an aquarium or put it back in the sea. >click to read< 08:50
‘We’re quite happy’ P.E.I. fall lobster fishery has ‘higher demand than we’ve ever seen before,’
Fall lobster fishing in western P.E.I. seems to be off to a good start amid talk demand could be as high as it’s ever been in the season. On Monday morning, fishermen started setting their traps in Lobster Fishing Area 25, located at the western end of the Northumberland Strait between P.E.I. and New Brunswick. Charlie McGeoghegan, chair of the P.E.I. Lobster Marketing Board, says the sector has benefited recently from a considerable rise in demand for live lobster within Canada, as more people decide to cook at home due to the pandemic. “This year it seems there’s a higher demand than we’ve ever seen before, which we’re quite happy about.” >click to read< 08:19
Rockport, Maine: A day at the wharf
“Go ahead, but stay out of their way,” the man running the wharf tells me, as I head down July 20 to get some photos of the lobster being unloaded from incoming boats. “They’ll knock you over!” There is enough humor in his voice to let me know he is friendly,,, The wharf is not spacious for the amount of work is being done there. Lobster is being loaded from boats into crates that are lifted by a little crane to be loaded onto the trucks. While two sternmen on one boat are quickly unloading, another vessel pulls in nearby to fuel up. Lot of photos of hard working people. >click to read< 11:28
Challenges abound, but lobstermen say they’re in it for the long haul
Around 2 a.m. each morning, a parade of trucks from around the region begins the journey down to the Stonington docks, marking the start of another day of lobstering in Maine. In short, a large part of coastal Hancock County and beyond depend on lobster. One of the locals that has made her living off lobster is Julie Eaton, a member of Stonington’s 300-plus lobster boat fleet. She’s been at it for 39 years now and to her it’s not just a job, it’s a way of life. Every fisherman has their own story, but almost all of them say they got into the business because they love working on the ocean. 
For the hundreds of lobstermen in the region, things are going pretty well at the moment, even with the pandemic. While things are going well, if you talk to almost any Downeast lobstermen about the future of their industry, the conversation will come to two things: right whales and wind turbines. >click to read< 13:28
Proposed Halifax infill threatens the loss of lucrative lobstering grounds
An Eastern Passage lobster fisherman says some of his best catches come from a spot slated for infilling in Halifax’s Northwest Arm. Justin Stewart said Andrew Metlege’s plan to infill (make land) 45 metres out into the Arm in front of a home the developer,,, Stewart doesn’t want to lose the lucrative lobstering area to landfill. “It just sucks because when something like that is lost, then I’ve got to go in and split another place with somebody else. There’s lots of boats around.” He was a tad reluctant to talk about how good the lobster fishing is on the Arm for fear of attracting more competition. “There’s me and one other person and I think most people think we’re kind of crazy up there. But it works pretty good. photos, >click to read< 14:40
Lobster Economics in Knox County – Lobster catch carries on maritime tradition, fuels economy
The lobster industry is a vital one for the region, earning harvesters $111 million in 2020 with a catch of slightly more than 25 million pounds. Statewide, nearly 97 million pounds of lobsters were landed in 2020 in Maine with harvesters paid $406 million. Lobsters account for 79 cents of every $1 of seafood landed in Maine. The overwhelming bulk of the lobsters are caught from July through November. The $111 million paid to Knox County harvesters in 2020 is down from the $143 million earned in 2019. >click to read< 08:05
How lobster fishing began in southern Maine
“Until the twentieth century lobsters could be pulled out from under the rocks,” the preservation society said. “The smaller ones of two pounds or less were often thrown away. Men in a variety of boats, dories, peapods and recently the easily recognized lobster boats powered by motors, set traps along the ledges. Increasing numbers of pots have been attached on a line to a buoy on which each man’s colors can be identified. Most lobstermen spent the winter months making traps, painting buoys and knitting bait bags. Lobstering was usually done in the summer when lobsters moved into warmer waters.” photos, >click to read< 21:37
The lobster genome map – ‘It’s an encyclopedia on how to make a lobster’
Lobster already live in a variety of different habitats around Atlantic Canada, from the relatively warm waters of the Northumberland Strait through progressively warmer waters on P.E.I.’s North Shore, the east coast of Nova Scotia, and the Bay of Fundy. “We want to really understand how that temperature stress is going to impact different stages of lobster, and if that’s going to be the same impact in different areas of Atlantic Canada,” >click to read< 09:24
Our Lobsterman Toby Burnham Catches A Rare Blue Lobster! Of course, The world is going crazy!
