AUGUSTA, Maine — March 18, 2013 — Currently, DMR raises about $350,000 each year to promote Maine lobster, which most state and industry officials agree is insufficient.
A legislative committee on Monday tabled discussion on a bill that would raise $3 million in lobster industry licensing fees so that state regulators could have time to tinker with the proposed fee schedule.
The bill, LD 486, would increase surcharges on each kind of license — harvester, dealer or processor — that would be used to fund the state’s efforts to generically market Maine lobster across the country and the globe. The new surcharges would increase over a three year period and, by 2016, would raise $3 million a year for Maine lobster promotional campaigns.
Currently, DMR raises about $350,000 each year to promote Maine lobster, which most state and industry officials agree is insufficient.
Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher told the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee that the department will work on coming up with new, more proportional surcharges for dealers and processors. Tailoring surcharges for fishermen to reflect their fishing activity, he added, might not be practical.
The committee did not indicate when it might reconvene to consider the revised surcharge schedule.
Lobster industry license surcharges that fishermen and dealers currently pay toward marketing efforts range from more than $30 to $250, depending on the kind of license. But LD 486 proposed increasing fees by 2016 to a range of $240 to $2,600, with processors facing the highest fees.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News