State & Fishermen offer varying Maine coastal scallop fisheries recovery plans

Inshore scallop abundance has declined by more than 90% since 1980, and both fishermen and regulators are at a loss why.

At the close of Maine DMR's October 20, 2008 meeting in Rockland on the proposed new scalloping rules (pdf) for state waters, Penobscot Bay Report's Ron Huber interviewed fishermen and a regulator about both the latest state plan, which includes closed areas, reduction in fishing days in Maine from 136 to 52, and a 200 pound daily catch limit, and an industry alternative plan. Click on links below for mp3 audios of the interviews.

The Rockland meeting was last in a series of meetings on the proposed rules. There is an October 31deadline for comments. See recent media coverage here

* Listen to Gary Libby of the Midcoast Fishermen's Association describe how the meeting went,

* DMR's Togue Brawn discusses her agency's plan to split Maine's coastal waters into six zones: Southern, Casco Bay, Western Penobscot, Mt Desert, Jonesport/Beals, and Eastern. One half of each zone would be open and one half would be closed to scalloping. The closure plan would sunset August 31, 2011.

* Then listen to fishermen Glen Libby and Gary Hatch discuss shortcomings in the state plan as well as an alternative plan put forward by the fishermen - the so-called Hatch Plan - which sets aside five long term area closures, in locations off Machias, Bass Harbor, Port Clyde, East Booth Bay and Harpswell that are believed to possess water and nutrient conditions favorable to both strong scallop hatches and to survival of scallop spat to adulthood.

Fishermen say their areas are both large enough to evaluate the success or not of closing the area to scalloping, yet small enough to allow effective local self-policing. By comparison, the state's much larger closure zones would require greatly expanding Marine Patrol's on-the-water presence during the winter scallop season.

Read about the Maine scallop fishery in 1889