With a 96% decline in recorded Maine scallop landings from the top year in 1980 to last year, the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is planning several changes in the fishery to stem the collapse of the resource. Last spring a limited entry provision was enacted, and now the DMR is proposing to cut the number of scallop fishing days in Maine from 136 to 52, close about a third of the coast to harvesting and limit the daily catch statewide to 200 pounds. The DMR will hold a public hearing in this area on the rule-making proposals on Thursday, October 9, at 6 p.m. at the University of Maine at Machias science lecture hall.

As with the limited entry measure, the proposals are generating a fair amount of controversy among fishermen around Cobscook Bay, which is considered to be the last good scallop ground in the state. Leo Murray of Lubec, chairman of the Cobscook Bay Fishermen's Association, comments, "People should take care of their own. We're trying to keep our fishery and to keep people here working. They're trying to make a fishery for the whole state out of our bay, and it can't stand it."

"Who better to take care of the fishery than the people who live here?" he asks, noting that a mobile scallop fleet ranges up and down the Maine coast and that bays that had good scallop resources, such as Penobscot and Gouldsboro, have been fished out. He believes that possibly 400,000 pounds of scallops were harvested in Cobscook Bay last year, which "would keep our communities going all winter." If nearly 200 boats come to fish in the bay, as has occurred in the past, the season will be over in a week, he says. "This year they'll all be here from the get-go," he predicts about the boats coming for the opening of the scallop season in December. He estimates that last year 150 boats from other ports came to Cobscook Bay during different times in the season.

"I worry about the people here. It's all we have," Murray says of the bay's fisheries, noting that other areas have other types of fisheries to support the fishermen. Concerning the challenges facing local fishermen this year, he comments, "It's going to be hard scratching." Lobster fishermen are getting $2.10 less per pound, the price of fuel has doubled, and the cost of bait is $7 to $9 more per bushel. "There just isn't the money."

"It takes local people to watch it," the Lubec fisherman says of Cobscook Bay. "It's like a garden. You need to watch it and keep it going for other generations. But it takes the state to do it. It's too bad. We could have some fishery here."

Togue Brawn, a resource management coordinator with the DMR, says the state agency realizes it needs to help the fishery rebound. "We need to get serious about bringing the resource back," she comments, noting that the DMR is looking at stock enhancement projects and also at acquiring grant funding for relocating adult scallops to rebuild depleted areas.

Under the rule-making proposal the DMR is putting forward now, the six closed areas would be: Southern Closure from the New Hampshire border to Wood Island; Casco Bay Closure from Cape Elizabeth to Small Point Harbor; Western Penobscot Closure from Port Clyde to Cape Rosier; Mt. Desert Closure from Bass Harbor to Schoodic Point; Jonesport/Beals Closure from Moose Neck to Head Harbor Island; and Eastern Closure from Western Head in Cutler to the international bridge in Lubec. The areas would no longer be closed after three seasons. The areas were selected on a fairly random basis, according to Brawn, since the DMR does not know the habitat requirements for bringing the scallop resource back. A random selection then should lead to better results.

Murray believes the closing of those areas will end up placing more pressure on the Cobscook Bay resource, as more boats from other ports will come to fish in the bay. He's been told that the Cobscook Bay area has "11% of the licenses and 90% of the scallops" in the state. He also thinks the proposed daily catch limit, which is 65 pounds more than the Cobscook Bay catch limit, is too high. "They're doing it a little backwards," he says, urging that the state should have a long-term management plan for the scallop fishery, particularly if the resource recovers.

Brawn says one reason the DMR wants to reduce the length of the season is to ensure that Cobscook Bay, along with the rest of the coast, is not overharvested. She says that, although all of the new rule-making proposals are open for discussion at the hearings, the DMR believes it is important to have a 52-day season. "We don't see how responsibly you can have more than 52 days." Although the Scallop Advisory Council (SAC) recommended an 80-day season to the DMR, "we felt that was not enough of a reduction," says Brawn. Some members of the SAC have expressed frustration that the DMR did not proceed with the council's recommendation, but Brawn notes that the DMR at first was proposing a six-week, or 42-day, season. She also points out that, while the DMR wanted at least a third of the coast closed, the SAC recommended where the closed areas would be. "Their opinion is extremely important to us, and we took it into consideration." She believes that charges that the DMR is not listening to the SAC are "baseless."

Murray believes that it would be better to have a season of 52 consecutive days, rather than one stretched out through March, as fishermen "tend to take the smaller ones" later in the season after the larger scallops are harvested. He also notes that if fishermen are not given a choice on the open fishing days as they fish, then they end up taking more risks by fishing on days with bad weather. Brawn says that there was some discussion about adopting a "days at sea" system so that fishermen could choose the days they fish during the season, but she says the cost for administrative enforcement would be too much. Such a system might be a possibility in the future. The proposed recommended days open for fishing are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday in the months of December, January and February, which is similar to the open days for sea urchin fishing.

Will Hopkins, executive director of the Cobscook Bay Resource Center, believes the DMR is limiting itself on possible solutions for scallop management by focusing only on the solutions mentioned in legislation that was adopted last spring requiring the DMR and the Scallop Advisory Council to develop a strategic plan to rebuild the fishery. Hopkins notes that the DMR is using its rule-making procedures to enact any changes, feeding its proposals through the Scallop Advisory Council, which he says previously had been relatively inactive. He believes that there are broader scallop management changes possible that would require legislative approval, but "the DMR doesn't want to hear about that."

A Cobscook Bay endorsement is one such proposal, Hopkins says. Under that plan, fishermen who want to scallop in Cobscook Bay would have to pay for the endorsement on their scallop license. The limited number of endorsements would be available first to fishermen who live around Cobscook Bay and then would be offered to other fishermen on a ratio basis. "The ones from outside the bay could fish here, but they would have to fish by Cobscook rules and fish by those rules wherever else they fish for scallops," notes Hopkins of the proposal. The regulations that the Cobscook Bay Fishermen's Association has persuaded the legislature to enact in order to protect the bay's scallop resource include a 15-gallon daily catch limit, a meat count limit of 35 meats per pint and a requirement to cull before shucking. Hopkins says the aim of the proposal would be to protect the scallop resource in Cobscook Bay and not have an influx of draggers clean out the scallops in the bay.

The Cobscook Bay Fishermen's Association was scheduled to discuss the DMR's rule-making proposals at a September 25 meeting. Also, scallop management will discussed during a Cobscook Fisheries Forum scheduled for Saturday, October 18, at The Boat School in Eastport.

The DMR is accepting comments on its rule-making proposal until October 20. Comments should be sent to: Department of Marine Resources, Attn. Laurice Churchill, P.O. Box 8, West Boothbay Harbor, ME  04575-0008; or e-mail <laurice.churchill@maine.gov>.