January 11, 2006

Dear General Category Scallopers,

Last October I sent you a letter updating you on a number of issues pertaining to scallop management in federal waters and to ask for your input on an upcoming amendment. We are hosting four meetings in early February to have an open dialog with you about this amendment so we can ensure that whatever comes from this amendment will work as well as possible for you, the Maine industry.

This letter is to let you know where and when those meetings are happening:

• Monday Feb. 6 at the Casco Bay Lines meeting room in the Casco Bay Lines Ferry Terminal in Portland from 6 – 8 pm.
  
• Tuesday Feb. 7 at the Ferry Terminal in Rockland from 6 – 8 pm
  
• Thursday Feb. 9 in Room 102 in the Science Building at the University of Maine at Machias, from 7 – 9 pm
  
• Monday Feb. 13 at the City Hall in Ellsworth in the Auditorium from 6 – 8 pm.

As you may know the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has been very concerned about the recent increase in participation and landings in the General Category Scallop fishery.

Their first action to address this was to require VMS on all General Category scallop vessels. The second action will be this upcoming amendment to the federal Scallop Fishery Management Plan (FMP). This amendment will include measures that will

1. make it a limited access fishery rather than an open access fishery;
   
2. cap the total allowable catch of the general access fishery at some very small percentage of the annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC). When NMFS calculates that the percentage of scallops is allocated to the General Category (GC) fleet is caught, then no one in the GC fleet will be able to land scallops from federal waters for the rest of the fishing year.

At the end of 2004 the Council established a control date of November 1, 2004. The control date is a signal that people who acquire an open access GC scallop permit after the control date may be treated differently then those who had their GC permit before the control date in some future management action.

In order to best represent Maine’s interests in this amendment process, the Department needs your views on what provisions should be included in the amendment. To do nothing will mean that fishermen from other areas will dictate what goes into a new amendment. This is unacceptable from Maine’s perspective. Please let the Department know what issues are most critical to address. This will be tough work but it will turn out best with your input.

My staff and I are looking forward to working with you to address Maine issues in the amendment which is very likely to be approved by the Council. Please contact Cindy Smith at 624-6558 or at cindy.smith@maine.gov to make the Department aware of your ideas and concerns.

Sincerely,

George Lapointe, Commissioner