HALLOWELL, Maine — Down East Maine’s ongoing scallop harvest is about to go from bad to worse.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources announced Friday that much of Cobscook Bay is being closed to scallop boats through the end of the 2011-12 season, which runs through March. That ban takes effect on Monday, Jan. 2.
“It’s going to be a bleak season,” Pat Keliher, the acting DMR commissioner, said Friday. “In fact, it already is. But our research along the coast shows the resource is in very, very rough shape.”
The closure that takes effect Monday includes portions of the east and south bays. The eastern boundary of the off-limits area is a straight line between Birch Point and Grove Point. The western boundary runs between Mahar Point and Crow Neck.
During an emergency meeting Tuesday in the Washington County community of Whiting, Keliher heard from fishermen that there is no shortage of scallops in Cobscook Bay, but few are large enough to be legally harvested. Some of those attending demanded that areas that have been closed for the last two scallop seasons — waters that collectively represent about 10 percent of Maine’s scallop fishery — be opened this season, not next, as planned, at least for a few days a week.
That’s not going to happen, Keliher said Friday.
“If we opened up the closed areas now, we’d be fishing over a lot of juveniles, a lot of seed and a lot of sub-legal scallops,” Keliher said in a telephone interview. “We would see high mortality in order to harvest some legal-sized scallops. We have an investment in those closed areas, and we are committed to keeping them closed for three seasons.”
Keliher said he’s “very concerned” about the impact of the Cobscook Bay closure on the fishing community, but says the closure is in that community’s long-term interest.
“It’s quite a tightrope we are trying to walk, and we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” he said. “We’re trying to balance the resource and the sustainability of the resource in a way that has a long-term positive impact.”
In announcing the latest closure on Friday, the DMR noted that Maine scallop landings have declined from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 1980-1981 to less than a half million pounds each year since 2001. DMR began dredge-based fishery surveys of the state’s scallop resource in 2002, with surveys in 2006 and 2007 indicating that Cobscook Bay had the highest scallop density in the state, by far. The 2010 survey showed Cobscook Bay to be the only area exhibiting relatively high scallop production in recent years.
Because of that relative abundance, the Cobscook Bay fishery has attracted more than 100 boats in some years, according to the DMR. During the last two seasons, a majority of scallop boats in Cobscook Bay landed at or near the 135-pound daily limit throughout the first three weeks of the season, with catches dropping off by January. That hasn’t been the case this season, which opened Dec. 17. By the third day of this season, fewer than half of 16 boats sampled by the DMR were landing at or near the daily limit, with a mean catch weight of 103.8 pounds.
“Scallop populations throughout the state, including Cobscook Bay, are at extremely low levels,” the DMR said in announcing the imminent closure. “The department is concerned that unrestricted harvesting during the remainder of the 2011/2012 fishing season may deplete a severely diminished resource beyond its ability to recover. Continued harvesting may damage sublegal scallops that could be caught during subsequent fishing seasons, as well as reducing the broodstock essential to a recovery. … Significant immediate conservation closures are necessary to reduce the risk of unusual damage and imminent depletion.”
Keliher said the DMR is committed to reopening next year the 10 areas already closed.
“We’re looking at doing it on a rotational basis,” he said. “We want to continue to improve the resource while allowing access to it.”
Although Keliher told those attending Tuesday’s emergency meeting that he would be meeting with Gov. Paul LePage this week to discuss options for addressing the dismal scallop harvest, that never happened due to schedule conflicts, Keliher said. Instead, Keliher discussed the situation with the governor’s staff.
The governor has the option of introducing emergency legislation that would open areas now closed to scallop boats, with approval by two-thirds of the Legislature. Keliher said Friday that won’t happen.
“All the benefits from keeping those areas closed would be lost,” he said.
I live and work in cobscook bay and own a boat which i do drag scallops closing over half the bay for the remainder of the season is the most stupid thing that i have heard so far the closed areas need to be opened and whiting bay has been closed the longest i think they should have closed the whole bay and opened the closed areas for 1 or 2 days a week and we all cuold have made a living now we are going to struggle to even survive they have pushed twice the boats into half the area hows that for conservation
Hey, you fished it dry. It’s what happens when unrestrained greed takes over the brain.
you should know what your talking about before you post have the bottom has been closed forsed us all in the other half
Nobody will stop until every scallop has been shucked. Then we blame DMR for ruining the fishery. It’s called the Washington County fisheries management plan. It’s worked for generations.
I agree, fishing is all about greed. Destroy one fishery then just go on to the next to destroy. You fishermen decimated the scallops so now live with it. The fisheries need at least 10 years of none fishing not 3 to recover. Lobsters are next on the fishery destruction list.
Bub, can I offer you a rag to wipe the foam from your mouth? The big lobster catches are due to good stewardship. They prey on small scallops which seems to be having a big (bad) effect on scallop population.
You boys throw around the word greed pretty librally. I am not certain that trying to put food on your family’s table falls into the catagory of greed. Has over fishing occured? Yes. Just as it has in every fishery in the world from time to time. It is the job of DMR to protect the resource, and the system of checks and balances is working as it was designed to. To call the fishermen who are left with no way to make a living greedy is, however, just wrong. And before you tell me that these men can just work elsewhere, come down to Washington County and point out those good paying jobs.
Sounds like someone has been taking lessons from the Asians, fish till you have none then move to the next country
All 200 people attending the meeting in Whiting on Tuesday night agreed that an emergency closure was needed! That kind of consensus rarely ever happens. Good decision by Commissioner Keliher. Leaving a section of the bay open will let a few locals pay the electric bills while protecting the rest for next year.
Commercial fishing is hard and dangerous work. It is not the type of work most of us would want to do or chose to do. This action,even if necessary, is going to cause a lot of financial hardship. I would imagine some of the fishermen and women will have to apply for some sort of public assistance. I most certainly hope that they will not be called leeches, lazy lay abouts or even worse by our radical right friends.
We don’t need trolls using our situation to play their politics. But that’s all some are good for.
Did I say something wrong Robert?
The problem with DMR is they listen to the scientist and not a lot of time talking to our fishermen, I know fishermen, who will not go to areas because they know it is /was over fished and they themselves are giving the areas a rest. I’m not saying that all fishermen are this way, but the great fishermen are and DMR should be thankful!
If they just listened to fishermen, then there would be no living creature left alive in the Ocean. The fisheries would have all been fished out due to fisherman’s greed.
Smart Conservation understands that ………
……Some people need the bay to produce more than wake water for yachts….
I guess no one can dive for scallops anymore. Seems to be a lost art. Possibly this could be allowed as selective harvest which would proably start up other businesses to cater to those who dive for them. Some income is better than none, and it helps protect the younger scallops from being damaged by he fishing gear until the bay can be opened to boats. why not ? or is that too difficult to figure out,,,,,,,,,,,, DAH !!!!!
Good point ………….. “BUT” …………… To logical and uses common sense, two things that seem too be lacking in today’s world!
Thanks for giving the scallops a chance to recover… If you harvest the last 10%, scallops would be only a memory…
sad state of affairs but I think we have to agree for the long run future of scallop fishing.
Everybody should pull a rock drag or chain sweep around your dooryard for 8-10 hours a day and see what’s left. It kills everything, it’s no wonder why there’s nothing left in the sea. Dragging should be banned, period!