SavingSeaFood - Much of Cobscook Bay to be closed to scallop fishing

News

Much of Cobscook Bay to be closed to scallop fishing

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.

Read the complete story from Bangor Daily News.

MELISSA WOOD, NATIONAL FISHERMEN: Meting out the meager

May 22, 2012 - Listening to the New England Council's Groundfish Advisory Panel talk about how that industry is going to pay for monitoring costs is kind of like trying to figure out how to pay your bills when you've just lost your job. Though monitoring is important keeping costs down is critical. As Panel Member Gary Libby pointed out, "If we had 100 percent monitoring we probably wouldn't have an industry."

More Opinion >