Saving Seafood

Scallop closures announced

March 10, 2021 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources has instituted an emergency scallop fishing closure in the St. Croix River in Zone 3; and expanded existing closures in Frenchman Bay, Swan’s Island and Isle au Haut rotational areas.

“The department is concerned that continued harvesting for the remainder of the 2020-21 fishing season in these areas will reduce scallop broodstock further, as well as jeopardize sublegal scallops that were observed in the 2020 spring scallop survey that is essential to the ongoing recruitment, regrowth and recovery of the scallop resource,” according to the notice of emergency rulemaking. “An immediate conservation closure is necessary to reduce the risk of unusual damage and imminent depletion of the scallop resource in these four scallop resource areas.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

In Maine’s last open lobster zone, a feud over limiting newcomers

May 25, 2016 — In most of Maine, adults who want to make their living trapping lobster must wait until a licensed lobsterman dies or forgets to file a license renewal.

There is only one place in the state, in the waters of eastern Penobscot Bay off Stonington, Vinalhaven and Isle au Haut, where a resident who completes the necessary training and safety classes can get a license to lobster without waiting for at least a decade. But the lobstermen who oversee Maine’s last open lobster territory are now fighting over whether to cap the number of lobstermen who can fish those waters, effectively closing the last open door to the state’s largest commercial fishery.

The debate is pitting islanders who worry that a cap would eliminate an incentive for adult children to return home against mainland fishermen who want to protect this lucrative industry from outside exploitation. After years of debate, the local lobster council has tried to put the issue to a vote twice before, but the meetings have fallen through, with members missing meetings or walking out moments before a closure vote could be held.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald