Five Trap Trawl Limit Proposed In
Zone B

by Laurie Schreiber

ELLSWORTH—Several dozen fishermen from Lobster Zones B and C appeared at a Department of Marine Resources (DMR) hearing, held May 22, on a proposal to limit the number of lobster traps on a trawl to a maximum of five, within a portion of Zone B around Mount Desert Rock.

Most fishermen who spoke were against the proposal.

The roughly rectangular area is bounded by the six-mile line on the north and by the Loran-C 25675 line, as it’s called, on the south side of the Rock.

According to a DMR summary, the proposal was initiated by the Zone B Council and was supported by over two-thirds of Zone B license holders who voted in a referendum conducted in February. On April 25, the Zone B Council voted unanimously to recommend to the commissioner to advance the proposal to rule-making.

As part of the referendum, the DMR received comments on the proposal. Some of the comments in support of the proposal said:

• I personally think it should be up to, but no more than, 10-trap trawls.

• Seems very reasonable and safer for older fishermen maybe fishing alone.

• I think you should stop all trawls in Zone B over 5 traps.

• It has been very hard to fish 5 traps in this area when others fish trawls.

• Would prevent a lot of conflict on both zone borders.

• When people went to 15- and 20-trap trawls, I was one of the people driven out of this area. The people fishing trawls layer them, so it’s impossible to fish buoy gear.

• If everyone fished all their traps in their declared zone, there would be no problems.

Some of the comments opposed to the proposal said:

• A pair is enough to handle.

• Why would we increase endlines, so the feds will have more reason to regulate us?

• It is an awful idea to do this. It makes no sense to haul 5-trap trawls in that depth of water. Not to mention the new whale rules that are coming up. We don’t need to give activists any more reasons to fight us.

• It’s very deep in certain parts of that area. Fishing only 5-count trawls is not efficient.

• The people who are against this are the only fishermen who fish the bottom that’s in jeopardy. I do not have one trawl around a single 5 and my entire string is in the area that’s being implemented for 5s.

• As a young fisherman, this will have a huge financial impact on me with potential gear loss and lost income, especially in September and October.

At the May 22 hearing, Zone C lobster fisherman Richard Larrabee Jr. said the proposal would not work. “We’re going to have 10 times more rope,” Larrabee said. With just one endline on a five-trap trawl, “The gear loss is going to be insane” if that endline is cut, he added. “I think the commissioner should go for a boat ride and see what is going on instead of looking at a chart….I think he’d see how ridiculous this is.”

With the increase in the number of cruise ships passing through on their way to Bar Harbor, “We’ll be losing gear left and right,” agreed a Zone B fisherman, adding, “This is going to affect me hugely, economically.”

“There’s a lot of different ways to look at this,” said another Zone B fisherman, Carroll Staples, who also opposed the proposal. “I could say I can’t make fives work, that I’m going to lose gear. But every time I say that someone else from my own zone tells me they…can make it work. I don’t want to make it work. This is the way I fish.” Staples said the reason there are more 15-trap trawls is because fishermen have been encouraged to fish that way. “Guys spent money, they invested in it.”

“This proposal will make this area extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fish,” said lobsterman Steve Philbrook. “Five-trap trawls will be a disaster” with regard to cruise ship traffic. Philbrook recalled that, in the early aughts, there were perhaps several dozen cruise ships visiting Bar Harbor in the summer, which didn’t cause conflict because fishing the proposed area didn’t start until late September. For 2018, 180 visits are scheduled, with many taking place September and October and running through lobster gear as they approach and leave. “There’s barely a piece of the ocean that’s not run over by a ship,” he said.

Zone C fisherman Ryan Larrabee said the biggest problem with the proposal will be the increase in endlines and the resulting increased risk of whale entanglements. “I can fish five or 15; it doesn’t make a difference to me,” he said. “But if we have entanglements, we’ll end up closing down.”

Several fishermen spoke in favor of the proposal. Swan’s Island fisherman Jason Joyce said that 79 percent of the fishermen in his district favored the proposal. Joshua Joyce, also of Swan’s Island, said, “I’ve been able to do well with fives.” He added, “Zone C has been a printing press for lobster licenses, which is their choice, for a long time….It’s affected me quite a bit.”

Another Zone B fisherman said the 15-trap trawls “are so big they get on top of [your gear] and crush your gear.”