Tag Archives: Maine Department of Resources
Documents Reveal ‘Catastrophic Impact’ Right Whale Protections Could Have On Lobster Industry
Newly released documents by Maine’s Department of Resources are providing a glimpse of what federal action to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales could look like — including the closure of extensive areas of offshore ocean to lobstering. In an August letter to the head of the agency that reviews proposed federal regulations, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher asked for a meeting to go over options for reducing the risk of right whales becoming dangerously entangled in lobster trap gear and rope. That was after conversations with the federal Northeast Fisheries Science Center that brought to light a proposal that could put big swaths of ocean off-limits to lobstering in federal waters known as Lobster Conservation Management Areas, or LCMAs. >click to read< 18:46
Trawl limit in Blue Hill Bay not an end to cross-zone fishing issue
A possible compromise with Zone B lobstermen over the boundary lines of a new five-trap trawl limit occupied a Zone C lobster council meeting October 1, the day the rule went into effect. The trawl limit covers a Zone B that is also fished by Zone C license holders, about six miles off Frenchboro around Mt. Desert Rock. A Zone B-proposed boundary line change would move the trawl-limit area from the west side to the east side of the rock. Zone B council initiated the trawl limit rule change because they “were getting boxed out by trawls,” Maine Department of Resources Lobster Council Liaison Sarah Cotnoir said,,, >click to read<14:42
Maine: Scallopers gear up for season start
For many fishermen, the end of the inshore lobster season will mean it’s time to begin rigging up the scallop drags on their boats. Final details for the 2015-2016 Maine scallop season were approved last week by the Department of Resources (DMR) Advisory Council and adopted on Monday by the department. The seasons for scallop diving and dragging in Zone 2, which runs from roughly the middle of Western Penobscot Bay to Lubec, begin Dec. 1. Dragging in Zone 3, which includes the popular, sheltered-from-winter-weather Cobscook Bay bottom, begins the same day. Read the rest here 15:56
