DMR concludes winter meetings

First published in Landings, May, 2014.

In early April the marathon series of meetings held by the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) with the state’s lobstermen came to an end. DMR commissioner Patrick Keliher and staff held 11 meetings from Machias to York in order to convey information about the status of the lobster stock and to learn from lobstermen the specific issues they anticipate facing this year. Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, attended all the meetings. “I want to commend Commissioner Keliher for holding them. The Department put a lot of thought into framing the discussions,” she said. “The Commissioner also made a point at the beginning of each meeting to review what he heard last year and explain what action the department did and did not take as a result. He’s definitely listening to the industry.”

Keliher opened each meeting by reviewing the results of last winter’s series of 16 meetings with lobstermen. The department took action on one measure lobstermen at those meetings said was important: improved marketing of Maine lobster. The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative was created by the state Legislature in direct response to lobstermen’s suggestions. On two other items – a tiered system of lobster licenses and a solution to seasonal overabundance – the department took no action.

Keliher emphasized to those in attendance that there is no calamity forecast for this year, no immediate crisis facing lobstermen. Lobster landings in 2013 remained strong, 125.9 million pounds versus the 127.2 million pounds landed in 2012. “The sky is not falling,” he said at the Rockland meeting, “but changes in the data do add to the urgency of the conversation right now.”

The data Keliher referred to was presented by DMR lobster biologist Carl Wilson. Wilson explained at each meeting the various lobster monitoring programs undertaken by DMR and the data produced recently.

“Where you are in the state gives you very different impressions of how the stock is doing,” he said. Zone A, for example, has seen a four-fold increase in landings. That increase in volume has muffled the effect of lower prices. In Zone E, however, landings have not increased at nearly the same rate. So profits for lobstermen in that zone have not rebounded as vigorously as they have to the eastward. “The resource is different and the bottom line is different in different zones,” Wilson said.

The American Lobster Settlement Index has shown a decline in the density of young-of-the year lobster for the past three years. Divers sample young lobsters in October and November at 50 sites along the Maine coast to determine the strength of that year’s class of new lobsters. “Most zones saw a peak in settlement in 2004 to 2006,” Wilson said. “By 2013, generally speaking, most zones have seen a three-year decline.” The settlement data are supported by bi-annual trawl surveys which monitor the next phase in a lobster’s life cycle. DMR does a coast-wide trawl in the spring and fall each year. “There’s not been much increase or decline [in lobsters] up to Port Clyde,” Wilson explained. “Above Port Clyde to Schoodic the numbers [of lobster] are way up. From Schoodic to Lubec the numbers are flat.”

Furthermore, shell disease is on the rise, at least in southern Maine. DMR uses at-sea samplers during the summer months to keep track of lobsters by sex, weight, and V-notch status. The samplers also note the presence of shell disease. “In 2012 we saw a huge bump,” Wilson said. Where once shell disease rates were 1% of sampled lobsters or lower, in 2013 just over 4% of the lobsters sampled in Zone G showed evidence of shell disease. In Zone F that rate was 3%; in zone E 1.75%. The rate of increase is worrying, Wilson said.

The other factor worrying DMR is that lobstermen are not V-notching lobsters as much as they once did. Based on sea sampling data, lobstermen hit a peak of V-notching in 2008, when 82% of lobsters sampled were notched. Since then the percentage has slipped, down to 61% in 2013. The decline matters because the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) uses the V-notching rate as a factor in its stock assessment of lobsters. In addition, V-notching lobsters is a way to ensure the strength of the stock in the future, which is particularly important when the environment or other factors are changing, Wilson argued. “It’s money in the bank,” he said.

Change is something that must be planned for, Keliher emphasized. He referenced the ASMFC’s population model for lobster. The model’s “reference point” – the number of pounds landed that would trigger a management action for the  fishery – is the median of lobster landed between 1982 and 2003. That number for Maine is 35 million pounds, equivalent to what Maine lobstermen landed in 1994.

Maine can react to a decline in the lobster fishery well before ASMFC can, Keliher said. “We don’t want a southern New England situation here,” he said, referencing the ASMFC’s decision to close that fishery for part of the year to rebuild its drastically depleted stock. “We have an opportunity to define our own destiny.” That is the motivation behind the department’s push to develop a Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for lobster this year. The process of creating such a plan will require lobstermen to figure out what the industry’s goals are and what triggers the state will recognize to implement changes in management. “I think we all agree that keeping diversity in the lobster fishery is important. We need to ensure different ways of accessing the fishery,” he said.

McCarron believes that a management plan for lobster wouldn’t be something etched forever in stone. “An FMP is a framework, not a regulatory document,” McCarron said. “It will go through the zone councils and the Lobster Advisory Council. I think the intent is to preserve what we have now and to use the FMP as a safety net if or when things change.”

That will include dealing with the issue of latent effort. Latent effort refers to trap tags that have been purchased but not used, trap tags that could be purchased but currently are not, and licenses held by lobstermen who land very few or no pounds of lobster each year. The issue with latency, Keliher said, is not what’s happening right now but what could happen in the future if the landings take a tumble downward. “We can do nothing but there is a cost to doing nothing,” Keliher said. He posed a question to lobstermen at each meeting. What is the greater risk: ignoring latent effort only to have it become a crisis issue if the state has to make management changes in the lobster fishery or do something now while the fishery is in good shape?

McCarron noted that the tenor of the meetings was different in different parts of the coast. Lobstermen in some areas were well apprised of the science and management aspects of the fishery and offered thoughts about an FMP to Keliher. In other towns, local lobstermen were antagonistic toward DMR, wondering out loud why the Commissioner was meeting with them and what there was to talk about. “The attitude is sort of that we have done the conservation for these lobsters so now leave us alone. They have great pride in being part of a fishery which is going through the roof [in volume of landings],” McCarron said. “The problem is that things can change. Washington County has risen the highest so it has the furthest to fall.”