BANGOR, Maine — State officials are looking to limit the number of scallop licenses in Maine by setting an entry rate of how many people have to leave the fishery before a new person is allowed in.
But of greater concern to many in the industry is the number of people already dragging or diving for scallops. There are nearly 900 licensed scallop fishermen in Maine, the vast majority of whom did not fish last year. If all the license holders decided suddenly to go fish for scallops, according to members of the state’s scallop advisory council, it could put the troubled fishery under even further strain.
“There’s a big difference there,” Dana Temple, the council’s chairman, said Tuesday about managing the entry of new members into the fishery and managing those already in it. “It’s a flood of [fishing] effort I’m concerned about.”
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