ROCKPORT, Maine — March 3, 2013 — After holding more than a dozen meetings along the Maine coast in January, state fishery officials have decided not to pursue any new management measures for Maine’s most valuable fishery.
At the behest of the Legislature, the Maine Department of Marine Resources held the meetings to find out whether fishermen might support new rules aimed at improving the long-term viability of Maine’s $339 million lobster industry. Creating a tiered licensing system that could shorten wait periods to get into the industry and short-term measures that could help prevent a repeat of last year’s soft-shell glut were among the ideas discussed at the meetings.
On Saturday, at the annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said the department has decided against pursuing any of the ideas that were floated. All of the proposals that were discussed pose complications that would lead to other problems, he said.
“We’re not going to pursue anything at this time,” Keliher said to a packed room of more than 100 people, most of them fishermen.
One of the issues that lobstermen faced last year was an unseasonal abundance of lobsters that were caught in spring and early summer, at a time of year when the North American lobster distribution network is ill-prepared for handling large volumes of live lobster from Maine. The timing of the supply temporarily pushed prices that Maine fishermen earned for their catch to below $2 per pound, the lowest level they had encountered in decades.
Scientists and industry officials have said that warmer-than-normal water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine caused lobsters to shed their shells earlier in the year than expected and contributed to the high numbers of lobsters that were caught. A record amount of more than 126 million pounds of lobster were caught in Maine in 2012, and warm water temperatures this winter suggest there will be an early molt and high landings again this year, according to industry officials.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News