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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 3
November 2009
ME rope exchange, ghost gear projects funded
KENNEBUNK, ME – Maine lobstermen who weren’t able to participate in the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation’s Bottom Line Project rope exchange when funding ran out will have another chance later this year.
Thanks to a $1.7 million appropriation from Congress, secured through the efforts of US Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and US Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), the foundation has set dates for two exchange events. The first will be held Nov. 11-12 in Ellsworth, and the second will be held Dec. 9-10 in the Waldoboro area. Other locations will be added next year.
The events will allow pre-registered lobstermen to turn in floating groundline and receive vouchers that can be used towards the purchase of sinking groundline.
Sinking groundline is now required on trap pairs, triples, and trawls set outside of the exemption line under federal Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan rules that went into effect last spring.
The November event will be the 10th exchange sponsored by the foundation since the Bottom Line Project began in May 2007. To date, the project has collected 1,433,441 pounds of poly line from 1,315 lobstermen, with some participating more than once, and issued $2,005,852 in vouchers.
Project Director Laura Ludwig said in mid-October that the additional funding was greatly appreciated, especially given the fact that there remained a “huge waiting list” of lobstermen who wanted to exchange their poly rope.
She emphasized that all participants in the upcoming exchanges must register in order to qualify. Ludwig said she planned to get in touch with all of the lobstermen on the project waiting list and that anyone not on the waiting list who wants to participate should contact her.
“It’s important that lobstermen register,” she said. “We are actually in a position to hopefully get through most of the waiting list.”
For more information, call Ludwig at (207) 985-8088, e-mail her at <Laura@gomlf.org>, or visit the foundation web site at <www.gomlf.org>.
Ghost gear grant
In other news, the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation has received a $200,000 award through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to launch a brand new pilot project to retrieve, salvage, and dispose of submerged derelict lobster gear.
The award was jointly announced late in September by US Attorney for Maine Paula Silsby and the US Coast Guard as one of 14 grants for projects to promote the health of the Gulf of Maine.
Funding for the grants came from a criminal penalty imposed on a shipping company that intentionally discharged pollutants near the Maine coast.
According to Ludwig, the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation will work closely with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and the Maine Marine Patrol on the derelict gear removal project, which will be executed over two years.
The idea is to identify one harbor in each of the state’s seven lobster zones – three the first year and four the second year – and then have local lobstermen grapple back parted off traps, probably in March or April when few if any people are fishing inshore. Participating lobstermen will receive modest compensation, possibly in the form of fuel stipends.
The goal will be to return useable traps to owners and recycle mangled gear. At the same time, DMR researchers will examine all gear recovered to gather data that will be used to assess how biodegradable and escape vents are functioning in the real world.
“They will document everything that comes up in the traps,” Ludwig said.
Fully aware that there may be a lot of questions about the project, Ludwig added that the foundation will invest considerable time in talking to the zone councils and doing education and outreach work on the dock so everyone affected will have a good sense of what is going on.
Other awards
Several other fisheries-related projects received awards as a result of the pollution mitigation case. They include:
• “Applying an Environmental Management System to Reduce Bycatch and Improve Fishery Outcomes” – Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), $192,576;
• “Bycatch Survey of the Atlantic Herring Bottom Trawl Fishery” – DMR, $217,470;
• “Alewife Stock Structure in the Gulf of Maine” – GMRI, $255,150; and
• “Incentive-based Tools to Restore River Herring in Maine” – Environmental Defense Fund, $69,615.
Lorelei Stevens
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