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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 4
December 2006
GOMLF urging ME lobstermen to return rope exchange surveys
KENNEBUNK, ME – Any Maine lobsterman who has not received and returned a survey from The Bottom Line Project is being asked to contact the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation (GOMLF) to get one and fill it out.
The survey, which was recently mailed to Maine lobstermen, is key to the success of the voluntary poly groundline rope exchange program that the foundation is running to assist Maine lobstermen in complying with upcoming federal whale regulations.
While the initial deadline for returning the survey was listed as Thanksgiving in the survey mailing, the GOMLF was not only accepting later returns, it was encouraging them, according to project manager Laura Ludwig.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is expected to announce new whale rules, possibly by the end of the year, that likely will prohibit the use of poly or float rope in groundlines between traps in trawls and the trailer or tailer warps in pairs.
Poly line used in these applications has been implicated in the entanglement of northern right whales.
GOMLF has $2 million in federal funds to help lobstermen defray the cost of converting their floating groundlines to sink line. Maine lobstermen who sign up for the program will drop off their poly rope at a collection site and receive a voucher that can be used toward the purchase of sink rope at participating vendors.
The survey will help the foundation estimate the number of lobstermen who are interested in participating and the amount of poly rope that needs to be collected. It also will help determine the number and location of rope collection sites that need to be set up along the Maine coast once the exchange begins next spring.
“Fishermen can go to the GOMLF web site, click on ‘projects,’ and complete The Bottom Line Project survey online or print it out and mail it to us,” said Ludwig.
A major expense
Replacing float rope with sink rope will be a major expense for Maine lobstermen. Not only is sink rope more expensive, but also it is heavier and typically does not hold up as well in rough, rocky conditions and strong currents.
Sink rope also is more prone to hang down on rocky bottom, making it more dangerous to haul and resulting in increased gear loss.
The GOMLF has been helping lobstermen and others identify the best solutions to these problems.
“We have been working with various fishermen east of Casco Bay trying out a heavy, 1/2" thick rope that is not traditionally used by lobstermen,” said Ludwig.
And, in early November, the foundation held a roundtable discussion with rope dealers, vendors, and distributors from Maine, New Hampshire, and Canada.
The meeting focused on reviewing previous rope exchange programs as a way to identify and correct potential pitfalls and allow the Maine rope exchange to go as smoothly as possible, according to Ludwig.
“Many of the rope dealers and vendors had participated in the previous poly rope exchange programs in Massachusetts and the Mid-Atlantic,” she said. “The group also discussed the best way of maximizing the use of the Maine poly rope exchange funds.”
The GOMLF anticipates that up to one million pounds of used rope will be collected during the first year of the program.
For more information on the poly rope exchange, call Laura Ludwig at the GOMLF (207) 263-5300. To fill out the survey online go to <www.gomlf.org/groundline.htm> /cfn/
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