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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 12
August 2006
ME rope exchange starts with mail survey, sign-up
KENNEBUNK, ME – A program that will help Maine lobstermen pay the cost of replacing their floating groundline is finally underway, and lobstermen should keep an eye on their mail for information about how to participate.
That was the news coming from Laura Ludwig in mid-July. Ludwig has been hired by the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation (GOMLF) to manage its “Groundline Exchange Program.”
Starting in August, Maine lobster license holders, both state and federal, will be surveyed by mail to determine how much poly rope they are using and their interest in participating in the exchange program. The mailing will include a sign-up card that lobstermen are being asked to return.
There will also be follow-up mailings that will include information about how the floating rope will be turned in and the list of participating marine gear suppliers accepting the program’s vouchers as payment on purchase of replacement groundline.
The goal is to have the exchange in operation by early December, according to Ludwig.
“First we need feedback on who’s interested in the buyback,” she said, explaining the purpose of the preliminary survey. “Do you have poly rope that you would turn in for a voucher?”
Any floating rope that is used between traps qualifies for the exchange, she said. That includes trailer or tailer warps for pairs along with the groundline connecting traps in trawls.
Return sign-up card
Returning that first survey/sign-up card will be important for lobstermen because it will get them registered for the exchange program.
But it will also help determine how much funding is needed to complete a changeover of Maine’s lobster gear from poly to sinking groundline, Ludwig said.
That switch will likely become mandatory in the final rule implementing changes to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP). The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is expected to publish the final rule by this fall. It could include a 2008 or 2009 deadline for completing a phase-out of the use of floating groundline.
In 2005, Congress appropriated $2 million to fund a Maine rope exchange program that was proposed by the GOMLF. But the foundation believes that the cost to convert from poly to sinking groundline will be much higher than that. It will seek up to $6 million to help lobstermen pay for replacement rope, and hopes the survey returns will help document that need.
June startup
The GOMLF received word in June from NMFS, which administers the funds, that money was actually available to start the rope exchange program, according to Patrice McCarron, foundation executive director.
One of the foundation’s first steps was to hire Laura Ludwig as project manager, McCarron said.
“We thought Laura was a good fit to the program with her experience working with Maine fishermen on whale issues,” she said.
Ludwig was the whale take reduction coordinator for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. She became well-known for the 17' whale model she took around to ports to demonstrate rope entanglements. Ludwig also helped create the underwater video that demonstrated groundline behavior on hard, tide-driven bottom along Maine’s coast.
The Maine rope exchange program will operate similarly to the one successfully completed in Massachusetts, Ludwig said.
Lobstermen will be asked to coil up their floating groundline and deliver it to one of several drop-off sites along the coast. They will be given vouchers that indicate the weight of the poly rope. Those vouchers can then be used toward the purchase of an equal weight of replacement sink or, perhaps, low-profile rope.
Ludwig will have ready a list of gear suppliers who will honor the vouchers along with the types of rope that are acceptable by the start of the exchange in December.
“We hope to be able to get 300,000 pounds of poly out of the water with this first phase of the project,” Ludwig said.
The float rope that is turned in will be recyled.
Many Maine lobstermen, especially in southern Maine, have already been affected by dynamic area management (DAM) closures imposed by NMFS. In order to continue fishing in DAM areas, they may have already spent thousands of dollars to buy sink rope and continue fishing legally.
Poly rope taken out of the water by those fishermen can also be turned in for the exchange program, Ludwig said.
Susan Jones
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