Maine Rep Proposes Owner/Operator Requirement for Scallop and Urchin Fishery

maine rep lydia bloomRep. Lydia Blume, D-York, is proposing legislation to require license holders in the scallop and urchin fisheries to own and operate their own vessels. Owner-operator provisions help to increase stewardship in a fishery and help to ensure the fishery’s revenues stay in local communities, she said. “Maine’s lobster fishery has an owner-operator requirement, and this is one of the reasons why it is looked upon as a textbook example of a sustainable fishery,” Blume said. “We should try to replicate what works with lobster in harvesting other species.” Entrance to both the scallop and urchin fisheries is now closed, but there are several factors, like the rebuilding of stocks and increased dockside prices, that are increasing pressure to open them to new license holders. Read the rest here 08:28

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.