Plans to cut catch to be considered
By Travis Andersen
Globe Staff / November 11, 2010
A multi-state panel that regulates the lobster fishing industry yesterday voted to draft proposals to substantially reduce the number of lobsters caught in southern New England waters.
The American Lobster Management Board, a division of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, voted unanimously at a meeting in Charleston, S.C., to draft separate plans for reducing the lobster catch in the region by 50 percent and by 75 percent, according to commission spokeswoman Tina Berger.
She said in an e-mail that board members will vote on those plans at their next meeting, which will be held between January and March. Berger said the board could reject both plans or approve a smaller reduction. Any changes would affect waters from south of Cape Cod to North Carolina, she said.
Berger said the public will have a chance to comment on any proposal that is approved before the board takes a final vote.
Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermens Association and a voting member of the management board, said last night that he could foresee problems with three ideas that have been discussed for reducing the catch: lowering the number of licensed traps, establishing a catch quota, and barring lobster fishing from June to September, the busiest time of the year for lobstermen in the region.
Adler said one idea that might work would be a license and trap buy-out program funded by the federal government. He said the price tag would be in the millions and that the government has operated similar programs for lobstermen on Long Island Sound and elsewhere.
Weve got to do something to try to bring this lobster stock in southern New England back to a healthy state, Adler said.
The management board tabled a proposal in July for a five-year moratorium on catching lobsters in the region, which Adler and others said would put lobstermen out of business without replenishing the stock. That stock has been devastated by environmental causes such as higher water temperatures.
There are now about 15 million lobsters in southern New England waters, down from a peak of about 35 million over a decade ago, according to the report produced by a committee of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Dan McKiernan, deputy director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and a Lobster Management Board member, said in an e-mail to fellow board members Friday that the panel should approve several measures to reduce the catch, including closing the fishing season from July to September and reducing trap allocations. All signs point to the stock remaining at low levels and likely declining further, McKiernan wrote.
His spokeswoman, Catherine Williams, hailed yesterdays vote in a written statement.
The boards decision to draft proposals for a 50 percent and 75 percent reduction in the southern New England lobster fishery is a dramatic step, she said. But, based on scientific research, these measures are necessary to attain recovery of the stock and ensure that the fishery will be viable in the future.
Jarrett Drake, 40, a lobsterman who lives in Marion, disagreed last night. He said that he is already reeling from catch restrictions that took effect several years ago, and that further restrictions would put him out of business.
Its an ugly system youve got in place, Drake said. They [commission members] have a job to do, regulate. If they dont, they get sued.
Globe correspondent Patrick G. Lee contributed to this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at
tandersen@globe.com.
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
Panel urges lobster reductions - The Boston Globe