He came in to Capt. Joe’s & Sons Inc to take pictures and is releasing it back to the ocean. The lobster is quite an eye catcher, but, Toby Burnham’s mustache? Wow! THAT is absolutely stunning! Photos, and links to other emerging press, located along the sidebar on the page, like CBS News National Morning Show Carries the Blue Lobster Story >click to read< 16:08
Six tiny lobsters born to save species in Mediterranean
Commonly known as the Mediterranean lobster, it is a vulnerable species. Today a research team from the University’s Stella Mare Laboratory Corsica And the French National Center for Scientific Research has managed to control the breeding of this species. In the picture above a newborn lobster. In the project launched in early 2021, researchers have already obtained six samples of lobster, 83 days after hatching, with encouraging data. >click to read< 18:23
Mi’kmaw harvester wants lobsters seized by DFO accounted for
A Mi’kmaw lobster harvester wants to know what happened to his lobster after finally getting his fishing gear back from DFO,,, The gear had been sitting in a federal fisheries compound since then, and Matt Cope of Millbrook First Nation spent months trying to get it back. When Cope unloaded his gear this week, he was shocked to find damaged traps with ropes cut. “Traps aren’t cheap, ropes not cheap,” he said. “When they’re taking it for months at a time, and just all of a sudden giving it back when it’s all damaged, there’s no way we can fish like that.” >click to read< 08:50
Lobster Market Is Going To Boom
Lobster, highly prized seafood, is a shellfish variety used as food materials. Seafood is rich in protein and considered to be one of the main ingredients for overall physical growth. Lobsters, being high in protein, have various health benefits. Owing to rising demand of seafood products, number of restaurants offering lobster is increasing which is driving the global lobster market. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of the Lobster. The study covers emerging player’s data, including: competitive landscape, sales, revenue and global market share,,, >click to read< 12:40
Commercial fishers fined for potentially disturbing migrating whales in Scarborough
Two commercial fishers who potentially disturbed migrating whales off Scarborough with their unsecured lines were the first to be prosecuted under new lobster regulations. The fishers, a 72-year-old from Beaconsfield and a 44-year-old from Bateman, pleaded guilty and were each ordered to pay $7453.90 in fines and court costs at Perth Magistrate’s Court on June 9. According to the amended Management Plan for Commercial rock lobster fishing introduced in 2014, the top third of the length of the pot lines must be held vertically in the water. The officers seized nine lobster pots as a part of the lines of each pot were trailing across the surface of the water. >click to read< 10:25
Fisheries and Oceans Canada held Lobster Science Partnership Roundtable
On June 15, Fisheries and Oceans Canada held a Lobster Science Partnership Roundtable to discuss important lobster science questions and research priorities. Thank you to the more than 40 participants, including Indigenous partners, commercial fishing representatives, other key researchers and Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientists, for their invaluable contribution to the conversation on the work that needs to be done to chart a common course for lobster science. For further information, >click to read< 08:53
Maine’s having a lobster boom. A bust may be coming.
The waters off Maine’s coast are warming, and no one knows what that’s going to mean for the state’s half-billion-dollar-a-year lobster industry, the largest single-species fishery in North America. Some fear that continued warming could cause the lobster population to collapse. The Gulf of Maine, an ocean body brimming with marine life, is cradled by Cape Cod in the south and the Bay of Fundy in the north, and bounded in the east by two underwater shoals, George’s Bank and Brown’s Bank. In 2015, climate scientist Andy Pershing, formerly of the Portland-based nonprofit Gulf of Maine Research Institute, published a paper in Science concluding that the gulf was warming faster than “99% of the global ocean.” That eye-popping revelation was enough to keep fisheries managers and a whole lot of Mainers awake at night. >click to read< 16:27
Lobster prices are through the roof!
As the country reopens post-pandemic, increased demand for lobster and a squeezed supply caused by a state ban on lobstering to protect right whales has resulted in a price spike of about 60% per live lobster. “If there’s no lobsters coming in, then the demand isn’t being met. Those are the cards,” said South Shore Lobsterman Association President John Haverland. According to business publisher Urner Barry, the retail price of a live, one-and-a-half-pound lobster increased from $5.47 a year ago to $9.05 on June 7 this year. >click to read< 08:41
Lobster wars: Norfolk fisherman says too many people cashing in, lobsters being overfished
A Norfolk fisherman with more than 40 years of experience has raised fears that the region’s shores are being overfished of lobsters. David Chambers said bad weather had recently affected lobster supplies. But Mr Chambers also blamed too many people coming into the industry and crowding the waters with their pots on the decline in lobster supplies and the hike in prices. It comes as the seabed from Weybourne to Happisburgh, off the Norfolk coast, was designated a Marine Conservation Zone in 2016.”There are an awful lot of pots and I know some people with big boats who are giving up because there’s too much gear out there, the younger fishermen have no respect, it’s just crazy. >click to read< 11:39
Fire it up! Can Lobsters Get High? A team of scientists tested one restaurateur’s theory
A team of scientists at the University of California San Diego have written a paper in pre-print (meaning the work has not been published or peer reviewed yet), which looks at the effects of THC, the main compound in cannabis that gets you high, on lobsters. The scientists devoted their research hours to these questions in response to a 2018 media storm, started by restaurateur Charlotte Gill. At the time, Gill, owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Southwest Harbor, Maine, wanted to find a way to cook her lobsters more humanely. So can lobsters get high? >click to read< 10:52
