2007 CBC Last Good Scallop Grounds In Maine
Why we have the last good scallop grounds in Maine
Will Hopkins, Executive Director of the Cobscook Bay
Resource Center told the story of why we have the last good scallop grounds in
Maine.
The Downeast Groundfish Initiative is based on the idea of area management. With area management you define a geographical area and set rules for fishing in that particular area. Anyone can fish in that area, but they have to fish by those rules. Something like this has already happened in Cobscook Bay and like the Boat School, it is a well kept secret. The secret is that Cobscook has the best scallop grounds left in the state. The reason why is because the fishermen here have taken steps to limit themselves and protect the resource.
In 1990 there were about 25 local boats fishing scallops. In 1995, it was a very different story with 170 boats in the Bay on opening day. The boats ranged in size from skiffs to 100’ draggers. There were near accidents. They would all fish for a week or so. Then the boats from away would leave the area, leaving the local boats with little to fish for during the rest of the season.
At that time, because of gear conflicts with lobstermen, the entire coast except for Cobscook Bay and Gouldsboro stayed closed for scallop fishing until sometime in mid or late November. A group of Cobscook fishermen decided to try to get a uniform opening date through the Legislature. They drove to Augusta in a snowstorm to testify at a public hearing on the issue. They stayed overnight and attended a worksession on the issue the next day. The Cobscook fishermen left feeling that they were in a good position, but fishermen who opposed the uniform opening day complained that they hadn’t had a chance to make their opinions known because of the snowstorm. The Marine Resource Committee gave them another worksession which the Cobscook fishermen were unable to attend. The uniform opening day legislation did not pass.
Although they did not pass the legislation, the Marine Resource Committee felt that the Cobscook fishermen had put a lot of effort into trying to get things changed. The Committee decided to pass a law which said that, instead of the 10 foot wide scallop drag used statewide, only a five and half foot drag, eight rings deep, could be used for dragging scallops inside Cobscook Bay. In effect this decision treated Cobscook Bay as a separate scallop management area.
A couple of years later the December 1 uniform opening day was finally passed.
In 2000, the Resource Center held its annual Cobscook Fisheries Forum in February. Cobscook fishermen asked for help in putting together a broad based association that would represent all fishermen around the Bay. Many meetings were held in the next few months. By May the Cobscook Bay Fishermen's Association had been formed. For the rest of the year, two times per month, the Association met to work on a scallop conservation plan.
The final plan included a daily catch limit of 15 gallons of scallop meats per day. Many things had been considered, but the fishermen realized that any plan they came up with had to be conservation oriented. It couldn’t just keep people from fishing in the Bay. The plan couldn’t be about limited allocation.
The final plan also included a meat count rule. This rule was aimed at making it easier for Marine Patrol to stop the shucking of small scallops.
At this time, then Senator Kevin Shorey introduced the bill for the Cobscook fishermen. The Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner opposed the bill saying that he didn’t want to see the “Balkanization” of the Maine coast.
With opposition forming, the fishermen knew they needed help to convince the Legislature to pass the bill. They got advice from the Monhegan fishermen who had been successful in implementing a lobster conservation zone around their community. From them the fishermen learned they would need to hire a lobbyist.
After much fundraising, organizing, and too many trips to Augusta, the Legislature passed the 15 gallon daily catch limit and increased the minimum shell size for Cobscook Bay. They also passed a law requiring that no shucking could be done until all undersized scallops were removed from the boat.
The next year Marine Patrol proposed to extend the “no shucking until culling is done” rule statewide. The minimum shell size was also increased statewide. Three years later, the Cobscook Bay Fishermen's Association finally succeeded in getting a meat count rule passed for Cobscook Bay.
The days of 170 boats on opening day are gone. For the last few years 25 to 35 boats have fished scallops on opening day. Last December 1st scallopers found a fair number of legal sized scallops and “lots of little stuff,” which hold the promise for next year. Along the rest of the Maine coast, scallops continue to be scarce. We still have some here.