Today’s Press Herald includes a report on the abbreviated 2012 Maine Shrimp season.

Shrimp fishermen have been given a catch limit of 4.4 million pounds for the upcoming season, down from the 13 million pounds they caught last season. The new season will begin Monday and end when the catch limit is reached.

Also in today’s paper is letter to the editor in favor of better pay for chefs.

Today’s Press Herald includes a report on this year’s scallop harvest.

“The prices these guys are going to get are probably going to be higher than they’ve ever gotten in the history of this fishery,” said Temple, who has been selling scallops for 35 years. The higher price for fishermen means that consumers will pay more in restaurants and food stores.

Sea scallops, which are similar to but bigger than bay scallops, have been harvested along the Maine coast since the late 1800s. At times, scallops have been the state’s second-most valuable seafood, behind lobster.

The Press Herald has published a report on efforts to energize the Maine sea urchin fishery.

During the heyday, Maine urchin fishermen harvested more than 40 million pounds of the spiny creatures a year. A move is now under way to jumpstart the industry, which has fallen on hard times and is just a skeleton of its former self.

According to a report in today’s Press Herald, a rules change will now allow Maine lobster companies to process oversized lobsters.

The new rules roll back restrictions that had forced Maine lobster processors to follow the same size limits as the state’s fishermen, even on lobsters caught outside the state. They allow the processors to turn the oversized lobsters, most of which come from Canada, into products sold to restaurants and retailers.

Working Waterfront reports that the 2011-2012 Maine Shrimp season is being curtailed.

On October 28, regulators with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission imposed new restrictions for the upcoming shrimping season, including halving the season’s total allowable catch to 2,000 metric tons. Also, the start of the northern shrimp-fishing season was pushed back into early 2012.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a report on the sustainable seafood chefs will be cooking with at the Ultimate Seafood Splash during Harvest on the Harbor.

But mackerel is out of season this time of year, and it doesn’t freeze well, so redfish — also known as ocean perch — has replaced it on Hayward’s Harvest on the Harbor menu. Redfish is usually available year round, but it comes closer to shore in summer and fall, according to Grimley.

A favorite of fishermen often relegated to the baitfish bin, redfish tastes similar to cod or haddock, but is a smaller filet and a little more dense.

Today’s Press Herald reports on an effort by local restaurants and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to (re)kindle eating interest in fish species that are plentiful.

In the past year a group of chefs, restaurants and fishermen have been working with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to put under-used fish species on consumers’ radars. The idea is not only to take the pressure off over-fished species, such as flounder and haddock, but also to open up new markets for Gulf of Maine fishermen.

An article in today’s New York Times explores the idea that Maine’s reliance on the lobster fishery creates a “gilded trap” for Maine fisherman.

Maine lobsters, prized for their succulence and briny sweetness, are so abundant, and so lucrative, that they support fishing communities up and down the coast.

And that is just the problem, says Robert S. Steneck, a marine biologist at the University of Maine.

In a paper in the current issue of Conservation Biology, he and a team of researchers say the lobstermen, their communities and the state economy are caught in “a gilded trap,” in which short-term profit outweighs long-term social and environmental risks.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes articles on how Maine regulates who does and does not get a lobster fishing license,

The central question is whether the rules governing lobster licenses should remain as they are — open to residents under age 18 at little cost, but effectively off-limits to almost everyone else — or whether anyone should be allowed to fish as long as he can afford to buy a license from another fisherman who has one.

and an essay by Elizabeth Tarasevich on the Brentwood Farm community garden in Deering.

Last year, neighbors and several local businesses joined to build a beautiful and bountiful urban garden. It includes plots for 65 families, 20 common share beds, community orchards, herb beds and berry patches for all local residents to enjoy.

Both the Press Herald  and MPBN has reported on proposed changes to the way the Maine Shrimp fishery is regulated that would limit the number of shrimp licenses issued.

“This fishery still remains open access, however the section has put in a control date which is June 7th, 2011. The purpose of that is that participants before that date may be treated differently than participants that come after that date,” [Michael] Waine says.

