Limited Entry Considered for Scallop Fishery

by Laurie Schreiber

A limited entry plan for the state’s scallop fishery is now under consideration by state regulators.

At the September 7 meeting, the Scallop Advisory Council (SAC) —a group of fishermen and dealers that advises the Department of Marine Resources on issues related to the scallop fishery—worked out a proposal for limited entry to submit to the Department of Marine Resources (DMR). Licensing of new scallop fishermen was suspended in 2008.

The discussion is the next step toward the development of an overall management plan that would address the precipitous decline of the resource over the past decade. According to DMR data, Maine scallop landings declined from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 1980-1981 to less than half a million pounds each year since 2001.

Last year, the DMR and the SAC worked out three-year conservation closures to protect spawning stock along the Maine coast. The closures will expire in 2012.

The next step, said Togue Brawn, DMR resource management coordinator, involves the development of a method to license new fishermen.

The SAC, she said, recommended a system that would allow one new fisherman to enter the fishery after five have left. Selection of the new entrant would be by lottery. People who held a scallop license in the past would get an extra draw for each year they held it between 1999 and 2008.

With the SAC recommendation in hand, Brawn said, the DMR will craft a proposed rule, which will then go out to public hearings and then back to the SAC for further refinement. The hearings will likely be held late this fall, she said.

In 2009, there were 818 state-licensed commercial scallop fishermen. These include about 700 draggers and 100 divers.

In 2008, there were 836 fishermen; and in 2007, 641. The jump in the number between 2007 and 2008, said Brawn, is likely because 2008 was established as a cut-off for being eligible for a license in the future.

The conservation closure plan is still too new to be able to tell how well it’s working, Brawn said.

Still, she said, she’s received anecdotal information from fishermen that they’re seeing a lot of small scallops, which bodes well for the improvement of the resource.