Maine Lobster Zone G Council Meeting Minutes, June 7, 2005

Lobster Zone G Meeting Minutes
Thornton Academy – Hyde Library, Saco
June 7, 2005 – 7:00 pm

 

Present: Jim Henderson, Steve Taylor, Nathaniel Marshall, Zach Donnell, Brad Parady, David Provencher, Norman Nunan, Jodie Jordan, Lt. Jon Cornish, Gary Cummings, Howard Gray, John Butler, MPO Daryen Granata, Seth Dube and Sarah Cotnoir.

Meeting convened at 7:00 pm.

Accepted Minutes of March 15, 2005.

Lobster Advisory Council Update

Seed Fund Money – Each zone gets ~$16,000. Zone G wants to allocate its portion of the lobster seed fund money back to research.

Lobster License Plate Board RFP Awards – DMR sent out an RFP for $110,000 and received 10 proposals totaling $318,000.

$70,000 for research
• MER – Water Quality project – proposal to look at temperature, oxygen levels and salinity to see if they correlate to lobster health.
• Perkins/UMO – Heavy metals project – healthy lobsters v. shell diseased lobsters

$20,000 for education
• Deer Isle-Stonington High School – development of computer based activity for MS and HS students that will simulate biologic, ecologic and economic & social complexities involved in the lobster fishery
• Lobster Institute – web site enhancement
• Island Institute – Lobster fair – once developed, could be taken to other areas

$20,000 for development - no development proposals were funded at this time

Rulemaking – Zone F voted at their May 31st meeting to close the zone and send out a survey to propose a 5:1 exit ratio.

The Stock Assessment won’t be out until this fall.

Whales – The Commissioner, Pat White and Terry Stockwell are meeting with Bill Hogarth in Washington today to bring forth a number of issues in response to the recently published DEIS.

The summary points:

1. The overall role of fishing gear entanglements lends to the RW mortality and need to factor shipstrikes and water pollution/water quality into the equation.
2. The elimination of DAMs – unreasonable and unworkable for the fishing industry & offers very little credible protection for the whales.
3. Need for float rope in rocky and tidal areas.
4. Consider the rate at which gear requirement changes are implemented. Cost & timing.
5. Canadian issues – they don’t have a plan – whales are a transboundary species – NMFS must continue to encourage DFO to implement equivalent take reduction measures.

DMR supports Alternative 5 with modifications. More detail in letter to Mary Colligan in your packets.

• Eliminates DAMs
• Strongly support the continued use of floating groundlines
• Expand SAMs
• Maine disagrees with the proposed gear marking requirements
• NMFS has incorporated exemption lines. We believe that the proposed lines to be expanded to the lines originally provided by DMR.
• Maine does not support the use of five or more weak links per panel.

Timeline:

The proposed draft is due out within a couple weeks. The final draft by late summer. The final rule by the end of the year to be implemented for next year.

There has been a foraging workshop and that data will be overlaid with sightings data.

There is a new DMR gear specialist, Steve Robbins, out of Stonington who started yesterday.

We received a Section 6 Cooperative Agreement (of the Endangered Species Act) with the feds – allowing Maine to share the responsibility of protecting endangered species and therefore making us eligible to apply for additional federal money.

New Apprentice Options – LD 895 passed

Apprentices must apprentice in zone declared
Sponsor of boat must have held a commercial license for at least 5 years
Apprentice program can be lengthened to up 5 years instead of 2 years

Marine Patrol

• Lt. Jon Cornish transferred from the Bath area to replace Lt. David Mercier.
• New measures of 3-13/16 being issued to enforce the law of Areas 2/3 – permit situation of most restrictive laws.
• Hope to train and hire 4 new candidates – they are at the 18-week program at the academy, but would not be in the force until about December 2005.
• Tag and wet storage are and will continue to be enforced.

Legislative Update

LD 373 – keeps us in compliance with ASMFC – if you have a federal permit in Area 2 or 3, you are bound by Most Restrictive Rule – passed as emergency.

LD 434 – important bill passed – if you fish out of Maine Port, you are bound by all Maine laws.

LD 513 – amend hours for lobster fishing – this bill was killed.

LD 527 – important bill that was an MLA initiative – amended significantly by MRC – effective Jan 1 2006, no longer legal in Maine to fish w/alternative bait wild & domestic animal offal, hides w/hair - Uncle Henry’s bait now illegal with hair on it. If it’s on the vessel, you are guilty.

LD 691 – use of baits – passed earlier in year – around – Commissioner has right to regulate for public health.

LD 895 – passed by legislature – extends same options as Zones C & E have to all of zones – others that choose to, can further limit apprenticing in their zones – can adopt any one of them or all of them.
• Length of time an apprentice must be enrolled;
• Sponsor have license for 5 years; and
• Require a person to apprentice in the zone they desire to declare.

Grandfather apprentices that started before these options were mandatory.

LD 1147 – this would have authorized a license transfer to a family member – this bill was defeated in House and Senate.

LD 1209 – task force to study commercial lobster fishing offshore – this bill is dead.

LD 1231 – would have subjected recreational license holders to same limited entry requirements – this bill is dead.

LD 1421 – this bill creates a non-resident lobster license – it passed unanimously by MRC – has not gone to full leg – 6 x multiplier price – apprentice or Class 1,2,3, - does not apply to Maine resident – they do go on waiting list.

LD 1510 – amends lobster fishing laws – small stuff - passed by full legislature.
1. Defines full time student.
2. Amends trap tag program.
3. Requires that all zones that a person declares be listed on the license. It states that the # of trap tags sold will be used to determine the majority of a person’s traps, rather than the number of traps fished.
4. A provision to allow grandfathering at previous exit ratio.
5. Lobster License Plate Board be reimbursed for expenses.
6. Exception to allow Monhegan license holders to work as crew outside of Monhegan.
7. Amends wholesale seafood license w/lobster permit to prevent them transporting/possessing unless they have a commercial license.
8. Amends the lobster tail permit to allow processing only whole lobster tails and not portions.

District Reports:

Pine Point – Setting gear
Kittery – George’s effort reduction
York – No reports
Perkins Cove – No reports
Kittery Point – Effort reduction
Kennebunkport – No reports
Saco – Boats went gillnetting
Biddeford Pool – No reports

Effort Reduction

Two suggestions: All fishing stops at 4PM in state waters AND apprentices required to stay in program 5 years instead of 2. Take back to harbors for discussion.

Quite a lot of discussion – many different opinions and ideas.

Jim Henderson: Asked about stock assessment and he wonders if any changes have to be in this year or should it be (stock assessment) be put on the back burner to make sure it’s not just a “freak” year. What about no new entrants and freeze tags for 2 years?

Jeff White: Are “overcapitalization and gear conflict” the same issue? Will that mean that the 30% reduction will go to 50% or 60%?

The Draft-Not Department Policy, For Discussion Purposes Only Handout– Looking at the individual proposals, most of the council agreed to wait for the “stock assessment” for the answer from the Zone G Council.

Seth Dube: Feels that what’s fair for him should be fair for someone else. (His comment – “If you say you can’t make a living with 800 traps, and I was told that eventually, after finishing apprentice program, I can fish 800 traps, and now I have to cut back to 600 or 400, how can I make a living with 600 or 400 traps?”).

Next meeting tentatively set for sometime in October in York.

Meeting adjourned at 9:06 pm.