Maine Lobster Zone D Council Meeting Minutes
Lobster Zone D Council Meeting
March 18, 2008
Rockland Ferry Terminal
6:30 PM
Present: Michael Dawson, Gerry Cushman, Gilbert Collamore, Joe Bates, Doug McLennon, Kevin Glover, Mike Hutchings, Jim Wotton, Dan Miller, Mike Tripp, Jim Tripp, Matt Webber, Jim Wadsworth, George Chappell, Carl Wilson, Sarah Cotnor, Sgt. Marlowe Sonksen and Rep. Ed Mazurek.
The meeting was called to order at 6:40 by Zone D Chairman Michael Dawson.
Motion: (G. Cushman) To accept minutes. (Unanimous in favor)
Open to Public:
A question was asked about the red tracer in your rope and also questions about the end lines. You do need to have a red tracer on your rope whether it is painted on, red bungy, or some other way of marking it. All toggles must have a breakaway outside the exemption line. All the rules are going to apply to lobstering as well as shrimping.
Delegate Reports:
Lobster Advisory Council
The LAC will be meeting on March 19th at the DHS building at 4:00 pm. Effort reduction will be a topic of conversation. Trying to figure out how we will reduce the amount of gear in the water. They are starting the stock assessment now using 2007 data. So a bad assessment will trickle down to us and probably see a reduction in some way.
Tags in 1997: 614,000
Tags in 2007: 688,000
Tags in 2008: 702,000
ASMFC
The next meeting will be on the 25th of March. There was some talk about permits turning into Area 1 permits.
Whales
The MLA has met with the environmental groups to discuss delaying so the MLA could get some more data together but they said no. By the sounds of it the environmental groups think they have already got the ground lines so they will probably start going for less gear in the water.
Zone C
They talked about the survey results and opted to not go with the results of the survey. They are going to look into more options at the next meeting.
Zone E
Have not met in a while.
District Reports: None
DMR Updates:
Zone F & G are meeting about the three mile line. They have been trying to work things out.
More people have been getting caught with shorts and v-notch’s. We think this is because of tough times. The Commissioner has been talking to the scientist about the industry. So far they aren’t hitting the panic button. There was talk about alewives and how people think they may be hurting the bass fishing in local lakes and ponds. But if we cannot use alewives then there will be pressure put on the herring stock
.
Old Business: None
New Business: Limited Entry
Motion: (G. Cushman) Go with a 5:1 exit ratio. (Unanimous in favor).
Double Tagging
Zone F brought this up because they double tag and no other zones do. They thought if they do it other people should. It was brought up that unless your zone wants it then it shouldn’t be an issue.
Motion: To double tag (7 in favor, 3 opposed)
Joe was also wondering about changing untagged traps to a criminal offense instead of civil, also about transportation of an untagged trap. Maybe having transportation tag for that situation.
The next meeting has not been set.
Meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm.
