“Possibility Open” That Habitat Closures Could Impact Lobster Gear
by Laurie Schreiber
Two preferred Alternatives for Eastern Maine from the Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2 Summary. Public comment deadline is January 8, 2015. Read full OEFHA2 Summary: fishermensvoice.com The upper right red area
is 2/3 in the grey zone & will only effect U.S. fishermen. Rounded areas to the lower right of red area are Machais Seal Island. Northeast red is in the grey zone & is prime scallop bottom and western red area is prime quahog bottom. Orange & Green areas to the left will have complete restrictions on all gear capable of catching ground fish. Orange area had been habitat protected only, but will now have complete restriction on gear capable of catching ground fish. The round area in the green is Mount Desert Rock. NOAA Graphics
ELLSWORTH – Proposed measures to shut down some types of fishing in some areas of federal waters do not currently apply to lobster gear.
But “the possibility remains open” that lobster gear will at some point be included in the list of gear potentially affected by proposed measures in the New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2, according to information from the Department of Marine Resources (DMR).
The DMR held three meetings to provide information on the proposed management action, designed to address habitat requirements for all fisheries managed by NEMFC in federal waters.
“Those are huge, huge areas when you add it up. If you close all that area down, that’s a huge portion of the Gulf of Maine,” said Stanley “Cappy” Sargent at the DMR’s Dec. 10 meeting in Ellsworth. “You’ve shrunk everything considerably for any kind of fishery of any sort. From my perspective, it’s overkill.”
