FROM THE CROWE’S NEST

Everything Has A Limit

Another fishery in Maine is at a crossroads. This time it’s the traditional Maine small boat, scallop fisherman up against the heavily capitalized, corporate big boat fleets to the west’rd. The regulators and the council say the issue is the control of over- fishing. Maine scallopers say it is about control of the resource.

The numbers say it’s in the numbers. Limited Access (LA) big boats get 95% of the scallops. Only three of the LA boats are from Maine. During initial negotiations in 1996, when the LA boats were about to sail off with all the resource, a last minute, off-the-cuff compromise got the small boats 5% of the resource and named them General Category. That has become the reference point; hundreds of boats sharing 5% of the resource, while a handful of LA owners take 95% to the bank.

In the 1990’s Maine waters were fished out of scallops, some say, by the same big boats that want to keep the small GC boats out of waters to the southwest. With no scallops in Maine, many Maine boats have not fished and therefore have no history to use in order to maintain a permit. The plan for a Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area that would maintain scalloping access for general category boats, is a good idea. But, permits now should not be given up for maybe permits then.

Apologists say it’s a very complicated situation; that 400 pounds a day is not a lot for a huge LA boat/ship; that Maine’s regulations were not stringent enough in the 90’s regarding ring size; and that there are so many boats entering the GC fishery, etc.

The problem in the scallop fishery is the same as the problem in the herring fishery, and it’s the same in the ground fishery. Over capitalized industrial extraction of protein is not the definition of fishing. The machines and the means set up to satisfy investors stand in stark contrast to the alleged biological basis for the decisions of regulators and the council members.

It is a betrayal of the responsibility to the resource and the families that depend on it, when the decision makers yield to the demands of the investment vehicles sucking the life out of that resource. Regulators and council members are also standing at the crossroads. Their decisions will determine ultimately, not just who fishes, but if there will be fish. Everything has a limit.