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 34 Number 6
February 2007
Maine to revisit lobsters on draggers ban
PORTLAND, ME – In its boldest move yet to stem the tide of groundfish vessels leaving Maine to land lobsters in Massachusetts ports, the Portland Fish Exchange is spearheading a drive to change Maine’s law that prohibits the landing of lobsters caught by mobile gear.
An emergency bill titled “An Act to Permit the Landing of Lobsters Harvested by Methods other than Conventional Traps” has been filed with the state Legislature.
The bill proposes allowing groundfish vessels to land 100 offshore-caught lobsters per day, up to 500 per trip. This is the limit allowed in other states. Maine, however, has long prohibited the practice, a position strongly supported by the state’s lobstermen.
According to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Anne Haskell (D-Portland), and fish exchange officials, the purpose of the legislation is to level the playing field for Maine boats and keep them – and their revenues – in the state.
“I appreciate that this is a real departure from where Maine has been for a long time, so I took this on with my eyes wide open,” said Haskell.
Economic impact
But the legislator said she felt compelled to act.
“One of the reasons I did it was because this affects Maine’s business climate,” she explained. “These lobsters are already being landed (in Massachusetts), so the impact on the resource would not seem to be significantly different if we land them in Maine.”
Furthermore, Haskell said she wanted to find ways to help Maine preserve its fishing industry infrastructure, which includes the Portland Fish Exchange, so that everything is “in place” for when groundfish stocks rebound.
According to Portland Fish Exchange President Tom Valleau, the exchange never wanted to take the lead on this issue.
“But we didn’t see anyone else stepping up to do it,” he said.
He added that the exchange was driven by its conviction that the lobster landing law is having a direct and sizable impact on Maine’s groundfish landings.
“We have many problems that need to be solved in our groundfish industry, but this is the most prominent, and it’s the most fixable,” said Valleau.
No other state prohibits the landing of mobile-gear-caught lobsters, and a new economic analysis compiled by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Northeast Fisheries Science Center has documented the reality of Maine’s situation.
In 2005, Maine groundfish vessels offloaded 160 trips in non-Maine ports in order to offload a total of 120,069 pounds of lobsters under other states’ 100/500 lobster allowances.
Maine’s “estimated foregone fishing revenue” from those 160 trips was roughly $3.6 million. Between 2000 and 2005, the total value of Maine’s foregone revenue was close to $10 million.
Exchange officials attribute most of that loss to vessels leaving the state to land lobsters.
Is it worth it?
The big question is this: Is the ability to land 400 or 500 lobsters really worth enough to cause Maine vessels to leave their home state?
The answer is a resounding “yes.”
According to Maggie Raymond of Associated Fisheries of Maine, lobsters landed in Massachusetts can generate $6,000-$8,000 per trip. The value of the lobster landings depends on the price and the size of the lobsters, which are usually large given that they’re caught offshore. These days, those lobsters can make or break a trip.
Fish exchange officials are well aware of this incentive.
“Without a doubt, this is the number one reason we are losing boats to Massachusetts,” said Valleau. “It’s a law of unintended consequences. We look at it as an economic development opportunity for the commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
The NMFS economic data analysis provides similar insight.
“The relative importance of lobster sales to mobile gear vessels (appears) to have increased since calendar year 2000 … (possibly) due to reductions in other fishing opportunities, particularly in the groundfish fishery,” stated the analysis.
Fish exchange impact
According to Portland Fish Exchange General Manager Hank Soule, the exchange knew its groundfish landings would decline when Amendment 13 came on line in 2004 and was then followed by additional effort-cutting framework adjustments.
But exchange officials did not expect what actually happened.
During the exchange’s gangbuster years in the early 1990s, the auction house handled a lot of fish. In 1993, it handled a record 31 million pounds.
In 2003, just before Amendment 13, volume dropped to 23 million pounds. And then in 2006, it went to an all-time low of 9.5 million pounds.
The regulatory actions had an enormous impact on landings, but coupled with that, Soule said numerous vessel owners who previously landed at the exchange or elsewhere in Maine told him they now had to leave the state because they could no longer forego the income from lobsters.
This pushed things to a head and drove the exchange to seek a change in the law.
“We don’t feel we have a choice at this point,” Soule said.
Soule views the lobster landings situation as impacting the entire groundfish industry in Maine, not just Portland.
“I tell people, ‘Don’t worry about the Portland Fish Exchange. Worry about the groundfish industry. If you fix that, the Portland Fish Exchange will take care of itself,’” he said.
DMR concerns
Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner George Lapointe expressed a desire to assist the state’s groundfish industry and secure its footing for the future.
However, he had reservations about the proposed legislation.
“I have raised serious concerns about two major components of this,” he said. “First, I have concerns about the biological impact of dragging on lobsters. And second, the entire industry has talked about working on issues that bring cohesion and cooperation.
“This would have the opposite effect,” he said.
As of mid-January, the DMR had not developed an official position on the bill.
What’s in the bill
LD 170 is a relatively simple bill that proposes to allow Maine groundfish vessels to harvest and land lobsters caught only in offshore waters from Lobster Conservation Management Area 3. It sets the landing limit at 100 lobsters per day up to 500 lobsters “within a period of seven consecutive days.”
Maine groundfish vessels landing lobsters would have to be equipped with a vessel monitoring system and comply with any reporting requirements deemed necessary by the DMR.
The DMR commissioner would have the authority to “limit by rule the percentage of lobsters landed (by draggers) to no more than 6% of the total of lobsters landed annually.”
According to exchange officials, this language was included in the bill because it essentially mirrors the Massachusetts lobster landing text. However, even some bill supporters admit that 6% is high given the 50-70 million pounds of lobsters landed by trap fishermen in Maine vs. the relatively small number of groundfish boats.
The bill proposes to create a new Maine offshore lobster and crab landing license, and a portion of the license fee revenues would be allocated to the state’s Lobster Promotion Fund and Lobster Fund, commonly referred to as the seed lobster fund.
The bill first will be considered by the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee, which is expected to deliberate the details and then hold a public hearing on the proposal.
Since LD 170 is an emergency bill, it would take effect immediately if approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor. According to the bill’s preamble, the bill is considered an emergency because “the ability of the groundfish industry to land lobsters in Maine caught by unconventional methods in certain federal waters is of vital economic importance to the industry and the survival of Maine businesses dependant on the groundfish industry.”
The bill’s co-sponsors are Sen. Lynn Bromley (D-Cumberland County, District 7), Senate President Beth Edmonds (D-Cumberland County, District 10), Rep. Kenneth Fletcher (R-Winslow), and Rep. Nancy Smith (D-Monmouth).
Rep. Haskell, the lead sponsor, said she did not pretend to know all the answers to this extremely complicated issue, but she believed the Marine Resources Committee was the right venue to air all perspectives.
“That’s why we have the Marine Resources Committee – to have the full policy debate. Then we can make the right decisions,” she said.
From her own assessment of the situation, she said, “I am confident that this (allowing groundfish vessels to land lobsters) can be managed to not impact the resource. I think this is the right time to have this policy debate.”
At press time, the Legislature was just beginning its 123rd session and the Marine Resources Committee had not yet scheduled any work sessions or public hearings on LD 170.
Janice M. Plante
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
