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 37 Number 9
May 2010
LAC votes to identify safe lobster bait sources
HALLOWELL, ME – Members of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Lobster Advisory Council met on April 1 and once again discussed how to deal with the federal herring quota reductions announced last fall that are projected to last through 2012.
Among several ideas previously floated to fill the feared herring bait gap was using baitfish imported from out of state. However, council members got some hard science from Ian Bricknell and Deb Bouchard of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine Orono that made everyone realize how much care needs to be taken in going that route.
The pair recently concluded a study, which determined that Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS), an infectious disease afflicting both freshwater and saltwater fish, survives bait-processing methods, including refrigeration, freezing, and salting.
“It’s important to note that VHS is in the media so much because it is an internationally regulated pathogen. It poses a major biosecurity threat,” said Bouchard.
VHS causes uncontrolled bleeding in infected fish. Bouchard and Bricknell’s study focused on VHS because of the biosecurity threat, but they stressed that this disease is one of many exotic diseases that could threaten the Gulf of Maine.
A strain of the virus arrived in the Great Lakes in 2003, resulting in fish deaths among numerous species, including lake trout, steelhead trout, Chinook salmon, yellow perch, gobies, emerald shiners, muskies, whitefish, and walleye.
The virus can be spread through water transfer, contaminated eggs, and baitfish. Survivors of the disease can become lifelong carriers.
Bouchard, who manages the university’s Maine Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory, and Bricknell, a professor of aquaculture biology, concluded that introducing a serious pathogen like VHS would “jeopardize Maine’s disease-free status, limit the export of live and dead seafood from the state, and have a serious economic impact on the seafood industry.”
Regulate imports
The DMR currently has no regulations on species imported into the state to be used as bait.
“We have the responsibility to move forward and ensure a clean, healthy product,” said DMR Deputy Commissioner David Etnier.
Following a vote by the lobster advisory council asking for further investigation into safe vs. potentially harmful bait sources, Etnier and several of his colleagues at the DMR agreed to continue to work with Bricknell and Bouchard.
“It makes good sense to pursue the development of a list of states that don’t have pathogens-of-concern,” said Etnier.
Should Bricknell and Bouchard be able to assemble such a list, Etnier said the DMR would examine how to reduce the threat by restricting importation of certain species and possibly requiring dealers to certify that their product came from a clean source.
According to Gerry Cushman, a lobsterman and council member out of Port Clyde, importing species not native to the Gulf of Maine for use as bait may already be a problem in some areas of the state.
Bouchard said she and Bricknell are working to do what they can to help the DMR and the industry.
“Lobstermen are really considering this very cautiously and want us to continue our work evaluating alternative baits,” she said. “We need to go out there and find where the low-risk baits are.”
In the meantime, most lobstermen are hoping that the new, 106,000 metric ton herring quota will be enough to supply the industry’s late summer and fall push.
“If the pogies show up in abundance, we’ll be OK,” said Cushman. “If Area 3 produces the herring it did last year, we’ll be OK. But, the history of Area 3 has been like a roller coaster. Nobody has a crystal ball.”
Sink rope impacts
Laura Ludwig, project manager with the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation, also attended the lobster advisory council meeting to discuss lobstermen’s experiences with sinking ground line.
The foundation began its groundline exchange program in 2007 with $2 million in federal grant money. During the exchanges that have been held to date, Ludwig and her colleagues collected feedback on the new sinking line that they are hoping to organize into a database.
“We want to make sure these experiences aren’t falling on deaf ears. There are a lot of problems out there with sinking line, including the economic hit that it created,” said Ludwig.
She cited the eastern part of the state in particular as having suffered a significant impact.
“Fishermen are losing their gear more often there. They are replacing line every year whereas the floating rope could last anywhere from between five to 15 years without replacement,” said Ludwig.
She added that some fishermen are shifting their fishing grounds in order to set on softer bottom and preserve their line, often resulting in a smaller catch.
While fishermen can dispose of the old sink rope through the no-cost Fishing for Energy project, the problem persists of how to pay for replacement rope.
“We need to challenge a conservation group to find some recycling or disposal project that offers a buy-back program or some financial incentive to fishermen,” said Ludwig.
Another project headed by the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation is the Ghost Gear Recovery Program, a two-year effort to recover derelict fishing gear in each of the state’s seven lobster zones in collaboration with the DMR.
The project is staffed by volunteer fishermen and is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf of Maine Environmental Compliance and Protection Fund.
The lobster advisory council held elections during its April 1 meeting. Council members re-elected the same slate of officers, including Bob Baines as chairman and John Drouin as vice chairman.
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
