Scallop Rotational Management Kicks In
by Laurie Schreiber
A 10-year rotational management plan will be implemented for Zone 2 this season. Areas of the coast are divided into three rotations. For the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, areas shaded in blue will be closed for rebuilding, while areas shaded in yellow and pink will be open. The areas in blue will then open in the 2014-15 season for harvest while the pink and yellow areas will then close.
ELLSWORTH – About 25 fishermen showed up at a Department of Marine Resources (DMR) meeting, Nov. 19, to learn about new management changes aimed at rebuilding the depleted scallop resource while allowing a limited fishery to occur.
The season opens Dec. 2.
Three years ago, 13 closed areas, encompassing 20 percent of Maine’s coastal waters, were implemented with the goal of rebuilding the scallop resource. Since that time, industry, the scallop advisory council (SAC) and the DMR have deliberated over how best to open them to ensure they are not immediately depleted, but instead continue to provide an ongoing benefit that will be sustained into the future.
After 22 meetings in the past year, a final rule was voted on by the DMR Advisory Council which puts forward a drastic change in management philosophy for this fishery – rotational management – in addition to several other new measures for the coming 2012-13 season, which include:
• The establishment of three management zones.
Zone 1 comprises western Maine.
Zone 2 is most of eastern Maine.
Zone 3 is the Cobscook Bay/St. Croix area.
• No meat count for Zones 1 and 2. Zone 3 will remain 35 meats per pint.
• A 10-year rotational management plan for Zone 2.
• Retaining closed areas as limited access areas.
• Trigger mechanism for limited access areas.
• Nine 1-year closures in 2012-13.
• A 70-day season with 20-gallon (185-pound) daily limit for Zones 1 and 2.
• For Zone 3, a limited 44-day split season, with a 10-gallon (90-pound) daily limit, and limited access areas, in lieu of rotational management.
DMR resource coordinator Trisha DeGraaf handed out local and regional charts that showed the rotational closures. She also suggested that fishermen visit maine.gov/dmr/rm/scallops/scallopmanagement for more information, and to click on a google earth link, which allows fishermen to zoom in to view the areas.
The 10-year rotational management plan for Zone 2 is expected to promote increased landings with the same or less amount of effort, resulting in higher economic yield from the fishery, according to DMR information.
“Similar to crop rotation on land, areas of the coast are divided into three rotations,” the DMR said.
For the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, the first of the three areas will be closed, while the other two will be open. In the 2014-15 season, the first area will then be open for harvest while the other two areas will then close. The harvest will rotate in subsequent years.
Rotational management was not implemented in Zones 1 or 3 due to “overwhelming public comment,” the DMR said.
Some fishermen mentioned that warming water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine may be affecting the resource. DeGraaf agreed that a lot of factors go into the management equation. “The ecosystem is definitely changing,” she said. “The last two years were really warm. Could that have affected what’s going on in Cobscook Bay where those scallops aren’t growing as quickly? We can’t say for certain, but it probably did….So the idea is – with having rotational management, trying to even out what we take out each year – it will be a more resilient system when these fluctuations come in.”
Because of warming temperatures, species may be shifting their range, she said. Still, scallops range throughout the Maine coast. “So regardless of temperature change, it’s probably safe to say we’ll always have scallops,” she said. “But how well they do and reproduce – all of those equations that go into calculating what will be available each year, that may change.”
Cobscook Bay, in eastern Maine, has become a problematic area, she said. The DMR’s survey this past fall found that 85 percent of the product is of sublegal size. Although there’s a lot of product there, much of it will have to be left for when the scallops grow more.
“We’ve had two strong year classes come up, with a third coming up behind it,” she said. “But growth slowed down. Some say it’s the warmer temperatures. It may be a reality that we’ll probably have to close that area down early. It’s not ‘if,’ but ‘when.’”
The DMR will continue to have conversations with industry and the SAC on the merits of rotational management for the entire state, as well as for a coastwide meat count requirement.
DeGraaf said the DMR is looking for volunteers to report on how the system is going from week to week, and also to test a pilot tracking and reporting program. The DMR will provide the equipment to test.
For more information, or to volunteer, contact DeGraaf at (207) 624-6554 or trisha.degraaf@maine.gov.