Maine Lobster Zone D Council Meeting Minutes
Lobster Zone D Council Meeting
November 10, 2008
Rockland Ferry Terminal
6:00
Meeting called to order at 6:15.
Deborah McNeil spoke to us on behave of Senator Olympia Snowe. She talked about how the long term solutions are going to be trying to get some more in State processing going. Also to see about some more lobster promotion. Some shore terms solutions are financing. Go and talk to your banks and seeing what they have to offer.
Discussion with Representatives from FAME, DECD and EMDC on the current lobster situations.
MSC Update: They are getting ready to go into a full assessment. Everyone with a Maine lobster license will be certified. Then it will follow down through the dealers and so on. There will be an informational meeting at the fisherman’s forum. It will probably cost the industry between $750,000 and $1,000,000 dollars a year to maintain. We may not gain a lot of market out of this but hopefully we will not loose any more market.
LAC: There was talk about banking and how the fishermen might be able to get some help if needed. There was more talk about freezing the tags and the licenses. The LAC has formed a sub group to meet and discuss tiered licenses. The group met and discussed everything and recommended a 2 year freeze on tags but the apprentice program would be grandfathered. Also the people that have been building 100 tags a year would be all set as well. This will be presented to the LAC and then voted on. Ed and Chris said they think everything should be frozen. This would allow you to get a handle on everything.
ASMFC: They are trying to stop people from exchanging there permits into Area
Whale: DAM zones are now into affect until April when the rope laws come into affect.
Zone C: Same meeting as what we are having.
Zone E: They didn’t have enough people to vote. They were going to vote on the student waiting list. They talked about time of day and also having Sundays off.
Old Business: We talked about the time of day some more. June-October stop hauling at 4 everyday.
There was talk about Linda Bean wanting to label with lobster and tell where if was caught.
Next Meeting: December 11th at 6:00
