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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 7
March 2010
Economist updates LAC on maximizing profits
HALLOWELL, ME – Dan Holland, research economist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, posed several complex questions during the Jan. 20 meeting of the Maine Department of Marine Resource (DMR) Lobster Advisory Council, including this one:
“Would the lobster fishery generate more profits if it was managed differently?”
Holland has been working on a bio-economic model of the fishery for close to a year, and, while the model does not provide any clear and decisive solutions to the economic woes of the industry, it does provide some insight into persistent questions concerning lobster supply and consumer demand.
“Looking back to 2006 and 2007 … the way to maximize revenues would (have been) to flatten the supply out throughout the year,” said Holland.
However, even in the best-case scenario, lobstermen only would have seen a 6% gain from such a strategy. That 6% gain in revenue did not include potential pounding costs.
Haul less?
Holland also suggested that lobstermen might consider fishing less. His model revealed that the savings gains in fuel and bait costs through reduced effort outweighed the potential drop in catch revenue.
“Reducing total monthly trap hauls by 50% from 9.5 million to 4.7 million trap hauls reduces total catch by only 23% and increases catch per trap haul by 55%,” he said. “Catch falls but not by nearly as much as effort.”
The heaviest punch to come out of Holland’s model was the controversial conclusion that the fishery would need to make very large reductions in both effort and the number of vessels to achieve maximum profit.
Holland conceded that lower trap limits were unlikely to produce higher profits because it’s hard to know how fishermen would adjust to the change. For example, lobstermen might fish fewer traps more often or lobstermen with fewer traps might increase the number of traps they fish up to a newly instated trap limit.
Council member and Zone E Chair Larry Knapp reacted strongly to any suggestion of reducing hands in the fishery.
“If I could put all of you guys out of business, it’d be great for me. But a public resource benefits the highest number of businesses – insurance dealers, engine dealers, etc. – when there are the most people in it,” he said.
Council member Dana Rice of D.B. Rice Fisheries urged Holland to keep working on it.
“Take this a little further and get some more data in there,” he said. “We can’t just run around with our heads buried in the sand like we used to.”
Wet storage problem
The issue of wet storage was again raised by council members, with the complaint that the same offenders have continued to leave untended traps in the water without facing serious consequences for their actions.
Council member and Zone D Chair Gerry Cushman reported an incident earlier that month where untended lobster traps in his area got caught up in and damaged a shrimper’s gear.
“These guys would rather pay the $100 fine than take them up,” Cushman said. “We are leaving the ocean like a dumping ground.”
Col. Joe Fessenden, chief of the Maine Marine Patrol, confirmed the problem.
“We have gotten to the point of suspending licenses for wet storage, in one individual’s case for a period of six months,” he said. “I’m not an advocate of suspending licenses but the fine is not effective.”
However, Fessenden said increasing the fine likely would be ineffective.
Currently, marine patrol officers respond to wet storage complaints by tagging the indicated traps. Once the traps are tagged, there is 30-day wait period before marine patrol officers return to the traps. If the tags have not been removed, the officers seize six traps and provide the individual with a warning. If no action is taken, marine patrol officers remove a boatload of traps thereafter. None of the gear is returned to the owner.
Fessenden said the marine patrol needs help from industry.
“We try to work with fishermen. We need the complaints from fishermen to come back to the office,” he said. “A lot of the time, fishermen make assumptions that we know who is who when we don’t. We have to document those complaints. We can do it anonymously.”
Trap molestation
The discussion of wet storage segued into a second enforcement issue – trap molestation. Even with hard evidence, in one case including an officer witnessing the act, marine patrol has had little success in convicting individuals caught molesting traps.
The problem, said Fessenden, stems from the harsh and mandatory punishment of a three-year license suspension.
“Perhaps that threshold is so high, that’s part of the reason we are losing these cases. We see a cause-and-effect relationship with these cases and that penalty,” he said.
Fessenden suggested that instating a nonmandatory punishment for trap molestation would keep the cases out of court and within the marine patrol department.
“Nonmandatory sentences are more effective,” he explained. “We can bring the individual in, and we typically do not see them come back.”
As an alternative option, he urged council members to request an informal meeting with a judge to discuss the problem.
Helicopter coverage
The loss of seven lives in fishing boat sinkings and accidents in 2009 has prompted a group of Downeast fishermen to demand better search and rescue protection of their area.
Council member and Zone A Chair John Drouin relayed the concerns of the fishermen, who want to see a Coast Guard helicopter stationed in closer proximity to their fishing grounds. Right now, the nearest Coast Guard helicopter is stationed on Cape Cod and cannot reach Downeast Maine within two hours.
Council member Elliott Thomas, a Yarmouth lobsterman, suggested the lobster advisory council think about what it could do to help.
“Maybe we should make a case for Downeast Maine, based on the number of active boats on the water,” he said.
Wind turbines
Deirdre Gilbert, assistant to the DMR commissioner, reported that the Maine Department of Conservation (DOC) had designated its choices for ocean energy demonstration areas.
According to the DOC, these areas are off Boon Island, Damariscove Island, and Monhegan Island.
After some general discussion of the floating platform and anchoring system each wind energy site will require, Larry Knapp remarked that the “site off of Damariscove would influence fishermen there.”
Knapp agreed to meet with Gilbert at a later date to further discuss the issue.
Advisory council Chair Bob Baines noted that ocean energy developments are now one more thing the council and industry must track.
“This is a subject that’s certainly going to impact the lobster industry,” he said.
More information about the demonstration sites is available on the DOC web site at <www.maine.gov/doc> or by calling Dan Prichard of the DOC’s Submerged Lands Program at (207) 287-4919 or e-mailing him at <Dan.Prichard@Maine.gov>.
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