Category: Fisheries

Lifecycle of the American Eel

| Posted in Fisheries

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a feature article on the culinary and commercial ecology of elvers.

The short-term profits for baby eels are sweet – elvers are Maine’s second most lucrative water-based resource after lobster – but the long-term potential of growing those eels out to the more valuable adults here in Maine? Much sweeter, [fisherman Don] Sprague believes. Eel might be low on the list of Mainers’ favorite foods, but that doesn’t mean more of a profit couldn’t be made from other cultures’ love for it, or from the American sushi market. Sprague spells out the equation. “That $2,000 the fisherman got?” he said. “Now you multiply it times six.”

Green Crab Invasion & Review of Eventide/Street & Co.

| Posted in Fisheries, Reviews

This week’s Portland Phoenix includes an article about the invasive green crab and the impact its having on the Maine shellfish industry,

They’re green, they’re mean, and they’re endangering not only Maine’s soft-shell clam population, but also oysters, mussels, lobsters, and eelgrass. This menace is known as the green crab (a/k/a carcinus maenas), an invasive, omnivorous species that has been in Maine for 114 years but only recently began affecting the productivity of clam flats in places like Freeport, Brunswick, and on down the coast.

The new issue also includes a review of Eventide and Street & Co.

Maine Shrimp, Mayor’s Local Food Initiative, Reader’s Response

| Posted in Fisheries, Farming, Cooking, General News

Today’s Press Herald Food & Dining section includes an article about how home cooks and restaurants are dealing with the lack of Maine shrimp,

With so many people pining for the tiny crustaceans, I thought it would be interesting to see if there are still any frozen shrimp out there from the 2013 season for consumers to snap up before they’re gone for good. I also checked in with some Maine restaurants to see what they will be offering on their menus as an alternative to Maine shrimp.

an article about the mayor’s local food initiative,

A task force convened by Mayor Michael Brennan in 2012 is moving forward with a number of initiatives aimed at giving the city’s residents more opportunities to eat local and nutritious food. While the urban farm and flock of sheep are only in the discussion phase, work is underway to make school lunch more popular by cooking with local foods and to increase the number of community garden plots.

and a collection of reader responses to Meredith Goad’s January 1 article about her hopes for the food scene in 2014.

Fly Points & Maine Shrimp

| Posted in People, Fisheries

MPBN has aired an interview with Eric Horne and Valy Steverlynk about their Flying Points oyster farm in Freeport.

Eric Horne and his wife, Valy Steverlynk (above), fire up their skiff and motor down the Royal River away from the Yarmouth marina and out into Casco Bay. It’s a cold December morning and theirs is the only boat on the water.

They’re on their way to check an oyster bed they’ve been leasing for more than 10 years. After a bone-chilling five-minute trip, they arrive at the site, where they hope to collect about 500 oysters.

Working Waterfront has published a report that explores the possible causes of the collapse of the Maine shrimp fishery.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission did not close this fishery simply because the population was low, but more because we don’t seem to have enough baby shrimp to build a future upon. It was determined by managers that to give this stock the best chance for recovery we needed to leave all the shrimp now in the water in the hope that they spawn and produce abundant offspring.

Hugo’s Chefs on Maine Shrimp

| Posted in Fisheries

MPBN has interviewed chefs Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley about the cancellation of this year’s Maine shrimp season.

Wiley says shrimp have been scarce the last couple of years, but to have to take them off the menu this winter is disappointing.

“It means one less exciting local product to work with,” Wiley says. “That’s certainly a bit of a drag, but we’d like to see Maine shrimp on menus 10 years from now more than we need to have it on the menu this upcoming year.”

Maine Shrimp Season Cancelled (Updated)

| Posted in Fisheries

The Bangor Daily News is reporting that regulators have cancelled the 2013-2014 Maine shrimp season.

Northeastern regulators shut down the Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery for the first time in 35 years Tuesday afternoon, worried by reports of what researchers called a fully “collapsed” stock that could be driven to near extinction with any 2014 catch.

Update: You’ll also want to read the article in Wednesday’s Press Herald.

Review of Boone’s, Restaurant Claims, Maine’s Seaweed Industry

| Posted in Fisheries, Reviews, General News

Portland magazine has published a review of Boone’s,

It’s amazing that a lost institution like Boone’s can be found like this. The happy noise and fun and pounding music assures you you’ve found the mystical place you’ve been looking for. Come on in and crack one open. We rate this place five seagulls.

an interview with Tollef K. Olson of Ocean Approved about Maine’s seaweed industry,

A multi-billion-dollar industry is making a big splash on Maine’s shores. “We’re going global in the spring,” says Tollef K. Olson (pictured right), CEO and founder of Ocean Approved at 188 Presumpscot Street in Portland, an innovative firm that’s creating a lucrative market for Maine’s kelp beds overnight.

and an article about the claims made about and by Portland restaurants (go to page 47)

[There’s n]othing Maine loves more than food bragging rights, a best-of-boast, a pub fact.

Maine Shrimp Population Down

| Posted in Fisheries

Today’s Press Herald includes a report on the Maine shrimp population.

This summer’s shrimp index was at its lowest point since the annual trawl survey began in 1984, said Maggie Hunter, a scientist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources who sits on a three-state technical committee that analyzes the data and recommends what the rules should be for the upcoming season.

Regulators will use the survey when they meet in November to decide the dates of this winter’s shrimp-fishing season — or if there will be one at all.

Interview with Abigail Carroll

| Posted in People, Fisheries

The Root has published an interview with Abigail Carroll, the owner of Nonesuch Oysters in Scarborough.

Would you describe the “traditional, environmentally-safe” grow-out method you use.
We buy very small spat, about 1.5 mm in size, and put it into a nursery – an up-weller – where the oysters are contained and fed by water we pump from the estuary. There are no additives; they drink only natural water from the estuary. When the oysters get to be about ¼” we take them to our grow-out site in floating bags where they stay until we harvest. As the farm grows, we hope to do more ground seeding. Our “Free Range” oysters are particularly gorgeous.