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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 9
May 2007
Lobster council agenda: Bait, seed fund projects
AUGUSTA, ME – The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Lobster Advisory Council (LAC) met on April 18 to discuss a full agenda.
DMR Deputy Commissioner David Etnier told the council that state Rep. Leila Percy (D-Phippsburg) had sponsored an emergency bill to increase the length of the season and reduce the number of traps for the Monhegan Lobster Conservation Zone.
The change would allow Monhegan lobstermen to begin fishing in September instead of December and to control effort by reducing the number of traps fished from the current number of 600 to 475.
According to Etnier, Monhegan lobstermen had indicated they would like to spread out their season due to adverse weather in the winter months.
The bill does not have an LD number yet but is expected to be coming soon.
“Puck” questions
Coastwide, lobstermen are expressing concern about the use of artificial or alternative bait. At the council’s February meeting, a lobsterman brought in the alternative bait known as “The Lobster Puck” for council members to inspect and requested that DMR look into requiring the labeling of its contents.
Etnier said the state attorney general’s office said it could require a manufacturer to list ingredients. Currently, there is a specific law regulating bait that bans the use of animal offal. The puck’s distributors advertise it as being “a true all-natural fish bait” that does not contain animal byproducts.
Council member and Zone A lobsterman John Drouin said, “If it doesn’t come from the ocean then it shouldn’t go in the ocean.”
Added council member and Zone D lobsterman Gerry Cushman, “I can’t even fathom that fishermen would even think of putting bait on the bottom without knowing what’s in it. We’ve got to protect this resource.”
Said council Chairman Bob Baines, “Alternatives may be needed as bait supplies become low, but at the same time we want to know what we are feeding lobsters.”
The council voted to recommend that DMR begin a rule-making process to require manufacturers to list ingredients on packages of artificial or alternative bait. Council members also agreed to discuss the use of artificial bait with the zone councils.
The council voted to fund two seed Lobster Fund projects as recommended by a review panel made up of council members and DMR staffers. These projects were submitted during last December’s request for proposals (RFP).
Last fall, the council made $40,000 available for research and agreed the priority areas for this RFP would be: lobster growth and aging; and the effectiveness of lobster hatcheries.
DMR lobster biologist Carl Wilson described the two projects the panel recommended for partial funding.
The first, titled “Performance of Hatchery-Reared vs. Wild-Caught Juvenile Lobsters,” was submitted by Jonathan Grabowski, Steven Jury, Brian Tarbox, Brenden Ready, and Curt Brown.
The amount requested was $24,310 and the amount approved was $7,000. The review panel supported the portion of the proposal that seeks to assess predation risks to hatchery vs. wild-caught juveniles by investigating the exposure to predator odors and size differences. The panel did not support proposed tethering experiments.
The second project, “Measuring Growth of Individuals of the American Lobster From Settlement to Harvest,” was submitted by Robin Alden, executive director of Penobscot East Resource Center, which administers the Zone C lobster hatchery. The amount requested was $49,582 and the amount recommended to be awarded was $33,000.
This project will “… assess the impacts of release of Stage V+ lobster at experimental release sites relative to unseeded control sites.” The study sites were selected based on having low lobster densities yet suitable substrate. The review panel did not support funding of the “expanded rearing capacity for stage V+ lobster,” but did support the evaluation of post release, impact, attrition, and growth factors.
The council also approved a separate request for funding of the Lobster Monitoring Peer Review, which will be a two-day effort by a yet-to-be determined panel to review DMR’s lobster programs – port and sea sampling, settlement survey, ventless trap survey, trawl survey, intertidal survey, and landings program – at a cost not to exceed $9,500.
Whale update
Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), updated the council on the lawsuit filed against the National Marine Fisheries Service by The Ocean Conservancy and Humane Society of the US in February for failing to meet deadlines for filing new whale protection rules as required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
“On April 16, the MLA filed for intervener status,” she said. “We are waiting to hear if the court will accept it.”
The Downeast Lobstermen’s Association and the Southern Maine Lobstermen’s Association both have donated money to help with this lawsuit, according to Baines.
“The MLA is taking the lead but this affects the whole industry and I encourage everyone to be a part of this,” he said.
LNG terminal
Drouin told the council that the actions of two liquified natural gas (LNG) companies to establish LNG facilities in his part of the state have the 1,200 lobstermen in Zone A talking.
Quoddy Bay LNG of Perry and Downeast LNG of Robbinston filed applications with the Federal Regulation and Oversight for Energy agency in December.
Drouin attended a meeting at the Cobscook Bay Resource Center where issues related to the LNG terminal plans, such as proposed routes for ships, security, and safety zones, were discussed.
East Quoddy Head, at the opening of Head Harbor Passage, is one-and-a-half miles to shore, he said. If the ships can’t approach because of fog or poor visibility then they will circle until they can. The Coast Guard would have to board any LNG vessel heading into port and the Canadians will not allow armed officers on such a vessel.
Canada is vigorously opposed to LNG ships using Head Harbor Passage, lying in Canadian waters between Campobello Island and Deer Island. The narrow shipping channel provides the only deep water access from the Atlantic Ocean to the proposed Maine terminal sites on Passamaquoddy Bay, up the Western Passage from Eastport, ME.
Scarborough lobsterman Howard Gray presented the council with a draft bill he would like to submit to the Legislature. The draft bill, titled “An Act to Protect Fishing Families,” would authorize the transfer of a commercial crab and lobster license from a fisherman to his son or daughter.
The bill would require the transfer to be a zone option and would apply to Class I, Class II, and Class III licenses and the son or daughter would have to have completed the apprentice program. The parties would be required to notify the DMR in writing as well as meet with someone at DMR to complete the transfer.
The holder of a reissued license would have to engage in lobstering within three years of the reissue date or the license would expire. An individual with a reissued license would not be allowed to set more than 300 traps during his or her first year of lobstering.
In the draft bill, Gray stated that the transfer would allow a family’s fishing heritage and knowledge to be passed on to the next generation.
“Mr. Gray, your proposal is not without merit,” said Dana McIntire, a Harpswell lobsterman and council member. “Our effort reduction has not worked the way we would have liked it to have in the last 10 years. The devil is in the details.”
After much discussion the council tabled consideration of the draft bill until all the zone councils have had a chance to review it.
Gray, who has had a lobster license since 1963, has a son who previously gave up his license and now would like to return to the family business. For more information on the draft bill contact Howard Gray at (207) 883-6602.
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