By Shelley Dawicki Northeast Fisheries Science Center GULF OF MAINE — Two passive acoustic data collection efforts are underway in the Gulf of Maine to gather information on North Atlantic right whales. One will deploy fixed archival-acoustic recorders mounted on the ocean bottom for a specific period of time. The other will use autonomous underwater …
ELLSWORTH – In an early January letter to Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, the National Marine Fisheries Service rejected a Maine plan to reduce the risk of endangered right whales becoming entangled in lobster gear, saying the plan did not go far enough. Keliher told the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee about the letter …
TRENTON — Lobster 207 LLC, the wholesale and retail lobster merchant owned by the Maine Lobstering Union, has announced completion of its new management structure. Last spring, the union-owned cooperative hired Mike Yohe as its chief executive officer. He had served as Lobster 207’s director of business development. Last week, Lobster 207 announced that Carmen …
ELLSWORTH — Already battered by the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, the market for lobsters took another hit last month as the Chinese New Year festivals celebrating the Year of the Rat were tempered by the more or less simultaneous onset of the year of the coronavirus. The start of the …
ELLSWORTH — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service will hold off on announcing new rules aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales from entanglement with fishing gear, including Maine lobster fishing gear, until at least July. The agency, also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), had been expected to release proposed rules …
ROCKPORT — The annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum opens on Thursday, March 5, and runs through Sunday at the Samoset Resort. “Early bird” reservations are due Feb. 14. In addition to a huge maritime trade show and dozens of serious seminars, the Forum includes a variety of social activities and a silent auction and dinner that …
SEARSPORT — The Penobscot Marine Museum presents a weekend of workshops, guided tours and presentations Feb. 15-16. On Saturday, February 15, the museum will hold a Sailors’ Valentine workshop, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sailors’ Valentines are a form of seashell art that 19th-century sailors would make and bring home to their wives, girlfriends, …
ELLSWORTH — Christmas and New Years are now long past and spring seems a long way away, just the time to check up on how boats in storage are faring during their long winter naps. At the least, a timely mid-winter visit to the boatyard (or door yard) may go a long way toward ensuring …
AUGUSTA — Somes Sound and the Cranberry Isles are closed to scallop harvesting for the remainder of the season, effective Sunday. The Maine Department of Marine Resources announced the emergency rule Jan. 31. “The Department is concerned that continued harvesting for the remainder of the 2019-2020 fishing season in these areas will reduce scallop broodstock …
BAR HARBOR — The MDI Biological Laboratory has received a $75,000 donation grant from The Cotswold Foundation that will add the African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) to its growing roster of animal models, thus strengthening the institution’s longstanding tradition of engaging in comparative research to gain an understanding of the mechanisms involved in aging and …
