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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 8
April 2008
DMR advisers OK lobster hatchery exemptions
HALLOWELL, ME – The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Advisory Council met on Feb. 20 to discuss the special license renewals by groups involved in lobster hatchery operations as well as to act on rule-making proposals.
Penobscot East Resource Center Executive Director Robin Alden explained to the council the special license amendment it was granted that exempts it from Chapter 12 MRSA 6072, the aquaculture law that requires anyone putting gear in the water for culturing activities to have a lease. The council approved the resource center’s exemption from the lease requirement.
The Penobscot East Resource Center has had the amended special license since July 25, 2007 to carry out experimental research raising Stage IV and Stage V lobsters in suspended barrels in Stonington harbor. The resource center’s Zone C lobster hatchery is located in a building at the Stonington lobster co-op.
The special license allows the center to continue lobster culture research. Ted Ames, hatchery manager, explained they are now cultivating Stage V juvenile lobsters in “lobster condos” in response to the tremendous stock loss they experienced when holding Stage V juveniles in barrels.
Advisory council members asked whether lobster stocks could be bolstered simply by purchasing eggers from local pounds and reintroducing them to the wild.
DMR Commissioner George Lapointe noted that lobster landings were down 25% last year and suggested that releasing eggers into the wild may be an affordable alternative.
The council also approved the aquaculture exemption for the special license held by Brian Beal, professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine Machias. Beal and others working at the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research Education (DEI) are culturing lobster juveniles in an impoundment on the DEI property on Great Wass Island in Beals.
Beal and Bob Bayer of the Lobster Institute won a small grant from the Maine Community Foundation allowing them to use commercial lobster impoundment for the purpose of cultivating Stage I-to-Stage IV lobsters.
Action items
The advisory council heard reports and took action on several proposals, including the following.
Elver lottery – Maine Marine Patrol Col. Joe Fessenden told the council that state legislators had eliminated statutory authority to continue the Elver Fishing License Lottery.
When licenses are not renewed, they will be retired instead of reissued to another fisherman. Currently, there are only 50 elver fishermen in the state.
Spiny dogfish – The advisory council also supported a proposal to prohibit fishing for spiny dogfish in state waters once the dogfish quota set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is reached.
Gillnet bait fishing – Fessenden opened the discussion regarding proposed adjustments to state gillnet bait fishing regulations. He explained that the provision requiring action by the council expired on Dec. 31. The provision would only apply to the New Meadows River where it had become commonplace for lobster fishermen to harvest bait fish with gillnets.
Fessenden recommended that gillnets set in the New Meadows River be tended every four hours to reduce mortality rates of juvenile fish and that the provision have no sunset date.
The advisory council voted in favor of the proposal.
Double tagging – The double tagging rule in effect in abutting lobster Zones F and G since 2006 as a pilot program is working, according to Fessenden.
The rule was initially designed in response to complaints from Zone G fishermen that Zone F fishermen were fishing beyond the 49% of their traps legally allowed to be set in Zone G.
Fessenden explained that, prior to the double tagging rule, Marine Patrol Officers could not keep up with the amount of gear checking that was needed to effectively enforce the state requirement that lobstermen have to fish the “majority” of their traps in their declared zone.
Since the double tagging rule went into effect, however, compliance has been high, he said.
Two Zone F fishermen, Lyman Kennedy and Bill Doane, said the rule should be applied statewide, not just to Zone F fishermen.
The advisory council recommended the issue be placed on the agenda of the Lobster Advisory Council’s next meeting on March 20.
Gina LeDuc-Kuntz
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