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Recently the Portland Fish Exchange suggested that the groundfish industry
be allowed to land lobsters caught with dragging gear.
While
it is true that federal law allows a bycatch allowance of 100 lobsters per
day or 500 per week, it does not mean that it is the right thing to do or
that it is not harming the resource.
The
Maine lobster industry has long disapproved of this practice. It allows
the groundfish industry from other states to land the very lobsters that
Maine has worked for decades to protect -- those egg-bearing females and
oversize lobsters.
The
reality is that dragging for lobsters undermines the conservation measures
now in place for the lobster industry. Lobsters caught in draggers often
suffer damage to their legs, claws and shells.
Dragging gear also targets larger lobsters than traps. These draggers say
they catch lobsters that are 6 pounds on average, compared to 1‡-pound
lobsters caught in the trap fishery.
These
lobsters have already been caught over the years by Maine lobstermen and
thrown back to the sea to reproduce and sustain the resource. They are
permanently protected from Maine's trap fishery, but they are the ones
that would be targeted and threatened by the bycatch proposal.
Gov.
Baldacci commissioned a Task Force on the Groundfish Industry in 2004 that
made more than 30 recommendations. There was no recommendation to repeal
the state law forbidding draggers to land lobsters in Maine ports. In
fact, the federal bycatch allowance for draggers is one of only a few laws
anywhere in the world that allows a lobster species to be harvested with
nontrap gear.
Maine
needs a strong, vibrant groundfish fleet to help sustain our coastal
economy and preserve a piece of our culture.
The
lobster industry stands ready to assist the groundfish fleet in finding
relief such as removing the diesel fuel tax and continuing to support
programs to maintain waterfront infrastructure such as current-use
taxation and the waterfront access grant program.
Perhaps the Portland Fish Exchange could consider auctioning trap-caught
lobster and focus on the robust shrimp fishery as a way to help it through
these lean times.
But
the Maine lobster industry will not begin to dismantle a critical piece of
a conservation plan that is working. Short-term economic gains for
one sector of Maine's fishing industry do not justify sacrificing the
long-term sustainability of another. Instead, let's consider how the
fishing industries can work together with the state of Maine to help the
groundfish fleet weather this difficult time.
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