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Can you eat Maine bluefin tuna with a clear conscience?
It s complicated, but here s a hint to tuna lovers: the news is good.
By Christine Burns Rudalevige
There is no silver bullet solution to managing the complicated Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery.
These slow-growing but lightning-fast fish are highly migratory, a fact that can skew regional stock assessments. Changing ocean water temperatures as a result of climate change mean that where these predators can find enough food to sustain their 500-pound bodies is also changing.
The age at which the fish reach sexual maturity can vary by as many as six years, making it difficult to gauge how stocks will rebound from overfishing. And the type of gear used to catch Atlantic bluefin ranges from single harpoons to multiple drifting longlines, a fact that divides the fishery into a dizzying array of sub-categories.
By Staff
A campaign to drive seafood orders at Maine restaurants netted $33,000 in sales from diners over just six days.
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland launched “Split the Seafood Bill” as a one-day campaign on Dec. 16, 2020, to bolster sales of seafood during the pandemic.
After restaurants reported a strong response from customers, GMRI reached out to corporate partners to get funding to continue the program, according to a news release.
Using funding from Hannaford, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, SMRT Inc. and People’s United Bank, with additional support from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation and the Goldie Anna Charitable Trust, Split the Seafood Bill was extended to run on four Thursdays from Feb. 18 to March 11.
French food services and facilities management company Sodexo, which employs 760 people in Maine, on Monday unveiled plans to invest at least $1 million in the state s food economy during 2021.
The company said it will do so in the form of local food purchases via more than 130 existing partnerships with farms, food producers and fisheries.
Sodexo, a Fortune 500 company with a $21 million payroll in Maine, serves 13,000 meals daily at 14 colleges and hospitals statewide, including Central Maine Medical Center, the University of Southern Maine and Southern Maine Community College.
Sodexo noted that Maine has 7,600 farms, more than any other New England state, 40% of which are owned by Mainers under age 34.