by Catherine Schmitt On Friday, I visited the Downeast Salmon Federation for their annual Smelt Fry celebration. Director Dwayne Shaw gave a tour of the salmon hatchery, where staff and volunteers raise salmon fry for stocking in the Pleasant River. Next to the hatchery is a new fish shack being built to replace an historic […]
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by Catherine Schmitt At the March 12 Orono Farmer’s Market, I picked up half a pound of fresh scallops from the Lobster Shack truck (as well as some Stonington crab meat and one lobster, but that’s another story). Some of the scallops had a peachy-pink hue, which I knew was a natural tint, thanks to Marine […]
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by Catherine Schmitt After a lovely meal of diver-harvested Maine sea scallops at The Salt Exchange, I am making a note to myself to eat more scallops before the season in Maine waters ends March 27. Maine fishermen deliver fresh sea scallops to local restaurants the same day they are caught. The eye, or adductor […]
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by Catherine Schmitt Within 24 hours of the latest Fathoming feature, about a harmful disease that now threatens Maine’s oyster industry, national news wires sizzled with reports of a study in the February issue of the journal BioScience. A survey of oyster reefs around the world found that 85% of oyster habitat has disappeared. The […]
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by Catherine Schmitt I’ve been working on a story about sardines since last April, when Bumble Bee Foods announced the closure of the Stinson Seafood factory, the last sardine cannery in the United States. As newspaper headlines across the country announced “the end of an era,” I began my own pursuit of the enigmatic sardine. I […]
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by Catherine Schmitt Maine shrimp made the front page of today’s style section in the Bangor Daily News. Reporter Emily Burnham wrote a nice feature of this native seafood, including a handful of recipes. The timing aligns with Northern shrimp season, which began in December and runs until April. Female shrimp move close to shore […]
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Teresa Johnson is an assistant professor of marine policy in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine. She is currently working on a research project funded by Maine Sea Grant to evaluate vulnerability and resilience of Maine fishing communities. Salarius spoke with Dr. Johnson in November about what she’s learned so far. […]
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by Catherine Schmitt I doubt that NBC’s Jeff Rossen read my blog post about the lack of coverage of seafood imports, but his November 17 story on the risks associated with imported seafood–80% of the seafood Americans eat–is a good step toward filling the gap in consumer awareness. Despite the panic-inducing tone to the “investigative […]
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by Catherine Schmitt After my latest post about eating Gulf of Mexico seafood, reports surfaced about contamination in shrimp veins. Seafood testing protocols use shelled, deveined shrimp when they analyze for petroleum. One Gulf resident, realizing that local food culture often involves cooking shrimp whole, veins in and shells on, took some whole shrimp for […]
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by Catherine Schmitt During my trip to the Gulf Coast, I ate a catfish po’boy from Parkway Bakery, oysters Rockefeller, garlic shrimp washed down by Abita ale, pan-fried black drum at Jacques-Imo’s, fried shrimp at the legendary Florabama road house, and a melt-in-your-mouth tapas of red snapper from the Global Grill in Pensacola—all of it […]
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