Maine Lobster Zone D Council Meeting Minutes
Lobster Zone D Council Meeting
October 24, 2007
Rockland Ferry Terminal
6:30 PM
Present: Michael Dawson, Doug McLennan, Joe Bates, Kevin Glover, Mike Hutchings, Dan Staples, Wayne Canning, Gerry Cushman, James Wotton, Rep. Mazurek. Others Present: Sarah Cotnoir.
The meeting was called to order by Zone D Chairman Michael Dawson.
Delegate Reports:
Lobster Advisory Council
There will not be a grace period for trap tags any more. You have to have the traps tagged by June 1st. Discussed the rule making process, it will be probably 2009 before any new laws come into affect. There was talk about training a couple officers to tend to the drug problems. The double tagging issue was talked about again and if a couple zones do it why don’t the other zones do it. There was mixed feelings about this, but it would be worth while to take a look at it. Alternative bait labeling is going to be in affect January 1st. Area 1A will be closed to take Herring from October 25th-December 31st. Mid-water trawlers cause a lot of gear loss for guy’s Downeast, some guys lost around 150 traps.
Zone C - No meeting
Zone E - No meeting
District Reports
People have been complaining that the expenses are making the business harder. There were a few suggestions to make thing a little easier.
-Marketing
-Are the buyers making most of the money on their end? If so, why aren’t the fishermen seeing some of it?
Whales
Suing is still an option. Putting a request in for Federal rule-making might be an option. If we decide to sue them, will it help us or end up hurting us? Will it stall the rule-making? It will cost around half a million dollars to sue. So if we decide to sue where will the money come from? The MLA is at a standstill because they do not have the resources to fight this either, unless a lot more people decide to join. The Whale people are looking to remove 50% of the vertical lines.
We recommend that we put $0.20 cent trap tag increase into affect for studying the whales. So the state might be able to get some ideas on how to fight this. Sarah said she thought the state was going to try to go for a $0.10 cent increase. Rep. Mazurek said it is always better to have too much money to fight it then not enough.
The next meeting has not been scheduled yet.
Meeting adjourned.
