Scallop Fishermen Can Harvest,

But Early Season End Expected

by Laurie Schreiber

Dragging Cobscook Bay area. Cobscook is seeing scallops up to 5 ½ inches, much larger than typically seen in that area. Cobscook has also seen a big spike of sub-legal scallops that will be recruiting into the fishery two years from now. Fishermen’s Voice photo

ELLSWORTH – Earlier this year, the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) considered reducing the length of the current season.

But at the request of the Scallop Advisory Council and industry, the DMR decided to keep the season length the same as last year.

However, it’s anticipated the season will be cut short, through emergency rulemaking, if mid-season surveys detect depletion of the resource beyond what can be regenerated.

In Zones 1 and 2, the season is 70 days; and in Zone 3 (Cobscook Bay), 50 days.

The 2014-15 scallop season started Dec. 1 statewide. There was no change to the daily limit of 15 gallons per day in Zones 1 and 2, and 10 gallons per day in Cobscook Bay.

Zone 1 is the western half of the coast, from the Maine/New Hampshire border to Penobscot Bay. Zone 2 is the eastern half, from Penobscot Bay to the Maine/Canada border.

At a Nov. 19 outreach meeting in Ellsworth, DMR resource coordinator Trisha De Graaf said the DMR would conduct an in-season survey and impose targeted closures where needed.

Overall, said De Graaf, the goal is to keep the industry working but protect the resource from depletion.

“We’re trying to get as long a season as possible,” said De Graaf. “But most likely, especially in Cobscook Bay, the season will be curtailed.”

This will be particularly true if everyone flocks to Cobscook Bay, she said.

Thanks to the success of the DMR/industry program to rebuild the resource, harvesters last year for the first time were easily gathering their daily limit, she said.

This season, for the first time since limited access areas were imposed, Zone 2 will move entirely into a rotational management scheme that closes areas in a scheduled manner.

There are also some new mooring field closures in Zone 2, due to legislation passed last year to protect marina and yacht club mooring fields from draggers. Those closures are mostly around Mount Desert Island; they don’t apply to divers. As it happens, this year all of the mooring field closures occur in areas closed under rotational management.

Once 30-40 percent of the biomass is harvested in a limited-access area, the area will be closed. Information will come from port sampling, sea sampling, survey information from the in-season adjustments, and reports from the Marine Patrol. Direct observations from fishermen will also count heavily toward an understanding of how the resource is doing while harvesting occurs, De Graaf said.

“We’re trying to make sure we don’t over harvest the resource while we’re rebuilding it,” she said.

But some fishermen were skeptical. They wanted to know how the DMR knows what the total biomass is, and therefore how it will know when 30-40 percent is reached.

Cobscook Bay is the one place that the DMR has a biomass estimate, of just over a half million pounds.

“We’ll track relative abundance and see how certain areas perform through the season,” she said. There are no biomass estimates at the moment for other areas. For those areas, the DMR will look at catch per unit of effort through time, to track whether and how the catch rate changes

“If it tracks down, it’s indicative of depletion,” said De Graaf.

In Cobscook, the DMR will conduct rapid assessment surveys every six days, at certain stations. During a break in harvesting, using the assessment data, the DMR will gauge how much resource is available for the rest of the season.

“If that works there, we can employ this method for other zones,” she said. “We’re extremely strapped in our budget. We do not have adequate resources to thoroughly assess this fishery. So what we do is look at what you guys are seeing. We weigh that heavily in any decision. We do have some scientific information collected in-season. But you’re out there every single day.”

In Cobscook Bay last year, the overall harvestable biomass was just under 400,000 pounds. There’s more this year, and it’s a high amount of scallops. In addition, the meats are much bigger this year. This is because of previous protections of larger animals. Today, Cobscook is seeing scallops up to 5 ½ inches, much larger than typically seen in that area. Cobscook has also seen a big spike of sub-legal scallops that will be recruiting into the fishery two years from now.

Whiting and Dennys bays, on the other hand, took a hit last year. This was due to the DMR’s effort to stretch the season for harvesters, De Graaf said.

“We should have shut it down, but we let the industry harvest it one more day,” she said. “But having a hundred boats in there, it took a big hit. So this year there’s about 40,000 pounds in there, which is a big reduction from last year. There’s half the biomass there was two years ago.”

Harvesters expressed concern about various aspects of the fishery. First was the potential impact of the New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) Omnibus Habitat Amendment. Harvesters said they were concerned the amendment could close federal waters to any gear capable of catching depleted groundfish stocks. This would include scallop draggers. NEFMC is conducting 12 public hearings from Virginia to Maine to solicit comments on the amendment. The hearings began in late November. One of the hearings will occur by webinar on Jan. 5, 2015; hearings will also be held Jan. 6 in Brewer, and Jan. 7 in Portland (more info at www.nefmc.org).

Victor Doyle wanted to know if the DMR will be setting up an entry program for young fishermen to get into the state’s scallop fishery. De Graaf noted the fishery has been closed to new entrants for about a decade.“We’re getting to the point where a whole generation has lost access to this fishery,” she said.

Right now, the potential for reactivated licenses could overwhelm the fishery, she said. Over the past couple of years, about 200 additional licenses were reactivated, due to the lack of a shrimp season and the potential of rebuilt scallop areas.

Meanwhile, there are still about 150-plus inactive licenses that could come into the fishery. The DMR currently has a draft fishery management plan to address the entry situation, and plans to pick up the discussion in the spring. In recent years, said De Graaf, she’s been hearing from increasing numbers of people asking about a license.

Currently, there are about 665 commercial licenses. About 93 are dive, and the rest are drag. In 2013, there were 33 active divers, and about 350 active draggers.

Harvester James West said that, when limited entry was imposed, fishermen held onto their licenses because they knew that, if they gave it up, they wouldn’t get it back.

“A lot of these people won’t even use their scallop license again, but they’re not going to give it up because they’re afraid,” said West.

Another fisherman wanted to know if the DMR would ever consider allowing multiple divers on one boat, as a move toward cost- and fuel-efficiency, and diver safety. It would also be useful, if a diver’s boat broke down, to be able to ride aboard another diver’s boat, he said.