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 DMR readies tow, contact info handouts; wet storage proposal
HALLOWELL, ME - The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) had initiated a rule-making proposal and several port meetings were scheduled in the days leading up to the opening of the shrimp season on Dec. 12.
The purpose of all the concentrated effort is to enable shrimp dragger and lobster trap fishermen to figure out how to share the bottom in a way that allows everyone a chance to fish.
The plan is to make up handouts that will include: traditional shrimp tows marked on local charts; draggermen’s cell phone numbers and local VHF channels; and lobstermen’s buoy colors, cell phone numbers, and VHF channels. The handouts will be passed out at local meetings, as well as made available at dealers and gear supply shops.
The hope is that shrimpers and lobstermen will talk with each other to voluntarily get traps moved off tows without damage and for only as long as shrimp are there.
The Marine Patrol and DMR resource coordinator Terry Stockwell were helping to collect the information for the handouts and set up the meetings in late November.
“Communication is the key,” said Col. Joe Fessenden, head of the Bureau of Marine Patrol. “The fishermen involved have to agree to cooperate.”
If it doesn’t work, the alternative becomes gear conflicts, with shrimpers trying to tow through concentrations of lobster traps that get damaged, costing both gear types lost money and fishing time.
Explaining the patrol’s commitment of manpower and resources to facilitate this effort, Fessenden said it was the best alternative for everyone.
“We’re trying to do everything possible to head off conflict,” he said. “Everyone has a right to fish. Short of that we could be faced with just plain closing some areas.”
Port meetings were planned for St. George, Nov. 28; Friendship, Dec. 1; Cundy’s Harbor, Dec. 6; and Portland, Dec. 8.
Wet storage
In an attempt to get lobstermen to take up traps not being fished, the DMR has proposed a rule-making action that would limit the allowable length of time for wet storage of fixed gear to 14 days during the annual shrimp season. The year-round wet storage limit is currently 30 days.
The rule-making proposal prohibits leaving floating line at the surface. It also provides the Marine Patrol with the authority to extend the time limit for hardship reasons such as weather or vessel breakdowns.
Fessenden acknowledged that reducing the wet storage time would mostly affect lobstermen who had finished their season and were no longer tending their gear. Besides helping get the gear moved out of shrimp tows, it would also open up bottom to other lobstermen.
The DMR has scheduled a Dec. 20 public hearing on the wet storage proposal. It will be held at the DMR Large Conference Room in West Boothbay Harbor, starting at 6 pm.
The deadline for comments on the proposal is Dec. 30. The rule-making could be ready for consideration at the January meeting of the DMR Advisory Council, which is tentatively set for Jan. 18.
Susan Jones
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
