February 2017 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 11. Commercial Fishing News
From the Director - Here we are near the end of January,
D. E. L. A. F D The State of Maine has a 30 percent
with the Patriots football game in my back- ground as I write this. I have to stop and check the score every now and then to make sure that they are winning. I have heard from a lot of the fi shing families who are making their pilgrimage to Florida, Arizona and warmer parts unknown. Warmer is nice, but I actually don’t mind Maine in the winter. I am not a sun worshipper anyway, so having less traffi c and confusion on Main Street is kinda nice. We can even drive around the public landing and sit and feed the seagulls without major interference from dogs on leashes. This has been a busy month. I have
attended a R.E.D. Board (lobster license plates) Meeting, followed by the Lobster Advisory Meeting last week. Both meetings were very important and productive. One of the subjects on the LAC Agenda was the Coral Amendment. Terry Stockwell spoke on this topic and told us that our goal is to exempt the Downeast areas. This is a con- tinued “work in progress.” As far as the herring update, all states
are the same quota as last year. So if you ran short on bait, you may want to “budget” your bait use and expense for the upcoming season. Rep. Alley from Jonesport was at the meeting and told us that they are watching the bait prices and want to make sure that it is not as expensive this year. He wants to make sure that the price of bait is fair across the board for all of us. Sarah Cotnoir went over the anticipated
bills for the Legislature. One of the bills is to make it illegal for the dealer to sell “awful bait” which is hide bait with the fat still on it. The bait must be clean of fat in order to be legal for use. At this point in time, it is illegal for fi shermen to use it but not for the dealer to sell it which does not make sense.
shortfall, so to meet the budget, there is talk about a license increase to meet the budget shortfall. This is still in the talking stages, so please stay close to your association and the Commissioner’s meetings when they are set. We will do our best to stay in touch and keep you informed. Please let us know how you feel about these suggested issues. Some of you have already weighed in on how you feel about the license increases through our Facebook site, which we appreciate your input. We will certainly take your opinions seriously and follow through with our testi- monies.
Swans Island and Chebeague Island
now have Limited Entry. They have 72 licenses and their own waiting lists. There was also an update on the Second Zone Tags. We are allowed 392 tags in our Second Zone and the tag says Second tag right on it. It must be placed on the bridge of the trap. The update on the High Flyer discussion is that the Marine Patrol is not taking action as NOAA has a poor 12-mile plan in place. When NOAA comes up with a better plan, we will be notifi ed. Please stay close to this subject as well. Rep. Will Tuell of Machias is intro-
ducing a bill that was requested by Zone A to try to work with the Gray Zone, which is between the United States and Canada. This has been a continued problem for years. Please stay tuned and we will keep you in- formed about this bill. We are hoping that the Lobster bills for the Legislature will be at the end of February to give us plenty of time for preparation. The Maine Fishermen’s Forum has had a busy weekend at the Samoset. Every year the Board of Directors gets together at the Samoset for the fi nal meeting before the big event in March. That meeting was today with plans under way for another great
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Forum. I have always felt that the Forum is a great time to get together and see everyone at least once a year. It is also a time to meet our Representatives and Marine Resource Committee. Even if there is no scheduled meeting for them, they are still in attendance and make an extra eff ort to come around and meet everyone. We always have an oppor- tunity to speak with our representatives at our DELA booth each year. The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s As-
sociation’s Annual Meeting was also this weekend. I haven’t traveled to the show for a few years, but it is a nice show to attend if you want a weekend getaway. I saw a great picture of Executive Director Beth Casoni with the tuna fi shermen from Wicked Tuna which is primarily based in Massachusetts. Tis the Season for the shows to begin! If you are interested in taking a bus to
the Boston Seafood Show, the MLA has off ered to partner with us for seats on the bus. The bus leaves Bangor Monday, March 20th at 6 am, stops in Augusta at 7:30 am. Portland 8:30, Kennebunk 9:15 - arrive in Boston about 10:45/11:00 am. Return to bus 4:45, Depart Boston 5:00 pm. Cost $50 for MLA members and $60 for non-members. If you are interested, please contact Antonina Pelletier - 207 967-4555 or 207 228-3616. This is a good way to go to Boston and not get lost! Also, if you are interested, feel free to contact me at 207 322-1924 or dassatt711@
yahoo.com. I am happy to help you connect with the bus. The Lobster Institute is also planning
their Canadian/US Town Meeting which is planned for March 24-25 in Algonquin, St. Andrews, NB, Canada this year. The planning board is hard at work to make it a very good meeting this year. We hope you can attend! This is the docket for the spring, so you
shouldn’t be bored at all. There seems to be some very good functions going on each weekend until we start setting gear again. The next scheduled meeting for DELA at Pat’s Pizza in
is Thursday, February 9th
Ellsworth @ 6:00 pm. All are welcome! If you are interested in membership, come along and bring a friend. You can also check our membership forms on downeastlobster-
men.org. Take care and see you at the meetings,
Sheila
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