Whale Gear Specialist Resigns Post

by Fishermen's Voice staff

Whale gear specialist Steve Robbins III resigned his position with the Maine Department of Marine Resources in early January. Citing personal reasons for his departure, he referred to choosing to be closer to home and the recent illness of a family member.

Robbins had been working to develop rope suitable for lobster trap ground lines that would meet the federally mandated requirements expected to go into effect soon. Under these requirements Maine lobstermen are likely to have to replace the rope they currently use with whatever rope is chosen.

Ropes between traps currently float a few feet in the water column to prevent wear and entanglement on the, often rocky, bottom.

Robbins said he didn’t think many people realized the potential scale of the burden this demand to change trap lines could place on fishermen. There were “not enough people talking about what could happen,” he said. He felt that there were too few people involved with solving this difficult and complex issue.

The right whale, though more common on Cape Cod, is occasionally is seen in the Gulf of Maine. Though there are cases where whales are entangled in fishing gear, ship strikes, among other things, are also causes of whale mortality. But Robbins said there doesn’t seem to be an equitable means of making changes. The shipping industry is more strongly represented than fishing, and therefore has more power to resist changes to the way they operate.

“[Fishing] is easily targeted,” Robbins said. “There are things that can be done, like research, and some people are willing to help.” But, as Robbins put it, signing on to a plan that will eventually put us out of business carries its own deterrents.

Referring to some of the complexities of the ground line problem, Robbins said that fishermen who work anywhere east of Pemiquid cannot go to sink rope because of the rough bottom and the tides. Having an exempted area has been on the table, but that is still up in the air.

However, even with an exempted area inside, fishermen work outside later in the season. So if poly were used in the spring the switch would have to be made later when fishing outside. This, he said, “is not physically possible because of the scale of the effort required.”

Robbins pointed out that “no one can say a piece of poly or float rope has a risk reduction of ‘x’.” There is no burden or expense on the environmental groups that are lobbying for this change, however, for fishermen, there are both. Furthermore, according to Robbins, the environmental groups are not “assisting with the cost” of finding a solution.

While Steve Robbins III says he resigned because the trade-off of home life was not worth the unsatisfactory progress and results in the whale gear project, he said he still wants to encourage as many people as possible to pay attention to this issue. He said that it is important for people “to not hesitate to call the DMR, Senator Olympia Snowe, and Senator Susan Collins to express their concerns.”