Closure plan proposed for scallop fishery

The management of Maine's inshore scallop fishery may change significantly this year, as the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is proposing a new rotational closure strategy along the coast to help rebuild the fishery. The "very aggressive" approach to bring the fishery back is based in part on the results from the three-year closures of 13 conservation areas along the coast, in which the harvestable biomass has increased in some areas by six to eight times over two years, says Trisha De Graaf, marine resource management coordinator for the DMR. She believes that experience has demonstrated that the resource can be made sustainable and profitable for fishermen by using closures.
"We want to make sure that every year there are good scallop grounds set aside for fishing," says De Graaf. "We want to rebuild the resource in people's back yards."
At a meeting on April 18 in Brewer, the Maine Scallop Advisory Council (SAC) listened to the DMR's proposal and agreed to take a different tack in the fishery's management, opting in its recommendations for the 2012-13 scallop season to favor rotational management plans for the fishery instead of cutting the length of the season or significantly reducing the daily catch limit. A month before, the SAC had recommended those cuts, but that was before the closure plan was being considered as a management tool.
Following the SAC's March meeting, the DMR had developed a 10-year plan for targeted, rolling closures that would be based on input from fishermen and trigger mechanisms that would stop harvesting when a threshold amount is reached. The DMR held a series of meetings in early April to gauge support for its rotational management proposal and to gather input from fishermen on the SAC's initial recommendations. While the meeting in Whiting indicated support for rotational closures, that support appeared to diminish farther along the coast. While fishermen at the Hallowell meeting supported the cuts in the number of days and the daily catch limit, those at the meetings in the eastern part of the state seemed to oppose the cuts in the season and the catch limit. However, members of the Cobscook Bay Fishermen's Association have voiced support for a shorter season and a Cobscook scallop zone.
At its April meeting, the SAC then revised its initial vote on March 7 to cut the season from 70 days to 43 days and voted to keep a 70-day season, with fishing allowed four days a week. And instead of recommending that the current daily catch limit of 200 pounds be reduced to 135, which is the current catch limit for Cobscook Bay, the council revised its earlier vote and recommended that the catch limit be reduced only to 185 pounds, or about four five-gallon buckets.
The SAC also recommended that the season begin earlier, on December 1 instead of December 15. SAC members noted that the price is better earlier in the season and also some lobster fishermen who are still fishing then might not gear up for scallop fishing at that point, which would reduce the increase in the latent effort in the scallop fishery.
Concerning the issue of how to reopen the closed areas to prevent a derby fishery, the SAC recommended that fishing be allowed only one day a week in those areas during December and two days a week for the rest of the season.
As for the rotational management plan, the SAC voted only to accept the concept. According to the DMR, closed areas have helped rebuild other depleted fisheries, including the scallop fishery in federal waters in the U.S. Landings in those waters increased by 480% from 1998 to 2011, with the increase attributed to a program that includes closed areas and rotational management.
The DMR's rotational management proposal would have a series of two-year closures, based on creating four scallop regions along the coast: Cobscook Bay/St. Croix River; Downeast from Schoodic Point to the Lubec bridge; Midcoast/Penobscot and Islands; and Western Maine. Each region would have three, six or nine zones, and each year a third of the zones that had been closed for two years for rebuilding stocks would be opened for one year. Each year, one-third of the coast would be open for fishing and two-thirds would be closed. It would take four years to phase in the plan.
At the end of December each year, an assessment would be done to see how much latent effort in the fishery had come in and where those boats were fishing. Trigger mechanisms to stop the fishing in areas that had been reopened to prevent them from becoming too quickly depleted could include a total allowable catch or a daily catch limit, a meat count or a time of day restriction. De Graaf notes that the DMR would like to leave more than half of the biomass on the bottom in areas that have been opened for fishing.
"The idea is to raise the rest of the coast to where the closed areas are," in terms of their scallop biomass, she says. The DMR will be meeting in the next few weeks with groups of fishermen to help draw the lines for the different zones in each region. Those meetings have not yet been scheduled.
During the SAC meeting, there was some discussion about aligning some of the regulations for the scallop and urchin fisheries, since at present urchin fishermen would be able to fish in areas closed to scallop fishing, which creates an enforcement problem. Whiting and Dennys bays have been closed to both fisheries, and the scallop biomass increase for the 13 closed conservation areas along the coast was greatest in those two bays. Also, De Graaf noted that having the same regulations for both fisheries would be a step toward ecosystem based management when the fishing impact on one species can affect another.
However, the DMR has decided to proceed first with rulemaking for the upcoming urchin season, which opens in September, with hearings at the end of May or early June. Developing the rulemaking proposals for the new approach to the scallop fishery will take a longer time. Following the DMR's meetings with fishermen, the SAC will meet in June to make recommendations on the rotational management plan. The commissioner of marine resources will consider their recommendations, and then the proposed rules will go out to public hearing, possibly by late summer. De Graaf hopes that the DMR Advisory Council can vote by mid-October on the rules for the December opening of the fishery.