Page 10. MAINE COASTAL NEWS February 2014
Commercial Fishing News From the Director –
How is everyone holding up during this very cold weather that we have been having? I don’t mind winter, but this one became cold in December and has stayed pretty consistent through January as well. A lot of people have been running low on their fi rewood. The bio bricks they sell at our local EBS have been a good fi ll-in until the wood is plentiful once again. We certainly hope that everyone can stay as warm as possible! The days are getting a little longer which will give us that “hope” that will get us through February and on our way to the next fi shing season for 2014. For those brave souls that are still going out in this winter and going offshore, my hat goes off to you. Please be safe…that water is pretty cold this time of the year and the wind is unmerciful, too. Our meeting schedule has picked up speed now that we are into January, 2014. Some days, I have a tendency to say “if there is one meeting, there is two or three all on the same day!” I think everyone is making up for lost time during the holidays and bad weather.
D.E.L.A. - REPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR We had our January D.E.L.A. meeting at
Jasper’s a couple of weeks ago. I understand that this is January and the attendance would be down just a little. I think it was a very good meeting, all in all. We took up business, but also had a good chance to have some informal conversations. I always fi nd the smaller groups a good opportunity to get to know our newer board members a little better. We discussed the fi shery and tourism opportunities that are being promoted. Terry Savage explained the process that is involved with obtaining a merchant marine license. There is so much to consider when it comes to covering your boat with insurance for such an endeavor. One of the fi rst requests that a tourist makes is to go out lobstering with a “real fi sherman.” There is defi nitely an opportunity there for all involved, but please be sure that you are covered legally and with the proper insurance coverage. Thank you to everyone that came out for the meeting.
D.E.L.A. welcomes new member: Ray Sleeper of South Thomaston! For fi shermen that are interested in
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the progress of our lobster marketing, the meetings are posted and sent out for the public. The last meeting was held on Tuesday, January 21st
at the Rockland Ferry Terminal.
I wasn’t able to attend that particular meeting due to a confl icting schedule, but I want to attend the next meeting. The next meeting of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative Board of Directors will be held 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at the Rockland Ferry Terminal, 517 Main Street, Rockland, ME 04841. For more details or directions please contact the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative via email info@
lobsterfrommaine.com or telephone: 207- 541-9310. http://wwwlobsterfrommaine. com/
meet-the-mic-board.aspx We want everyone to be able to stay up- to-date with the progress and decisions that we all helped to make with marketing our Maine lobster product. As I have mentioned before, we are still able to have a say in our own product as independent business owners.
The Maine Fishermen’s Forum is well under way now and coming “down to the wire” for planning seminars and activities. Please remember, Captain Keith Colburn of the show “Deadlist Catch” will be our
guest this year. He will be at the Samoset for our Thursday Session from 1:00 to 4:30 for an informal talk and question and answer period. Please come along and welcome him to Maine and our industry. He will be with us the entire weekend, so you should have a good chance to say “Hi” to him. With the Maine shrimp season closed
this year, it has put more attention on the scalloping season. Due to conservation and economic necessity, the Commissioner has decided to allow scalloping three days for draggers and three days for divers a week at Cobscook Bay and the St. Croix. We have almost caught our allowed amount of scallops for this year. It is very diffi cult to ease back when we all still need to make a living. So what do we do in a case like this? I think it is a time when political issues will always be facing us, but as time goes on, we are facing more and more scientifi c issues such as green (invasive) crabs, ocean acidifi cation, safe bait, and so on. This is why the seminars at the Forum should be very informative for all of us. This is where we will learn more about the issues that we are all facing.
The Marine Resource Committee will also have a space at the Forum for a good opportunity to meet them. Please come along and bring your questions and input to them. They can serve all of us better if they know how we feel about marine issues such as the waiting list, licensing, etc. Communications if half the battle when it comes to a better understanding. They want to hear from us.
D.E.L.A. will be attending a booth and also a seminar meeting. Please come along and meet with us. We want to answer your questions to the best of our ability. We’ll see you there! Sheila
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