Machias Scallop Meeting Mostly Upbeat
by Fishermen’s Voice staff
Lisa Leighton (center), under contract with the Department of Marine Resources, collects samples alongside the crew of a scallop boat in Cobscook Bay. Close monitoring of landings and meat counts in Zone 3 provides regulators with the information needed keep the harvest at levels that allow rebuilding.
Back in the day, scallop meetings were raucous, loud and argumentative to the point you wondered if they would end in a rumble. But with few significant changes to last year’s regulations, and surveys showing strong year classes coming up, there was not much to fight about at the scallop meeting held in Machias on November 12.
“We’re seeing slugs of juvenile scallops out there; not juvenile, just under legal size—and a lot of seed you guys don’t see” said Trisha Cheney, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) scallop czar. According to Cheney, she is looking to harvest about 30 percent of the legal scallops, in order to leave enough to replenish stocks. “Last year we left a lot on bottom; we want to find that sweet spot where we can rebuild the fishery and have a sustainable harvest..”
Over the course of five years Cheney, has turned scallop meetings into fairly pleasant social events. Everyone at the Machias meeting, was on a first name basis, and the only thing missing, was tea and cookies. “I did a lot of listening, especially in the beginning,” said Cheney. “And it has paid off.”
Cheney went over the 2015-16 regulations, available online at: http://www.maine.gov/dmr/rm/scallops/management/2015-16/2015-16Season.htm.
Current regulations divide state waters into three zones: Zone 1 stretches from the NH border to Penobscot Bay; Zone 2 runs from Pen Bay almost to Canada, and Zone 3 encompasses the unique ecosystem of Cobscook Bay and the St. Croix area. Zone 1 draggers and divers have a been cut back to a 60-day season spread over five months, with a 15 gallon (meats) daily limit. Zone 2 maintains a 70-day season over five months and 15 gallon limit. Zone 3 fishermen get 50 days and a 10 gallon daily limit.
Within Zones 1, harvesters opted for a shorter season and continued protected areas. In Zone 2 the scallop grounds are opened and closed in rotation for the last three season, giving fishermen from each port, access to one of three local areas every year. Fishermen can fish anywhere along the coast, and because the open area near Jonesport is the least productive, fishermen from that area face the prospect of having to steam to Cobscook Bay, Zone 3, if they want to make a season. But, according to Cheney, Cobsoock is closely monitored and will be shut down once landings approach the 30 percent trigger.
Rocky Alley of Jonesport expressed some dissatisfaction with the system, wondering why the DMR had opened an area where people seldom fished. “There’s no scallops there,” he said. “The only reason you’d stay there more than one tow is if you was broke down.”
“So they can say they opened an area for us,” another fishermen interjected.
“What you’re saying is that we get two good years, and then one where I might as well haul my boat in the yard and grow pot in it,” said another, with a smile toward the marine patrol officers in attendance.
As Cheney laid out the program for the season; with no changes in Zones 2 and 3, other that the scheduled rotational closures, no one raised issues of serious contention..
“I guess its going to be what its going to be,” said Rocky.
The meeting proceeded with a lot of good natured joking and airing of other issues important to the region’s scallopers. The conviviality of the meeting might be attributable to Cheney, everyone calls her Trish, and her way of handling tough questions, or it might just be that scallopers are mellowing with age. The graying of the fleet, where almost everyone is around 50 years old, has led many scallopers to ask for a way to pass their licenses on to their children or long-time crew.
“If you commoditize (sic) this fishery [by making licenses transferable], you will lose access. Once you go down that track, you can’t come back,” said Cheney. “Right now we have more people in this fishery than there are in the federal fishery. We are the only scallop fishery that manages for social goals,” Cheney reminded the dozen or so scallopers in attendance. She assured the men that maintaining state control over licenses is an important part of keeping the resource public.
All in attendance agreed they wanted to open the door to new entrants into the fishery and most favored a two out, one in, exit/entry ratio in order to reduce the number stabilize the industry. Licenses will continue to be issued in a lottery, with the possibility of weighting it in favor of the children of fishermen and longtime fishermen.
Cheney spent a good deal of time talking about scallop abundance, and Lubec scalloper, Tracy Sawtelle asked about the sampling methods. “You see the point of this pencil, and the size of this room, that’s about the size of the area you sample of what’s out there.”
“And did you see their drag? barely a skid left on it,” said another fisherman.
“We’re getting a new one,” said Cheney. Admitting that the department’s methods while somewhat flawed, were at least consistent.
Sawtelle also wondered why he couldn’t keep the scallops he caught in his urchin drag on open days. “Why do I have to throw them back, and go all the way up the bay again to catch’m again with a scallop drag?”
Cheney smiled and moved on. In closing the meeting, she offered some encouragement. “At least the price will be high,” she said.
“I didn’t know you was buying,” said Sawtelle. “How much you paying?”
“I’m assuming,” said Cheney, backtracking. “The federal waters down south have a nematode problem; they’re not going to open. What is it, fifteen dollars a pound right now?”
While Maine scallop landings remain low, compared to the 1990’s, the last three years have seen a steady rise in both landings and price. The fact that the industry appears to be on the mend may also be a factor in scallop meetings becoming more peaceful.