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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 1
September 2005
Maine’s Lew Flagg reflects on 37-year DMR career
Lew Flagg, a 37-year veteran of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) who has worked on most of the state’s species over the course of his distinguished career, retired from the department effective Aug. 26.
After being involved with anadromous species such as alewives for three decades, Flagg was selected to be the DMR’s deputy commissioner for external affairs in 1997. In this capacity, he became the department’s representative to the New England Fishery Management Council, where he sat at the table through the extremely difficult development of groundfish Amendment 13 and scallop Amendment 10.
Although he has contributed significantly to the management of numerous council-managed species, Flagg has been hailed for his leadership of the council’s herring committee, which for two years now, in conjunction with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), has been involved in the development of a limited-access system for the fishery.
Flagg graduated from the University of Maine in 1965 and worked briefly for what was then called the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Game. After serving on active duty in Vietnam, he joined the DMR in 1968 when it was still called the Maine Department of Sea and Shore Fisheries.
Commercial Fisheries News Associate Editor Janice M. Plante sat down with Flagg recently to talk about his experiences with both the fishing industry and the DMR over the years. Here is what he had to say. –Editor
Q: How has the DMR changed over the past three-to-four decades?
A: When I first came to work in 1968, we had a relatively small staff. We did lots of different things because there were so few of us. Now we have specialties. In some ways, I think that’s unfortunate. It’s hard to break away from the minutiae to look at the big picture.
In the beginning, if there were major issues that needed to be addressed by the agency, we’d all help out. Our guys in the anadromous group would help the shellfish guys do surveys or we’d help with herring tagging. In the 1970s when there was the first big move in the elver fishery, a lot of people in the department dropped everything to help get biological information.
As agency staff expanded in the 1970s and 80s, project leaders pretty much worked in isolation from one another. However, in the past 10-15 years, I’ve seen us come back toward the way we used to operate. There is a great deal more sharing of personnel among the various projects due to limited resources and increased mandates of the department.
In addition, the administrative/accounting staff, the DMR biological staff, and the marine patrol have established a very close, mutually supportive working relationship that really serves our industry well.
Q: When did the department begin to grow?
A: There were two major pieces of legislation that were the impetus for us to expand. One was Public Law 88-309, which was known as the Commercial Fisheries Development Act, and the other was Public Law 89-304, the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act.
They were passed in the mid-to-late ’60s, and those two pieces of legislation helped us expand our staff in the ’70s. That’s how we got Dan Schick (who is still with DMR), Jay Krouse (a former DMR lobster biologist), and Ted Creaser (who is now retired and worked on a number of species).
Q: How many DMR commissioners have you worked under?
A: Six commissioners under seven appointments. The first was Ron Greene. Then there was Spencer Apollonio. Then came Vinal Look. After that it was Spencer again, and then Bill Brennan, Robin Alden, and now George Lapointe.
Q: Did your job change as the commissioners changed?
A: Not really. I wasn’t very much affected by the politics. They were all different and had their strengths and weaknesses, but I found they were all very good to work for.
So my job didn’t change but the atmosphere changed. When I first came to work, most of the public was very respectful of state employees.
Over time, things got more and more union-oriented. Some of that was good for the employees, but I think we lost a lot in terms of public respect. It’s also part of the times, I guess. People’s attitudes are different and they question authority now.
Q: The DMR has an enormous range of responsibilities. Do you think the staff is spread too thin at times to adequately address the needs of all the state’s fisheries and the people who participate in them?
A: Oh absolutely. Everything is more complicated these days. We have so many more legal mandates. Just trying to stay on top of things is really hard.
Q: Are the principles and practices behind science and management very different today compared to when you first entered the field?
A: Well, the availability of data was very sparse at the beginning because we had so few people to collect it. We really had to go with what we had and we worked very closely with the industry. But back then, we didn’t have so much pressure on the resources. We weren’t in crisis mode. The technology wasn’t outstripping the ability of the resources to sustain themselves, so things were a lot more relaxed.
