Scallop area closure draws mixed reaction

The Department of Marine Resources' compromise to close part of Cobscook Bay to scallop dragging, because of the lack of legal-size scallops and the large amount of seed, is finding a mixed reaction Downeast, with some fishermen maintaining that the entire bay should have been closed and some favoring opening up the closed conservation areas in the state. Following a December 27 meeting in Whiting with area fishermen, Acting Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher adopted emergency rulemaking because of the risk of imminent depletion of the resource, closing all of inner Cobscook Bay, inside of Birch Point, for the remainder of the 74-day scallop season. The emergency closure took effect January 2.
Fisherman Scott Emery of Eastport says he's "not keen on leaving part of the bay open," since all of the boats will fish in that small area. "There won't be nothing there for two or three years." He feels that the entire coast should have been closed, if the resource is depleted everywhere. "You need to use everybody the same."
Another fisherman, Jeff Smith of Robbinston, also was disappointed with the decision, as he was hoping that all of the currently closed areas would be opened. He understands that the draggers from other ports that are still in Cobscook Bay are planning to continue fishing in that part of the bay that is still open. Although they will end up burning fuel all day to get what they used to be able to catch in a couple of hours, with a price of $11 a pound -- up from $6.75 two years ago -- Smith says, "They'll wipe out every scallop there is." He adds, "It's too small an area and too many boats." Smith says that in much of the area that is still open there are no juvenile scallops. "There won't be anything left to reproduce," he says. "It's as bleak as I've ever seen it."
Smith, who doesn't have another source of income other than commercial fishing, notes, "I've got two boats that I'm trying to maintain and trying to keep them working." He adds, "Here we are half starved to death, and we can't do nothing about it."
Will Hopkins, director of the Cobscook Bay Resource Center, is pleased that the DMR responded quickly to the fishermen's concerns, that the most productive part of the bay is being protected by being closed and that the agency decided not to open the closed areas. He feels, though, that it would have made more sense to close the entire bay and the whole coast.
Hopkins believes the current crisis stems from the decision two years ago to shut down Cobscook Bay and leave the rest of the state open for that season. The boats cleaned out other areas, and then a large number of boats fished Cobscook Bay last year throughout much of the season, cutting "a lot of small stuff. It's no surprise there's nothing there."
Keliher says his decision was a compromise so that fishermen who do not travel to other parts of the coast could have some access to the fishery this year. He understands that many of the boats from other ports have already left the Cobscook Bay area and are fishing elsewhere. He stated, "My decision to close East Bay and South Bay, while also leaving a portion of Cobscook Bay open, is an attempt to strike a balance between the protection of the remaining resource, and the need for local fishermen to retain some fishing opportunity during the remainder of the season."
The DMR believes that continued harvesting in these areas would have damaged the sublegal scallops that could be caught during subsequent fishing seasons, as well as reducing the broodstock essential to a recovery. Scallop populations throughout the state, including Cobscook Bay, are at extremely low levels. Maine scallop landings have declined from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 1980‑1981 to less than a half million pounds each year since 2001.
Some fishermen are urging the state to reopen the 10 scallop conservation closures, which represent 20% of the state's waters and are set to reopen for the scallop season that begins next December. A petition is being circulated to have the DMR open the areas, but Keliher says no other changes in the fishery will be made this season. Concerning his decision, Keliher says the areas are closed for three years as an investment, since it takes three to four years for a scallop to reach legal size. Opening the areas "would jeopardize the conservation effort" put into them, since there would be a large influx of boats into those areas. The DMR should have a systematic plan for opening the areas, and more discussion is needed on that process, he says.

Fishermen express their views
Over 100 fishermen attended a meeting in Whiting on December 27 that the DMR called to get input from fishermen on whether Cobscook Bay should be closed. Keliher said fishermen have been calling and asking either that the bay be closed, because there is too much scallop seed being dragged over, or that the closed areas should be opened up, or that no action should be taken.
Barry Huckins of Lubec said the state should close the bay before the draggers "destroy what little we have left -- beating the juveniles to death." Rick McPhail of Eastport said that in his 35 years of scalloping in Cobscook Bay he has "never seen the resource in such dire straits."
Dale Griffin of Pembroke said that, if Cobscook Bay is closed, the entire coast should be closed. Some urged opening the closed areas, with David Leach of Steuben urging that they be open two days a week "to give somebody some hope." He also felt that areas should only be closed for a year instead of three years. Others suggested that there should be rotational closures. Adam Stanwood of Steuben observed it wouldn't make sense to close most of the state and open the closed areas, since all of the fleet would then be concentrated in those small areas. Farrell Beal of Beals stated that the closed areas should all be opened at the same time, in order to spread the boats out along the coast. Others suggested giving the increased ring size a chance to help the resource recover.
Some of the fishermen noted that they have boat payments and families to support. They urged that some areas be opened if Cobscook Bay was closed. To open the closed areas, the DMR would either have to enact emergency rule-making, which would take 90 days, or the governor would have to introduce emergency legislation, which would take at least three weeks before it could be enacted.

Future management options
Jeff Smith observes that when there were fewer regulations there were more scallops. "I remember when we got 15 gallons on the last day of the season, and now you can't get 15 gallons on the first day. The harder we try to conserve, the further behind we go." He believes there's "no way the fishermen fished them all out" and that there must be another reason for the decline in the resource. Smith feels that the larger 4" rings are damaging more of the smaller scallops than the smaller ring drags did and that fishermen now are "killing off more than they're catching."
Keliher is pleased that the fishermen around Cobscook Bay acted to take responsibility for the sustainability of the resource by asking for a closure in the bay. He says the Scallop Advisory Committee (SAC) and those who attend the committee's meetings "don't want a boom-and-bust cycle. They're looking for long-term solutions."
DMR is working with the SAC on developing a management plan that will allow for sustainable and safe fishing when the closed areas are slated to reopen. The additional closure in Cobscook Bay may provide an opportunity for the DMR, the SAC and industry to consider a rotational management plan for Cobscook Bay for the long‑term. For opening the closed areas, regulations will need to be prepared by the end of August, and Keliher says "Cobscook has to be part of the discussion."
Keliher says that a more in-depth discussion is needed concerning the bay, since the mobile fleet heads there every year, creating a boom-and-bust cycle. As soon as a scallop reaches legal size it's being harvested. Rotational closures, meat count changes and other measures all have to be on the table for future management discussion.
Scott Emery would like the DMR to consider having zones for the fishery, with vessels having to choose a zone to fish, which would spread out the fishing pressure. "You would have an idea on the number of vessels fishing and then could adjust the season."
"A lot feel that, with the mobile fleet, you will never have any amount of scallops," Emery says. "They come like a bunch of vultures and clean them up and move on to some other place."
Smith, though, believes if fishermen could choose a zone to fish they would all choose the Cobscook area. "It won't change anything."
Hopkins observes, "The DMR still has not addressed the boom-and-bust cycle, and it won't be addressed until they deal in a different way with the concept of the mobile fleet. There's not a match between the effort and what's on the bottom." The issue is not one of fine-tuning the present requirements such as shell size, meat count or catch limit, he says, but instead one of limiting the fishing effort in a small area. "The state should invest in fishermen taking responsibility for their own backyards."
Although Keliher says he is hesitant about moving to zoning the coast for the fishery, he believes that zones and area management have "to be part of the conversation about what could work." He adds, "The room is wide open for what people want to discuss."