Management

This page is divided into five sections: Mission, Programs, Regulations, Activities and Documents. Each deals with an aspect of the duties and functions of the Regional Office concerning shellfish management. Use the links at the left to view each section or simply scroll down the page.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

MISSION

The Biologists stationed at the Regional Offices are responsible for assisting municipalities with shellfish management programs. The Biologist is a consultant to the town knowledgeable in both state regulations and clam management. The soft-shell clam resource belongs to the people of the State of Maine. As a natural resource trustee, the Department of Marine Resources, through the biologists, must ensure that municipalities who have assumed the responsibilities of management do so in a manner that is consistent with the state's goal of achieving a balance between utilization and conservation. Specific areas of assistance include: preparation of management plans, reviewing renewal ordinances and amendments, recommending management activities and controls, training municipal personnel in survey and seeding techniques, and analyzing survey and production data.

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PROGRAMS

Municipalities

There are currently fifty-eight towns with shellfish management programs. The following occur in Hancock County:

Bar Harbor
Brooklin
Cranberry Isles
Deer Isle

Gouldsboro
Mount Desert
Sorrento
Southwest Harbor

Stonington
Sullivan
Surry
Swans Island

Committees

The shellfish management programs are administered by the municipal officials with the advise of the shellfish committee. The duties and responsibilities of the committees can be found in the Model Shellfish Conservation Ordinance.

The following is a list of the shellfish committees, the respective chairs and regular meeting time and place.

Bar Harbor: Meeting: 3rd Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m; Location: Bar Harbor Town Office
Chairman: Jane Disney
Brooklin: Meeting:
Location: Brooklin Town Office
Chairman: Tom Hardy
Cranberry Isles: Meeting:
Location:
Chairman:Richard Alley Jr
Deer Isle: Meeting:
Location: PERC
Chairman: Virginia Olsen
Gouldsboro: Meeting: 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m
Location: Gouldsboro Town Office
Chairman: Wayne Hodgkins
Mount Desert: Meeting:
Location: Mount Desert Town Office
Chairman: Tom Falt
Sorrento: Meeting:
Location:
Chairman: Beth Clark
Southwest Harbor: Meeting: 2nd Monday of each month at 6 p.m
Location: Southwest Harbor Town Office
Chairman: Jim Calquhoun
Stonington: Meeting:
Location: PERC
Chairman: Virginia Olsen
Sullivan: Meeting:
Location: Sullivan Town Office
Chairman: Helen Gordon
Surry: Meeting:
Location: Surry Town Office
Chairman: Wilbur Saunders
Swans Island: Meeting:
Location:
Chairman: Dan Mattsen

Licensing

The following is a list of the number (** = no limit, *=10% of the number sold in the previous category) and costs of licenses provided by the municipalities for each of several categories along with the issuance period:

Bar Harbor

Resident Commercial
Nonresident Commercial
Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Resident Daily Recreational
Nonresident Daily Recreational
Senior Recreational

Issuance Period- July 1 to September 30

4
*
**
**
**
**
**

$100
$200
$20
$40
$5
$10
nc

Brooklin

Resident Commercial
Nonresident Commercial
Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Senior Resident Recreational
Senior Nonresident Recreational

Issuance Period- May 1 to July 31

20
2
30
3
**
*

$60
$120
$20
$40
nc
nc

Cranberry Isles

Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Resident Junior Recreational
Nonresident Junior Recreational
Resident Senior Recreational
Nonresident Senior Recreational

Issuance Period- March1 to February 28

**
*
**
*
**
*

$16
$32
nc
nc
nc
nc

Deer Isle

Resident Commercial
Nonresident Commercial
Resident Senior Commercial
Nonresident Senior Commercial
Resident Student Commercial
Nonresident Student Commencial
Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Junior Recreational
Senior Recreational

Issuance Period- May 1 to April 30

**
*
**
*
**
*
**
**
**
**

$100
$200
nc
nc
nc
nc
$1
$2
nc
nc

Mount Desert

Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational

Issuance Period- October 1 to April 30

**
*

$20
$40

Sorrento

Resident Commercial
Nonresident Commercial
Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Resident Daily Recreational
Nonresident Daily Recreational

Issuance Period- July 2 to June 30

5
1
**
**
**
**

$200
$400
$25
$50
$15
$25

Southwest Harbor

Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Junior Recreational

Issuance Period- January 1 to December 31

**
**
**

$20
$40
nc

Stonington

Issuance Period- May 21 to April 30

**
*
**
*
**
*
**
**
**
**

$100
$200
nc
nc
nc
nc
$1
$2
nc
nc

Sullivan

Resident Commercial
Nonresident Commercial
Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Junior Recreational
Senior Recreational

Issuance Period- May 1 to April 30

**
*
**
**
**
**

$202
$404
$25
$50
nc
nc

Surry

Resident Commercial
Nonresident Commercial
Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational

Issuance Period- April 1 to July 2

2
1
35
10

$150
$300
$5
$10

Swans Island

Resident Commercial
Nonresident Commercial
Resident Recreational
Nonresident Recreational
Junior Recreational
Senior Recreational

Issuance Period- April 1 to June 30

20
2
60
6
**
**

$60
$120
$12.50
$25
nc
nc

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REGULATIONS

The main laws pertaining to shellfish management include: 1.) 12 M.R.S.A. § 6671. Municipal Shellfish Conservation Programs. 2.) DMR Regulations Chapter 7. Requirements for Municpalities Having Shellfish Conservation Programs. 3) DMR Regulations Chapter 4. Certification for Municipal Shellfish Wardens. and 4.) the Model Shellfish Conservation Ordinance. Use the following links to view the laws.

§ 6671 Chapter 7 Chapter 4 Model Ordinance

Additional laws can be accessed by selecting Laws and Regulations on the DMR homepage.

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ACTIVITIES

This section contains a description of the most recent management activities undertaken by this office.

Shellfish Committee Meetings

The Regional Biologist attends as many of the Shellfish Committee meetings as possible and takes notes which are written up as Meeting Highlights and provided to the Program Manager. The Highlights are not the official minutes of the meetings and are not reviewed by the committees for errors or omissions. Meeting Highlights for the last attended meeting can be viewed through the following links.

Bar Harbor
Brooklin
Cranberry Isles
Deer Isle

Gouldsboro
Mount Desert
Sorrento
Southwest Harbor

Stonington
Sullivan
Surry
Swans Island

Clam Flat Surveys

All of the commercially based management programs and many of the recreational based programs conduct clam flat surveys to ascertain their clam resources. The Regional Biologist is tasked with training individuals and groups to conduct clam surveys according to the procedures developed by DMR. In addition, the Regional Biologist will also analyze survey data generated by the management programs that request it. Results of surveys conducted by a number of programs can be viewed through the following links.

Bar Harbor
Brooklin
Cranberry Isles
Deer Isle

Gouldsboro
Mount Desert
Sorrento
Southwest Harbor

Stonington
Sullivan
Surry
Swans Island

Annual Management Review

The 2005 Annual Management Review forms were sent out at the beginning of December to all Shellfish Conservation Committees with a March 1st deadline for submission. The purposes of the review are: 1) to document and discuss the conservation activities of the past year, 2) to plan and document the proposed activities for the coming year and 3) to determine if the municipality is meeting its regulatory requirements under the Municipal Shellfish Conservation Program - DMR Regulations: Chapter 7. The Regional Biologists assist municipalities in conducting the reviews and preparing the forms. A comprehensive review of the 2003 forms was completed in June. Each program was evaluated on management performance and reporting compliance.

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