Crisis in Cobscook

Scallops and Scallopers Suffering

by Dennis Damon

Fishermen's Voice Photo

Maine Department of Marine Resources Acting Commissioner, Patrick Keliher stood before a standing room only crowd of fishermen, legislators and DMR enforcement personnel on the evening of December 27, 2011 in the Whiting Community Center. He was there to address the growing concerns of the scallop fishermen who annually ply the waters of Cobscook Bay in search of Maine Sea Scallops.

Since the start of the scallop season on December 17th the Department has been receiving calls from fishermen concerned about the low catch and the small size of the scallops they were catching. Heeding those concerns the Commissioner called the meeting. In his opening remarks, Acting Commissioner Keliher explained the situation and the reason for the meeting. He set the ground rules by explaining he, the DMR staff and the enforcement people were there to listen. He revealed he had no preconceived action plan for the Cobscook Bay scallops.

The general, if not unanimous, consensus among the 150 fishermen gathered was that because the Bay was yielding so few scallops, because they were so small and because continued dragging on them was destroying some of them, Cobscook Bay should be closed to scalloping immediately and that the closure should stay in effect until next year at this time. It is sometimes hard to get two fishermen to agree on a fishing rule so when that many fishermen have that kind of agreement DMR should listen.

Closing the Bay is not the problem. The DMR Commissioner has the authority to close an area or a fishery if there is deemed to be “imminent depletion” or “unusual damage to the resource” at stake. Such a closure decision could take place is as few as 5 days and that action could last for a maximum of 90 days. To extend closures longer than that would require rule making.
The difficulty is in opening closed areas. Current closed areas were closed by rule making and are not scheduled to reopen until May 2012. Further rule making would be required to open them sooner than May 2012 and that portion of the rule making process takes approximately 3 months.

Although there were some suggestions that all the closed scallop areas along the coast be immediately opened to accommodate the scallopers this season, Acting Commissioner Keliher reminded those present the meeting was specifically about Cobscook Bay and the management decisions regarding the rest of the state were not up for discussion. The suggestions then turned to Whiting Bay, a subset of Cobscook Bay, which has been closed to scallop harvesting for a couple of years. There seemed to be considerable support for the suggestion that Whiting Bay be opened for 2 days a week for the remainder of this season.

All present seemed to share the same concern that because of closures Cobscook Bay was being overfished. They felt that fishing should stop there immediately so that the abundant small scallops would have a chance to grow to marketable size next year.

In addition to the desperation in their voices there was anger too. The lament that Augusta law makers and the Governor were out of touch with the fishermen’s situation or did not care about them was raised by some. “Why isn’t he (Gov. LePage) here?” was heard from the crowd.

Acting Commissioner Keliher stated the Governor was aware that the meeting was taking place. Keliher stated he would report on the meeting to Gov. LePage’s staff following the meeting. He was scheduled to meet with the Governor personally later in the week. When asked what he was going to recommend to the Governor, Keliher said, “I don’t know. I have not come to any conclusion yet. I wanted to hear what you had to say. I will relay your comments to the Governor. I will meet with my staff to further review the data we have gathered from the scallop trawl surveys before I come up with a definite decision on our next move.”

The frustration of being able to close an area rather quickly but not being able to open it as quickly was evident when one fisherman demanded of the legislators present (there were 3 Representatives – David Burns, Howard McFadden and Diane Tilton) to submit a bill to reopen Whiting Bay. Rep. Tilton explained that cloture (the last day that a legislator can submit a bill) had long since passed. The only way a bill could be submitted now was by the Governor. She went on to add, if that happened it would have to go to the Reviser of Statutes for drafting, get assigned to the Marine Resources Committee, have its public hearing then its work session, be voted out of committee to the full legislature for action by both chambers, the House and the Senate, then on to the Governor for his signature. Only if it was submitted as an “Emergency” bill and all the actions were favorable along the way, the bill would become law immediately upon the Governor’s signature. That would take at best 3 weeks from when the Legislature reconvened.

Time will tell how long the scallops and the scallopers of Cobscook Bay will continue to suffer.