DMR Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
February 21, 2007
A meeting of the Department of Marine Resources’ (DMR) Advisory Council (AC) was held on this date at the Department of Human Services Central Offices Conference Room, 442 Civic Center Drive, Augusta. AC members attending this meeting included Dana Rice – Chair, Glenn Libby, Al West, Bill Sutter, Bob Baines, Dana Temple, Scott Tilton, David Pecci, Tim Harper, and Susan Farady. Council members Mike Danforth, David Turner, Rod Mitchell, Timothy Kief, and Vincent Balzano were unable to attend. Department staff included Director of External Affairs Terry Stockwell, Colonel Joe Fessenden, Cindy Smith, Gail Wippelhauser and L. Churchill. Other attendees included Tristan Smith, John Taylor and Suzanne Smith.
1. Welcome
Chair Dana Rice called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone.
2. Approval of minutes (see handout) Meeting – January 17, 2007
Motion: (D. Pecci, S. Tilton) Motion to approve the minutes of the meeting held January 21, 2007. Discussion: None
Motion continued: Unanimous to approve (Dana Rice, Glenn Libby, Al West, Bill Sutter, Bob Baines, Dana Temple, Scott Tilton, and David Pecci)
3. Regulations - Action (voting) (see handouts)
The Chair reiterated the directive by the Attorney General’s Office that no comments are allowed from the public when members are voting on rulemaking as the comment period has closed.
Chapter 55.06 Fish Passage regulations
Col. Fessenden reviewed the rulemaking history, noting that there are 5 exceptions. An example he cited as to why the rule was needed, was chicken wire stretched across Cobbossee Stream for an entirely lethal catch, yet there were no prohibitions to this activity on the marine side of waterways. He answered questions about nets and other streams.
Motion: (B. Sutter, A. West) Motion to approve the rulemaking in Chapter 55.06, Fish Passage, as written.
Discussion: None
Motion continued: Unanimous to approve (Dana Rice, Glenn Libby, Al West, Bill Sutter, Bob Baines, Dana Temple, Scott Tilton and David Pecci)
Chapter 55.30 Fishing in the Sheepscot River, Lincoln County, Exception
Col. Fessenden gave a brief description of this rule, which has come about primarily due to the washout of the dam at Sherman Lake.
Motion: (B. Sutter, S. Tilton) Motion to approve the rulemaking in Chapter 55.30, Fishing in the Sheepscot River, Lincoln County, Exception, as written.
Discussion: None
Motion continued:
Affirmative: Bill Sutter, Dana Temple, Scott Tilton, Bob Baines, Dana Rice, Al West and Glenn Libby
Opposed: D. Pecci
Abstained: T. Harper
The motion passed by a majority of affirmative votes.
Chapter 8 Landings Program, ASMFC Eel & Elver Reporting Compliance
G. Wippelhauser briefed the council members on the regulation. The dealers have been reporting the data but at the 5 year population assessment the data was insufficient data. Therefore ASMFC passed the addendum that requires the data be reported by harvesters as well. She answered several questions. Topics covered reporting forms; have eels bee declared endangered (no); cost of administration; and confidentiality of the data. Individual landings are not released; it must be in aggregate form.
Motion: (B. Baines, D. Temple) Motion to approve the rulemaking in Chapter 8 Landings Program, ASMFC Eel & Elver Reporting Compliance, as written.
Discussion: None
Motion continued:
Affirmative: Dana Temple, Scott Tilton, Bob Baines, Dana Rice, Al West, D. Pecci, Glenn Libby, T. Harper, S. Farady
Abstained: Bill Sutter
The motion passed by a majority of affirmative votes.
4. Other Business
Scallop research areas (handout)
Terry Stockwell explained that the proposed closed areas have been requested by local Jonesport – Beals fishermen. Cindy Smith was introduced as the primary contact for this rule and the handouts from the hearing with a local chart were passed out. Cindy gave a brief description of the purpose of the proposal and responded to questions. Topics of discussion included: are there scallops in these areas now; scallop size dynamics; the Consortium pared this down eliminating the urchin component; including/excluding the ‘cable area’; Scallop Council meetings; and the areas are too small, should be larger.
Code of Ethics and Conduct
Terry Stockwell reviewed this request by the Governor’s Office. There is no need to vote it into the bylaws just vote to accept the terms of the Code of Conduct.
Motion: (A. West, B. Baines) Motion to accept the terms of the Code of Conduct
Discussion: None
Motion continued: Unanimous to approve (Dana Temple, Scott Tilton, Bob Baines, Dana Rice, Al West, D. Pecci, Glenn Libby, T. Harper, S. Farady, Bill Sutter)
LD update (see handout)
Terry Stockwell reviewed the list of legislative documents followed by discussions of each. LD 170 on landings dragged lobsters elicited a lengthy discussion amongst council members.
ASMFC & NEFMC
Terry Stockwell covered recent ASMFC meeting topics: whale rules are still pending; at NEFMC Amendment 13 on scallops for limited access, the observer set aside was passed and send forward; regarding Amendment 11 general category Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area they plan to hold hearings this spring; the whiting committee meets next week; the Habitat omnibus hearing will be held next week; on the groundfish discussions ~35-40 people showed up; ASMFC lobster Addendum 10 was moved forward with option 3 to require 10% harvester reporting, all other states have almost 100% reporting, the target compliance date is January 1, 2008; the striped bass board met on the stock assessment and trophy fish; dogfish – it was approved to increase the trip limit in state waters to 3000 lb per day; there is concern about river herring.
D. Pecci noted that the ASMFC striped bass board didn’t ask why Maryland was not sampled last year when the industry targets older breeders then asks why there is a lack of stock.
B. Sutter asked what the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area was based on. T. Stockwell said it was based on historical fishing and there is still a VMS requirement but it would allow a fishery.
B. Sutter: How is lobster reporting done in Massachusetts? T. Stockwell: Mass. has a different reporting system that is more liberal; Mass. is going with a 100% reporting in 2008 but theirs will have less data but come from more persons; note that this does not pass muster with the technical committee. B. Baines noted that Carl Wilson has presented good explanations of the statistical equivalents.
B. Sutter: How will the lobster reporting administrative cost be paid for? (ans: federal monies for now)
G. Libby to B. Sutter: There is always a big problem regarding the faith of fishermen in government as many times they don’t have data or the information on which to base management decisions. I for one want the information they use to be as good as it can be.
B. Baines: The last two stock assessments were good but not great; start with 10-15% reporting then build up to everyone it would help the stock assessment accuracy.
T. Stockwell: When the lobster model by Y. Chen was peer reviewed it was not recognized as being any good because it did not have any effort data. Other examples are whiting or monkfish that have terrible data. The survey vessel is being replaced by the Bigelow and it will take years to calibrate the data between those vessels. Recently the herring TAC would have been different had it not been for the data available.
G. Libby: For groundfish we need real time data to manage a hard TAC. The data is not being processed fast enough.
D. Rice: The model gave us a report for Maine. It is discouraging when people don’t want to put data in. To the lobster industry, keep us posted down the road.
T. Stockwell: The Downeast area management proposal grew to a statewide discussion and pieces of it will make it into the final version.
There was agreement by the council members to cancel the next meeting and they would be willing to vote by ballot on the Chapter 11.15 rulemaking, which is time sensitive as it needs to be submitted to the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee if approved.
Motion: (B. Sutter, A. West), the Council voted to adjourn.
Motion continued: Unanimous to approve
