COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
F/V Safety
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Contact Us
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each month exclusively in the PRINT edition of CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 3
November 2007
DAM action threat a shocking wake-up call
The Oct. 5 publication of the feared final rule amending the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP) was suddenly eclipsed on Oct. 12 by the announcement that three northern right whales had been spotted 30 nautical miles southeast of Machias, ME.
As a result, NMFS put the Downeast area lobstering community on notice that a dynamic area management (DAM) action – requiring fishermen to either put on sinking groundlines or remove their traps altogether from the area – would go into effect Oct. 20-Nov. 3.
Pleas from state, federal, and industry officials convinced NMFS Director Bill Hogarth to agree to take another look. An overflight that took place on Oct. 17 found no endangered whales and, as CFN was going to press, NMFS said it was working to rescind the DAM action.
But while the immediate threat was lifted, the incident brought home to all involved just how disastrous the sinking groundline requirement will be when it is finally implemented outside of the Maine exemption area on Oct. 5, 2008.
There is an urgent need for government representatives, industry members, and environmentalists to find some other way to meet whale protection goals.
The arguments are familiar by now. Sink rope doesn’t work on hard bottom. It leads to dangerous hang-downs and trap loss that litters the seafloor with ghost gear, which is bad news both for fishermen and marine life. Beyond the staggering initial cost of shifting over to sinking groundline, the rope wears out quickly. Disappointing tests of “neutrally buoyant” rope have left some participating lobstermen predicting it won’t hold up through a single season.
In its comments on the ALWTRP final environmental impact statement, the Stonington Economic Development Committee of Stonington, ME, where this newspaper is published and where annual lobster landings in recent years have been worth $21.2 million to $30.8 million, put it in real terms.
“The dockside value of Stonington’s catch provides the annual income of hundreds of year-round residents. Close to 300 lobster boats are moored in town, each its own small business supporting the owner and his family, and a majority also providing jobs for one or two sternmen,” the committee said.
Nearly all other businesses in town – including fuel, bait, vessel repair, marine supply, and dealers – rely on the lobster-dependent economy. If they go out of business, there are few if any alternative employment opportunities. This scenario could be played out in dozens of other Maine coastal communities if the sink rope rule goes into effect.
In their frantic correspondence with NMFS seeking reconsideration of the October DAM action, officials used terms such as “unreasonable,” posing a “significant burden” on lobstermen, and of providing “only questionable protective value” to the whales.
Such formal, polite, and faintly ingratiating language doesn’t come close to describing the real impact the sink rope rule will have on Maine’s hard-bottom fishing lobstermen.
This looming regulation, if implemented as promised, will bring one of the most valuable industries in the state of Maine to its knees.
No one – not even mainstream environmentalists – wants that to happen. People on all sides of the whale protection debate, bringing to the table creative ideas like exchanging some endlines for groundlines and negotiating in good faith, can and must resolve this crisis. /cfn/
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
