ELLSWORTH, Maine — A report prepared by Gulf of Maine Research Institute for the state Department of Marine Resources recommends that a tiered licensing system be established in Maine to help ensure the lobster fishery’s long-term sustainability.
The 82-page report, presented last week by GMRI to DMR officials, also recommends consideration of different measures for reducing waiting periods to get into the fishery, and the development of a fishery management plan that establishes “clear goals” for the fishery.
The report is the end result of a project ordered by the state Legislature to evaluate the state’s limited entry licensing system.
According to the report, DMR should look into establishing four tiers of commercial licenses, each with different levels of allowed traps. Many lobstermen are licensed to use more traps than they actually set in the water, and the potential for those so-called “latent” traps to be actively used could greatly increase the statewide fishing effort and have an adverse impact on the resource, DMR officials have said.
According to the report’s executive summary, in that scenario more than 1.2 million already permitted traps theoretically could be introduced into the fishery.
“That represents a potential 39 percent increase in existing effort,” the report says.
Such an increase could not only hurt the resource, but could increase competition and congestion on the water and adversely affect the price fishermen get for their catch.
A tiered licensing system would be established based not on how many trap tags fishermen are licensed to use, but on their fishing history. Most of Maine’s approximately 5,300 licensed lobstermen currently are limited to fishing a maximum of 800 traps apiece.
“Existing license holders would be divided into the four tiers based on landings and tag history, reflecting their current and recent activity,” the report says.
The report also suggests that, if fishermen are limited to the number of traps they have actually used in recent years, it would reduce the potential for latent equipment to come into use and therefore would allow more would-be lobstermen to get licenses more quickly, without affecting the resource.
DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said Tuesday that the GMRI report is helping to draw attention to lobster fishery management issues at an opportune time.
Maine’s annual lobster catches have increased steadily since 1990, when Maine fishermen caught a total of 28 million pounds of lobster and cumulativelty were paid $61 million for their efforts. Last year, the statewide catch topped 100 million pounds and had a direct value to fishermen of $334 million.
But last year there also was an unseasonal glut of soft-shell lobsters in the spring and early summer that caused a plummet in price to less than $2 per pound. The most recent year in which Maine lobstermen earned on average less than $2 per pound was 1980.
Keliher said DMR and industry representatives need to revisit the fishery’s management policies in order to make sure the fishery is sustainable and to protect the long-term economic viability of Maine’s coastal communities.
“GMRI’s report provides us with an objective, scientific analysis as we begin that conversation,” Keliher said Tuesday in a prepared statement.
Patrice McCarron, executive director of Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said Thursday that there is a lot of information to digest in the 82-page report and that association officials were still going through it. With approximately 1,200 members, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association is the largest commercial fishermen’s organization in the state.
McCarron said the ever-increasing landings figures indicate the resource is not being overfished, but that the association is not opposed to some of the general concepts raised in the report. A tiered licensing system, for example, could be acceptable to the group as long as there is flexibility for fishermen to move back and forth among tiers, she said.
McCarron added that it is good to have the fishery’s management policies independently reviewed.
“The devil is in the details with anything,” McCarron said.
According to the DMR release, the agency plans to hold meetings along the coast in the coming months to seek industry input on potential changes to the limited entry system.
DMR staff also plan to solicit comment from people in the industry about ongoing quality and profitability challenges. The dates for those meetings are still being scheduled but will be posted on DMR’s website.
“We will be thoroughly evaluating the data, analyses and recommendations in this report as we develop concepts to take out to the lobster industry for further input,” Keliher said in the release. “Our goal is to ensure that we develop a plan that supports and sustains this vital Maine resource and economy.”
The report can be downloaded or read online at the DMR website, www.maine.gov/dmr.
Follow BDN reporter Bill Trotter on Twitter at @billtrotter.
Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Let’s get more and more licenses into the hands of fisherman so they can fish, and presumable catch, more and more lobster. WAIT A MINUTE! Didn’t the lobster market almost collapse because of TOO MANY lobster in the market? So, of course, the logical response is to pump more into the market. Or is the plan to overfish to the point the lobster population collapses completely, then the lobstermen can complain that they have no work, that the government doesn’t need to regulate their industry and the government better hurry up and help the inductry recover. SMH!
As usual someone who has without a doubt spent one WORKING day on the water has the answer to all problems!! Cranky yet?!
This report holds less value then the paper it was printed. After reading it I really hope the DMR was refunded. It falls just short of a big joke, but the laugh is now going to fall on the industry. Its time we take a stand and run these bean counters to task, they preach gloom and doom and suggest more studies, more reports, and more flourishing young minds fresh out of college to give us direction. TImes up get on another host industry and leach from it; we don’t need it any longer!
PS- In the below article put out by the courier last spring I mentioned many different view points much of what is spoken of in the article above by “BDN” has a very “non” fisherman attitude, likely written by those that arent fishermen…plus 82 pages of explanation is ridiculous, anything but simple, this is the reason there must be proper communication between the state and fishermen and why the frustration exists. The ecology of the Ocean is best learned and known by those who live in the Ocean, but we who are on the list cant be sitting around 30 years waiting for a license that was supposed to be ours years ago, with all my family, and all my heritage in the town I grew up in and spent my life in…How much time I have to put into this I dont know, but I do know the Greed and territorialism will one day be totally abolished. Restricted licenses CHOKE the economy of small fishing villages IM FLIPPING WATCHING IT HAPPEN to the one I love. I got a pretty good Idea fishermen aint gonna let anyone who aint suppossed to be in there town fishing, fish…there gona do what theyve always done to stop masses from coming in…you know what i mean, so all this talk of a flooded industry is BOLOGNA. There 302 on the list 30% might give a little NEEDED compition, the other 70% arent even an issue…so all this is for 100 licenses when there 1300 not even being used out there!?!?!…..Ill be praying for this change. -JAMES FLIPPING ANDERSON 207-691-3022
I currently fish an zone that is closed, while neighboring a zone that is open. Everyone in my town sits on the waiting list, but meanwhile anyone who can buy a trap and a canoe are pushing from the open zone. If this entry happens with the current number of boats already fishing our area, it will be a joke. I already spend most of my day clearing snarls due to the fact that there is simply too much gear already here. There is nothing I would love more than to see them let more people in to fish here so I can spend even more time losing gear and getting paid less for allowing more lobsters to be caught. Before any of this happens, the state should spend a little more time researching how the product could be better marketed, allowing a better price. Then once they allow people to enter the fishery, they should shut down every zone to fish where you live. Why let someone come from an open zone to a closed zone to fish when you wont let the locals in. I say restructure the zones and limit where people fish, and then think about letting more into the industry. There also has to be strict regulations on who they let into the industry. Every carpenter, insurance salesman, etc….wants in, so if you make any money elsewhere, you shouldn’t qualify for a license. Anyone that has lobstered for any period knows that this cycle will end, and things will look entirely different in 5-10 years. This has potentially devastating results for the state of Maine, and current real lobstermen who don’t have other careers to fall back on.