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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 12
August 2009
LAC sends lobster tiered-license idea to zones
AUGUSTA, ME – The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Lobster Advisory Council met on July 1 to review a preliminary proposal for a lobster harvester tiered-license system and agreed to send it out to the zone councils for feedback.
The proposal was crafted by the tiered-license subcommittee, which the council created in October 2008 to explore licensing options to place lobstermen into distinct groups known as tiers, each with its own trap limit. Since its inception, the subcommittee has grappled with a variety of ways to gauge a license holder’s past participation in the fishery and, ultimately, his future tier placement.
Council Chairman Bob Baines explained that the subcommittee had initially considered using income-based criteria as the main standard for tier placement. Under this method, individuals earning at least 50% of their income from lobstering would qualify for the highest tier, Tier C.
However, the subcommittee concluded the task of documenting lobstermen’s income sources and levels would prove both too complex and too administratively time consuming, leading it to “ultimately dismiss the income criteria,” explained Baines.
Instead, the subcommittee decided using landing information from DMR dealer reports would be less burdensome than income criteria and more accurate than simply using tags to verify each individual lobsterman’s level of participation in the fishery.
Proposed tiers
If the council decides to move forward with a tiered-license system, the subcommittee is recommending categorizing lobstermen into three tiers based on their reported landing history. As explained in the “Two regions” section below, the recommended landing history requirement will be lower in some zones.
The basic recommendation is as follows.
• Tier A – This tier would include license holders with no landing history. Individuals falling under Tier A would be allowed only up to 50 tags. Currently, 1,580 license holders, representing 28% of licenses issued, would fall into Tier A under the proposed plan.
• Tier B – This tier would include license holders with landing histories as low as one pound up to 9,999 pounds. License holders falling under Tier B would be eligible for up to 400 tags or half the zone limit. Currently, 1,940 license holders, or 34% of issued licenses, would fall into Tier B under the proposed plan.
• Tier C – Lobstermen with landing histories of 10,000 pounds or more would be placed in Tier C and allowed up to 800 tags or the zone limit. Currently 2,180 license holders, or 38% of issued licenses, would qualify for Tier C placement.
Tier C fishermen also would have additional responsibilities such as 100% harvester reporting and increased license and/or tag fees.
The total number of license holders for all three tiers adds up to less than the state’s current 6,492 licenses issued because the subcommittee did not include landings information for licenses issued to individuals under the age of 18, student license holders, or noncommercial licenses.
The first harvesting year the DMR required dealers to report lobster landings for each individual license holder was 2008. This data was used to construct the tier proposal. The 10,000-pound threshold set for Tier C placement is based only on 2008 reported landings.
Two regions
The subcommittee selected 10,000 pounds as the benchmark for Tier C placement in an attempt to capture approximately 50% of the most active license holders in this top tier.
But Baines pointed out that the 10,000-pound benchmark does not capture the top 50% of active license holders in every zone.
“50% of active license holders in Zones A, B, C, and D land more than 10,000 pounds, while Zones E, F, and G see lower catch rates,” he explained.
Because of this inconsistency, the subcommittee recommended breaking the zones into two regions each with different landing requirements for Tier C placement.
Under this recommendation, Zones A, B, C, and D license holders would be required to land 10,000 pounds for Tier C placement, while Zone E, F, and G could have a lower benchmark, needing 6,500 pounds for Tier C placement.
Other considerations
Lobstermen likely would be required to meet other conditions in order to transition between tiers. The subcommittee has not finalized those conditions but felt the existing entry system should remain intact.
Also, the subcommittee recommended that commercial license holders under the age of 18 be automatically placed in Tier C as they may not be able to meet landing requirements since they typically only lobster during the summer months.
Overall, the subcommittee believed the proposed tiered-license framework would reduce the number of tags purchased by 21% and also reduce maximum potential tags from 4.3 million to 2.4 million, a 43% reduction. “Maximum potential” is the number of tags that would go out if every existing license holder purchased and fished his/her maximum trap limit.
