ELLSWORTH, Maine — February 22, 2013 — In the latest round of closures in Maine’s scallop fishery this winter, state officials have decided to shut down three more areas to scallop harvesting.
The areas being closed to scallop fishing include a portion in outer Penobscot Bay immediately west of St. George, Union River and Union River Bay, and the western extremities of Cobscook Bay. The areas west of St. George and in western Cobscook Bay — specifically, the smaller Whiting and Dennys bays — are limited access areas that Maine Department of Marine Resources created last year. Union River Bay is not a limited access area, but it abuts one such area in Blue Hill Bay that was closed down earlier this season.
All three of the most recent closures go into effect on Monday, Feb. 25, according to DMR officials.
As with the earlier closures, the areas are being shut down because of a level of fishing that, if it continues, could hamper the ability of scallops in them to replenish their numbers, DMR officials indicated in a statement released Thursday.
Before the season began, the department set trigger thresholds to automatically shut down designated limited access areas when regulators believed 30 to 40 percent of the harvestable biomass had been removed.
Union River Bay is not a limited access area, but DMR officials believe scallops there have been depleted enough this winter to warrant closing the bay.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News