BOWDOIN – Maine's long-standing groundfish industry is at an all-time low. This once-vibrant industry, which used to land more than 50 million pounds of fish annually and bring millions of dollars and thousands of jobs to the state, is now a tiny vestige of itself. If you think this is due to overfishing, you'd be right. If you think that overfishing still exists and fish stocks are in terrible shape, you'd be wrong — tremendously wrong.
As of this year, all species managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, including the ones harvested in New England waters, are being harvested sustainably. That's right — overfishing is no longer occurring. What's more, several stocks are at levels well above fully recovered. Yet Maine, in the face of all this recovery, has seen its landings shrink. Where did these landings go?
By my estimate, 60 percent of the fish currently landed in Gloucester, Mass., comes from Maine boats. As much as 40 percent of Boston's landings also comes from vessels that used to call one of Maine's ports home. Why?
The fishing industry's return is still possible, but the clock is running out. Most of the boats still think of themselves as "Maine boats." Two years from now, they will probably give up on Maine and move everything, including their families, out of state. Once that happens the remaining infrastructure will disappear, and chances are so will the processing plants that today must bring in a large portion of the fish they use by truck.
Luckily, there is a good chance we can turn this around.
Allowing Maine groundfish boats to land lobsters is a long shot. But perhaps Maine lobstermen could see their way to allowing a winter season for offshore landings as long as those lobsters met Maine size restrictions and fishermen adhered to the federal 500-count limit.
Read the complete story from The Maine Sunday Telegram.