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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 7
March 2007
Advisory council reviews Maine lobster legislation
HALLOWELL, ME – A number of bills have been introduced into the Maine Legislature this year that lobstermen may want to track.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Lobster Advisory Council reviewed a batch of these bills during its Feb. 13 meeting. What follows are the bill numbers and titles, their primary sponsors, and brief summaries of the council’s discussions.
LD 16 – An Act to Make Lobster Trap Molesting a Civil Offense – presented by Rep. Edward Mazurek of Rockland.
This bill would decriminalize the offense of lobster trap molesting under Maine law, though the penalty of a three-year mandatory loss of license would remain.
Col. Joe Fessenden of the Maine Bureau of Marine Patrol explained that the level of proof required to prevail in civil cases is less stringent than in criminal cases. In a criminal case, the jury has to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, and one juror in doubt can throw the case out. In past cases, various district attorneys’ offices were reluctant to retry cases.
The Lobster Advisory Council supported this bill.
LD 92 – An Act to Modify the Boundaries of Maine’s Lobster Fishing Zones – presented by Sen. Karl Turner of Cumberland, cosponsored by Reps. Susan Austin of Gray, Leila Percy of Phippsburg, and Sen. Dennis Damon of Hancock.
Under current Maine law, the lobster zone rules extend beyond the state’s three-mile limit and into federal waters. If a lobsterman holds a federal Area 1 permit, he must abide by the 51/49 zone split rule that says 51% of his gear has to remain in his home zone with the remaining 49% allowed to go in another zone.
This bill would limit the zone rules only to state waters within the three-mile limit.
“Most fishermen in Zone F support it,” said Elliott Thomas, a council and Zone F council member.
Many council members agreed that this is a very contentious issue, especially for Zones G and F in the southwest portion of the state.
“This will undermine all the hard work we and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission have done,” said Jon Carter, a council and Zone B council member. “I personally oppose it and so does Zone B.”
Council member and Downeast lobsterman Cappy Sargent of Milbridge didn’t see it that way.
“The zone should stop at three-miles,” he said. “We are boxed in. On one side is Canada and on the other side are other zones. I should be able to fish throughout the area (beyond three miles) with an Area 1 permit, not just with 49% of my gear. The zone rules never intended to be that way. If you have the Area 1 permit then you should have the full potential.”
The DMR has opposed this bill in each of the last three years it has come up. All but three council members opposed this bill.
LD 170 – An Act to Permit the Landing of Lobsters Harvested by Methods Other Than Conventional Traps (Emergency bill) – presented by Rep. Anne Haskell of Portland, cosponsored by Senate President Beth Edmonds of Cumberland and Sen. Lynn Bromley of Cumberland and Reps. Kenneth Fletcher of Winslow and Nancy Smith of Monmouth.
This is clearly an extremely controversial bill (see CFN February 2007 for details).
Maine’s two primary lobstering organizations, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the Downeast Lobstermen’s Association, have been vocal in their opposition to LD 170. The Portland Fish Exchange and groundfish fishermen’s representatives have supported it.
DMR Deputy Commissioner David Etnier announced that the public hearing on this bill was scheduled for March 5 at 1 pm at the Augusta Civic Center. Two other bills may be heard that day, but a decision had not been made at press time.
The Lobster Advisory Council opposed this bill.
However, the council came out in support of a related legislative action that would provide commercial groundfish vessels an exemption from the state fuel tax. That bill had not been printed at press time.
“The lobster industry supports anything we can do, but we cannot support (LD 170),” said Baines.
Gerry Cushman, a council and Zone D council member, who also owns a dragger, said he would not support LD 170.
But, he added, “The groundfish industry does need some help.”
LD 311 – An Act to Create a Nonresident Lobster and Crab Landing Permit – submitted by the DMR and presented by Rep. Walter Wheeler of Kittery.
This bill would create a new permit that would allow nonresident lobster fishermen to land their catch in a Maine port.
This issue arose when a company in Kittery, which had historically purchased lobsters landed by New Hampshire lobstermen on its wharf, was notified by DMR that it was in violation of state law (see CFN January 2007 for details).
Maine state law says that dealers may only purchase lobsters landed in Maine ports from Maine-licensed lobster harvesters.
The change would allow out-of-state lobstermen who have a history of landing and/or mooring in Maine state waters to be grandfathered in. These fishermen would have to comply with Maine lobster regulations and pay a nonresident lobster and crab landing permit fee.
“I think it’s a good bill,” said Carter. “How can the state tell people they can’t do what they’ve been doing?”
The council supported this bill.
LD 509 – An Act to Amend Laws Pertaining to Entry into the Lobster Fishery – submitted by the DMR and presented by Rep. Mazurek and cosponsored by Reps. Percy, Christopher Rector of Thomaston, and Sen. Edmonds.
This bill would make changes to laws governing entry into the lobster fishery. It would make 17 the youngest age at which a person could obtain a commercial lobster license and allow a zone to decide if it wants a separate waiting list for young people.
The bill also would change the method for calculating a zone’s exit-to-entry ratio from lobster licenses not renewed to trap tags retired in the previous year (see CFN January 2007 for more details).
All council members supported this bill except for Cutler lobsterman and council member John Drouin.
“Zone A does not support parts of this bill,” he said.
LD 621 – “Resolve, To Establish a Lobster Trap Tag Transfer Program” – presented by Rep. John Tuttle of Sanford, cosponsored by Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello of Androscoggin and Reps. Herbert Adams of Portland, Philip Cressey of Cornish, Robert Eaton of Sullivan, John McDonough of Scarborough, Peggy Pendleton of Scarborough, Fletcher, and Mazurek.
This bill would require the DMR commissioner to establish a lobster trap tag transfer program that would allow the holder to sell or otherwise transfer any number of trap tags to another person who holds a valid lobster license.
It provides that the program must include a cap on the number of trap tags at no more than 2006 levels and include a $5 transfer fee on each transferred trap tag.
The council opposed this bill.
At press time most of the bills were awaiting hearing dates before the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee. More information on these and other bills filed with the Legislature is available online at this address: <www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/billtexts>.
Rosanne Mizzoni
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