While Gulf of Maine shrimp populations are not thought to be directly threatened at the moment, Waine says there is concern that the amount of shrimp being caught over the last two years has exceeded the recommended catch limits.

Ruski’s received 4 stars from the Eat & Run review in today’s Press Herald.

The other marvelous thing about Ruski’s is the brunch menu, which is available all day. From eggs and hash to waffles and omelets, they’ve got the bases covered. With a friendly staff, the Red Sox game on mute and some good old-fashioned staples, I dare say I may soon become a Ruski’s regular.

Today’s paper also includes an article about the low levels of red tide in Maine this year,

Maine and the rest of New England have had a second straight year of mild red tide outbreaks, bringing relief to the clamming industry after two consecutive years of widespread clam flat closures because of red tide.

and the latest installment of the What Ales You column.

Fool’s Gold is Sebago’s version of a California common ale, the most common of which is Anchor Steam Beer out of San Francisco. Although it’s made with lager yeast, it’s fermented at room temperature instead of the cooler temperatures usually used for a lager.

Today’s Press Herald included articles about the Calendar Island Mussel Company,

The Calendar Island Mussel Co. — named after an old term for the Casco Bay islands — joins similar aquaculture operations near Clapboard, Bangs and Basket islands, in the western part of the bay, that are growing mussels, oysters and seaweed.

They’d like to make a dent in shocking international trade statistics that show about 85 percent of seafood sold in the United States comes from other countries, and about half of the imported seafood is farm-raised. Shrimp from Thailand. Salmon from Norway. Mussels from Chile.

and about the South Portland branch of Pizza by Angelone,

Neither Mains nor her mother, Trina Angelone Mains, plan on being around when the bulldozers show up here at the corner of Broadway and Ocean Street.

The metal-wrapped building with distinct rounded corners, built as a gas station in 1940, will be demolished to make way for a new branch of the Bath Savings Institution. The gas station was converted into a pizza shop by Jack Angelone in 1969, as he expanded his pizza franchise from his home restaurant at Monument Square.

Today’s Press Herald includes a profile of two Scarborough River oyster farmers,

[Nate] Perry and Abigail Carroll, another fledgling farmer, are among the first to try oyster aquaculture in the Scarborough River. The location, with its tidal currents and particular nutrients, creates oysters that they try to describe with such adjectives as briny, sweet, creamy and grassy.

“That’s what an oyster is — it’s the taste of the sea where it came from,” Perry said.

and a reprise of the recent activities in Willard Square that led to a 3-month building moratorium and two entrepreneurs reevaluating their plans to open a market in the Square.

Encouraged by the city’s planning office and zoning that calls for up to six more businesses at Willard Square, the partners envisioned a small market that would be built next to Perry’s two-story apartment house.

What they didn’t foresee was the opposition.

Senator Olympia Snow penned a Maine Voices article for today’s Press Herald about progress in the management of Maine fisheries.

When the New England Fisheries Management Council charted a new course in 2009 that gave fishermen more tools to better manage their stocks, I looked no further than Maine’s own industry for critical input in the development and evaluation of national fisheries policies going forward. Two years later, I am pleased to report that preliminary data is promising.

and the Portland Daily Sun wrote about two alcohol related proposals before the Maine Legislature.

One proposal, LD 901, would bar individuals under the age of 21 from being in Class A lounges licensed to sell alcohol, even if alcohol is not being served during an all-ages event. Another, LD 902, would require establishments to sell liquor at a profit — targeting events like 25 cent beer nights which some say encourage irresponsible drinking habits.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a report the parasitic disease MSX that’s threatening the oyster industry in Maine,

It was always thought that Maine waters were too cold for the parasite to take hold — until last July. That’s when dead oysters began to show up in the holding rafts, where they are stored for a couple of weeks of de-silting after being harvested from their muddy beds farther up the river.

and profiles of Stonewall Kitchen and its two founders Jonathan King and Jim Stott,

When the partners launched Stonewall Kitchen in 1991, they just wanted to earn a few extra bucks to pay off student loans.

But the market for specialty jams, jellies and sauces, which the partners initially cooked in King’s grandparents’ summer cabin, proved bigger than they imagined. Much bigger.