DEPT. OF MARINE RESOURCES

• About DMR
• Aquaculture
• Aquarium, Library, Lighthouse, Education
• Commercial Fisheries
• Councils, Other Groups
• Health & Safety: Is it Safe to Eat/Swim/Fish?
• Laws and Regulations
• Licenses
• Marine Patrol
• Meetings and Hearings
• Municipal Shellfish
• Recreational Fishing
• Research and Surveys
• Species Info (lobsters, clams, whales, etc.)
• Weather, Tides, Sunrise, Environmental Data
• Wetlands, Permit Review

Bureau of Resource Management - Purpose

The Bureau of Resource Management conducts and sponsors scientific research and monitoring to conserve, restore, and manage the marine and estuarine resources of the State of Maine. Primary responsibilities of the Bureau are to provide information on stock levels and environments of commercially and recreationally valuable marine organisms and provide technical and scientific information, services and assistance to the public, industry and governments.

The Bureau conducts monitoring of water quality for the classification of shellfish growing areas, biotoxin monitoring, the National Shellfish Sanitation Program, monitoring of finfish aquaculture operations, oil spill response activities, restoration of anadromous fish resources to the rivers of Maine, and marine education programs including the operation of the Maine State Aquarium and Burnt Island Lighthouse in Boothbay Harbor.

Bureau staff are involved in data gathering and assessment activities, and management plan development for interstate and federal fishery management plans. As a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Maine Department of Marine Resources is involved in interstate management of commercially and recreationally important species including American lobster, northern shrimp, Atlantic herring, striped bass, Atlantic menhaden, bluefish, shad and river herring, and winter flounder, and in the development of an Atlantic coast cooperative statistics program for commercial and recreational statistics. Scientific staff participate in management plan development for groundfish and sea scallops which are managed by the New England Fishery Management Council, and surf clams and ocean quahogs which are managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

The Department of Marine Resources is a member of the Regional Association for Research in the Gulf of Maine, an association of institutions which have active research interests in the Gulf of Maine and its watershed. The Department is a member of the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, which consists of Governors’ and Premiers’ representatives from Maine, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia. The Council, in collaboration with public and private entities around the Gulf of Maine, has charted a course for the protection and conservation of coastal and marine habitats in the Gulf of Maine.

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