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 33 Number 4
December 2005
Maine law limiting hide to hairless for lobster bait takes effect Jan. 1
HALLOWELL, ME - Maine lobstermen are reminded that the use of offal as bait for lobster, crabs, and fish will not be allowed as of Jan. 1, 2006.
Offal means the carcass, waste parts, renderings, or remains of a wild or domesticated animal that is not a marine organism, according to a new law that was passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor in May 2005.
But animal hide from which the hair has been removed is specifically excluded from the ban.
Further, the law provides that possession of offal while fishing for lobsters or crabs is prima facie evidence of a violation.
“It’s all at-sea enforcement,” said Col. Joe Fessenden, head of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Bureau of Marine Patrol. “If it’s on the boat when someone is underway, that’s a violation.”
The law’s effective date was set at Jan. 1, 2006 in order to give lobstermen and hide suppliers time enough to use up their existing inventories of hide with hair.
Companies selling buckets of hide in Maine are well aware of the deadline, Fessenden said. The DMR got several calls about the new law, and most major dealers were gearing up to have hairless hide available by the start of the new year.
The lobster industry started questioning the use of offal, especially hide products, for lobster bait about two years ago. Lobster buyers said they heard from customers complaining of the presence of hair in lobster tails.
While sensitive to marketing concerns, lobstermen did not support a total ban on the use of hide products because, for many, it had become an important part of their bait supply. Hide offers the advantage of “staying on” longer than fish products such as herring, and there haven’t been shortages with its supply.
Stopping the use of renderings and other animal parts had broad support from industry. But the affect of having hide as part of the lobster diet had never been studied, further making it difficult to justify a prohibition by DMR rule-making action.
LD 527, the bill that was enacted, also gives the DMR authority to adopt rules regulating the use of alternative bait in marine fisheries in the future. “Alternative bait” means any bait that does not naturally originate from the ocean.
“The law got good support,” Fessenden said. “We are not anticipating any problems.”
Susan Jones
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