Industry feedback
Baines acknowledged that if the industry decides to go down the tiered-license road, implementing such a plan would be very complex.
“Right now we just want to float this plan out to the industry,” he said. “We are looking for support from the council to bring this plan out to the zones and see if the zone councils support further work on this plan.”
He added that there are still many questions and issues to be addressed.
“But what we are attempting to answer is what we want our industry to look like in five years,” Baines said.
Several council members raised their own questions and concerns surrounding how a tiered-license system could create unintentional consequences for the industry.
Council member Larry Knapp asked, “How will this plan deal with a year like this, where a lot of guys are deciding not to go because they are worried the prices will be bad? What if guys decided to do something else for one year, like go gillnetting?”
Council member Jeff Putnam worried that the plan would force lobstermen to sell only to dealers in an effort to document their landings.
“What concerns me is that a lot of people sell retail and that could put them just under the threshold for qualifying for a Tier C license,” he said.
Several council members agreed on the importance of bringing the proposed plan out to the zone councils for feedback.
Council member Elliot Thomas said he expected the process would necessitate industry feedback from more than one round of zone council meetings.
“This is going to take more than one zone meeting,” said Thomas. “This will need to go out to the industry, back to the full council, and then back out to the industry again.”
DMR Commissioner George Lapointe urged council members to act more quickly to consider this or any other licensing plan. He said that for any proposal to move forward, it would have to go through the full legislative process, including public hearings.
Council member Jon Carter offered a motion to “take the concept of the tiered-license proposal out to the zone councils for feedback.”
The motion passed unopposed.
Alternative proposals
Other licensing alternatives also were offered. Baines commented that a “Proposal B” could be implemented by freezing all license holders at their current tag levels.
Proposal B would involve:
• Freezing all licenses issued three years prior to enactment at current tag levels for five years;
• Allowing licenses issued less than three years prior to enactment and thereafter to continue to build to zone limits; and
• During the freeze, develop a plan for a 25% proportional reduction for all license holders.
Several council members suggested establishing a control date if the council were to recommend a freeze. Other members were concerned the control date selected by the council ultimately could be altered by the Legislature, rendering a preselected freeze date ineffective.
Lapointe offered a DMR “Proposal C” based on “Proposal A,” as recommended by the subcommittee, that would reduce trap tag limits for both Tier B and C over a five-year period with Tier B being reduced to 300 tags and Tier C being reduced to 600 tags.
“My opinion is that doing something is better than doing nothing, especially with whale rules coming,” the commissioner explained. “I think a 600-trap-tag limit is a defensible position.”
The DMR offered a fourth plan, “Proposal D,” which would create a simplified two-tiered system. This plan would:
• Allow license holders with no landings history up to 50 tags;
• Require license holders with landings eligible for 800 tags to build down to 600 in five years; and
• Limit all new entrants to building up to 600.
Zone meetings
Thomas offered a motion to take the DMR proposals out to the zone councils for feedback.
Putnam opposed the motion, explaining that Zone F lobstermen had already discussed reducing from 800 to 600 traps and rejected the idea time after time.
“Zone F has the ability to reduce itself and has chosen not to,” he said.
Several DMR staffers commented that they regularly hear from lobstermen who want a reduction to 600 traps.
Council member Gerry Cushman seconded Thomas’ motion to take the DMR proposals to the zones. The motion passed with one opposing vote.
The zone meetings began in mid-July with Zones D, F, and A holding meetings prior to CFN going to press. The rest of the meetings were scheduled to take place as follows:
• Zone C – Aug 3, Deer Isle-Stonington High School Cafeteria, 6 pm;
• Zone G – Aug. 4, Atlantic Hall in Cape Porpoise, 6 pm;
• Zone B – Aug. 5, Mt. Desert High School Library, 6 pm; and
• Zone E – Aug. 6, Lincoln County Communications Center, Wiscasset, 6:30 pm.
The Lobster Advisory Council is scheduled to meet on Aug. 13, Department of Transportation, Conference Room, 1 Child St. Augusta.
Gina LeDuc-Kuntz
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