Maine Lobster Zone G Council Meeting Minutes, June 28, 2006

Lobster Zone G Council Meeting
York Village Fire Department
June 28, 2006 – 7:00 p.m.

 

Present: Peter Eaton, Norman Nunan, David Provencher, Jim Alwin, Harold E. Place, Brad Parady, Gardner Marshall, Zach Donnell, Matt Nowell, Steve Taylor, Jodie M. Jordan, Jim Henderson, Sarah Cotnoir, Greg Griffin, Rep. Walt Wheeler, Deputy Comm. David Etnier, MPO David Testaverde and Col. Joe Fessenden.

Meeting began at 7:10 p.m.

Approval of minutes of last meeting – All accepted.

Col. Fessenden spoke about Zone F & G Double Tagging issue.

David Testaverde spoke about New Hampshire fishermen landing their catches in Maine.

AG’s office found that it would be unconstitutional (because of Interstate Commerce law) for the MPOs to write violations against out of state fishermen.

Out of state registered boats, according to the AG’s office that moor in Maine must abide by the lobstering laws of this state. The longest amount of time an out of state boat may be moored is only 60 days. There was some opposition from council member Harold Place.

Col. Fessenden made it clear that out of state boats/owners are not discriminated against; they just need to abide by the most restrictive measure, because they are basing their operation from Maine.

MLA has a grant to buy back our floating rope. Laura Ludwig, who is now with GOMLF, spoke about it. It’s a buyback for float rope, especially affecting Zone F & G fishermen. They are looking to collect around 1 million pounds of float rope. Buyback is based on pound for pound. Vouchers could be worth $2/pound. They’re not sure which way they will go. Should it be rope that is “fishing” or could it be “any” float rope, whether it be fishing or in the back yard. (Groundlines only).

LAC – Jim Alwin - Discussion of effort reduction: If we ever achieve a 30% reduction of licenses, back to 1997, it would be an exit ratio of 1:1.

We discussed Options A-E on the “Adjustments to Existing Limited Entry Provisions for Lobster Fishery”. Options C and D are for “student license holders”, not for those who are apprentices. Option E was unanimously voted upon.

As far as the issues in “Have a separate waiting list for students”, we agreed to make it “zone specific”.

There was no interest in doing away with the 10% overage in tags.

New entrants would come in at 600 traps, not 800, because they never had to take any cuts/sacrifices like the guys who have been in the business for 10/20/30 years.

There was some discussion about a trap tag freeze for 36 months.

Jim Henderson brought up the issue of draggers (Mass.) taking 500 lobsters per trip, including v-notch. Mass. should be considered “out of compliance” and not allowed at any of the bargaining tables, whether it is dealing with lobsters, groundfish, herring, etc.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.