Q: You spent so many years focusing on anadromous species, but once you became deputy commissioner, your job changed significantly. You became the DMR’s representative on the New England Fishery Management Council and had to concentrate on commercially important marine species. What was that like?
A: I worked with anadromous species for 31 years, so this was a good change for me. It was a new challenge and a whole different environment. I really enjoyed working with new people. I did have contact with lobstermen before because alewives were used as bait. But getting into the whole marine area was really interesting to me.
Q: Of all the species you’ve worked on, which is your favorite?
A: From the standpoint of the marine industry, my favorite is herring. It’s a pelagic, schooling species not unlike some of the anadromous species.
And I like the people. It’s a very cohesive industry. They have their differences, but they have very similar interests. And I enjoy the interactions with the Canadians. Plus, herring has a huge history in Maine.
As for anadromous species, my favorite is probably striped bass. It got me into the ASMFC arena. I was one of the charter members of the commission’s striped bass technical committee. I went to my first workshop in Salisbury, MD in 1978.
ASMFC was how I was able to broaden my perspective in management because a lot of other states were involved. In Maine, striped bass is a recreational species, but I got more of a commercial perspective through ASMFC, and I was able to shift to other species.
Q: What do you see as your most important accomplishment?
A: It was definitely helping get fish passages on all the major rivers in the state. In October of 1967, all the industries and municipalities along the rivers were given 10 years to come on line with pollution abatement measures. The only company that got a six-month variance from the deadline was the Scott Paper Co.
All of our major rivers were really polluted. But once industry and municipalities had to comply with pollution abatement measures, those rivers really just came alive almost overnight. By October of 1977, industries and municipalities were all in compliance.
Then, in the early 1980s, all those hydropower projects on the large rivers in Maine came up for re-licensing, and that allowed us to make recommendations for fish passages as a condition of re-licensing.
On the Androscoggin River, we got three fish passages installed from 1982 to 1988. In 1988, we had fish passing all the way to Lewiston Falls for the first time in over 162 years. We had to do a lot of negotiating and we were involved in some litigation, so the whole experience really helped me develop my negotiating skills.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge?
A: By far my biggest challenge has been having to vote on things that have a serious impact on industry. That’s really been a tough thing for me. I’ve tried to make decisions as fairly as I could.
Q: What are your thoughts about the difference between the ASMFC process vs. the New England council process?
A: They are different and I think that’s good. There’s a lot more flexibility in the commission process. ASMFC is a body of states so the predominance of the participants come from the states.
There’s a lot more sensitivity about how states have to deal with their legislatures and traditional fisheries, and there’s a lot more willingness to be adaptive so the states can meet the conservation mandates. You’re not stuck in a “one size fits all” situation.
Once the commission makes a decision, that’s it. It lies within the commission. It doesn’t go for federal review. It’s a states-driven process to the end, and I think it’s a really democratic process.
Q: Do you have any regrets?
A: My one regret is our failure to break an impasse that has developed on the St. Croix River. When alewives were re-established in the upper St. Croix, the smallmouth bass resource on one of the lakes declined significantly. Local anglers blamed the decline on alewives and got legislation passed to keep alewives out of the upper river where they historically had access.
Although a number of studies suggest alewives do not adversely affect smallmouth bass, we have not been successful in reopening the St. Croix to alewife passage in spite of the fact that the Canadians also support a reopening.
The alewife run has gone from almost 3 million adults to less than 5,000 in recent years. This has been a real tragedy for the alewife resource and an affront to science-based management of our fishery resources.
Q: Do you have any plans once you retire?
A: My wife, Alice, and I are going to do a little traveling. Our son lives in Florida and our daughter, who is in the Air Force, is going to be stationed right outside of Las Vegas this summer.
We plan to escape some of this next winter by spending time with our children. And I might do some volunteer work in the field. I’ll have to wait and see.
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