Category: Fisheries

Today’s Press Herald includes an article on two local community Supported Fisheries, Salt & Sea and Eat Local Fish.

The other buy-direct option is Salt and Sea (saltandsea.me), which is more of a traditional community-supported fishery that is less than a year old. Salt and Sea is similar to Port Clyde Fresh Catch, the popular midcoast CSF that has gotten nationwide attention but does not deliver to the Portland area. With this option, you pay upfront for several weeks’ worth of deliveries, and pick up the fish yourself at one of several drop-off points.

This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix reports on GMRI’s Out of the Blue program.

There’s a delicious opportunity this summer to give more plentiful local varieties a chance through the annual “Out of the Blue” campaign the Gulf of Maine Research Institute runs in partnership with area fine-dining establishments. This week’s promotion focuses on Atlantic mackerel, nearly twice as high as salmon in omega-3 fatty acids but one of the least used from Maine waters. Europeans and the Japanese love it.

Both the Bangor Daily News and Portland Press Herald report that Shucks Maine Lobster is trying to lease space on the Maine State Pier to expand their operation.

Shucks Maine Lobster wants to launch a new processing facility on Portland’s city-owned Maine State Pier, adding jobs and expanding the amount of lobster meat it processes and exports from the state.

Today’s Press Herald includes a front page story on the Maine elvers fishery.

Elvers — by Maine law, American eels less than 6 inches long — have waxed and waned in value among the state’s fisheries, ranging from the low wholesale price of about $25 a pound just 10 years ago to last year’s all-time high of $2,000. Last week they were commanding a wholesale price of between $1,500 and $1,800 from Portland-area dealers.

This week’s Portland Phoenix reports on the burgeoning Maine seaweed industry.

Maine is at the forefront, in the US, of seaweed foraged wild and now cultivated. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, headed by macrobiotic entrepreneur Shep Erhart, was the first American company to harvest and sell whole indigenous seaweeds, more than 40 years ago.

We even have a dedicated seaweed extension agent, Sarah Redmond, encouraging rope-cultured mussel farmers and lobsterman to try this counter-season winter crop. Redmond touts “integrated multi-trophic aquaculture,” where farmed shellfish feed on the waste generated by salmon farms, and cultivated kelp then filters out remaining phosphorous and nitrogen, similar to land-based polyculture farms. Maine seafood promoter Monique Coombs thinks “seaweed will get really hot” here in the next few years.

Linda Greenlaw and Browne Trading are teaming up to offer bluefin tuna charters this summer.

Greenlaw, an Isle au Haut resident, author and world-renowned fisherman, will offer chartered fishing tours for bluefin tuna out of Portland Harbor through Browne Trading Co. on Commercial Street…Trips will be aboard the Hazel Browne, a 46-foot Wesmac owned by Rod Mitchell, the owner of Browne Trading Co.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article on GMRI’s partnership with Maine restaurants to increase the use of sustainable fish species on their menu.

Samuel Grimley, sustainable seafood project manager at GMRI, said the institute has been planning Culinary Partners for a little over a year now, and held a couple of feedback meetings with restaurateurs to get their input as the program was developed.

Since February, five Maine restaurants have joined up and set goals for themselves for the coming year. In addition to Five Fifty-Five, the other members are Sonny’s and Local 188 in Portland, Sea Glass at Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth and the Jordan Pond House restaurant on Mount Desert Island.

Have you been missing Maine shrimp on the menu at your favorite restaurants? Here’s why:

But it’s turned out to be an even bigger bust than anybody anticipated. The shrimp catch has been meager, resulting in a short supply for processors and higher prices for consumers. The season is on course for the smallest harvest in more than 30 years, and possibly since 1978 when the fishery was shut down altogether.