Maine Lobster Zone G Council Meeting Minutes, October 18, 2005

Lobster Zone G Council Meeting
York Village Fire Department
October 18, 2005 – 7:00 p.m.

 

Present: Brad Parady, Harold Place, Steve Taylor, David Provencher, Norman Nunan, Nathaniel Marshall, Jodie Jordan, Matthew Nowell, Jim Henderson, two Marine Patrol Officers, Terry Stockwell and Stevie Robbins.

Elected Officers – same slate as last year.

Chair – Jim Henderson
Vice Chair – Peter Eaton
Secretary – Brad Parady
LAC Rep – Jim Alwin

Stock assessment looks good, but too much effort. More to come.

Minutes approved.

Lobster Advisory Council – log books discussed, no support from fishermen.

License increase for Marine Patrol – may not be possible to earmark the money.

Zone F wants 5:1 exit ratio. Next Zone F meeting is November 3rd to discuss the survey results.

Herring – no midwater or pair trawl discussed.

Secretary was late. Steve Taylor took first half hour of minutes. Excellent job Steve.

Apprentice Training Program – Every council member was in favor of the Apprentice Safety Training Program.

Shipping lanes – safer movement of ships around right whales, not favorable by shipping companies. If ships slow down for whales, terminals get backed up.

Lobster licenses that are not being used – should they become null and void? Why not use bait slips instead of lobster landings to prove use of license?

Legislature trying to get an emergency bill to stop the personal (equipment) property tax on lobster traps.

Log books, tags, all been used against us. Landings that are encrypted could eventually be used against us. DMR has lost some credibility because of this.

Science community is asking for another source of information about the way to “model” is assessed.

DMR breakaway links, rope, trap tags – Zone G has done an excellent job. Only a few problems, they were worked out fairly well.

The Zone F & G issue will probably be a problem against this fall/winter. When the patrol made a presence in the “overlap area”, the fishermen who were possibly fishing over the limit/line, tended to back off, move their traps back.

The 10% tag issuance was shot down at the LAC meeting.

No hide bait with hair allowed.

Next meeting not until assessment is out, probably after New Year – End of January in Cape Elizabeth.

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m.