DMR takes conversations with lobstermen seriously

First published in Landings, November, 2015.

Each year since he became head of the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) in 2012, Commissioner Patrick Keliher has held a coast-wide series of meetings with Maine lobstermen to have what he terms “conversations” about the state of the industry. The meetings, often held in the winter months when lobstermen have hauled their traps ashore, have required many hours of agency staff time and hundreds of miles of travel in order to reach the many harbors along Maine’s 3,000 mile coast.

And, according to Keliher, it’s been worth it. Keliher and his staff just completed a third round of meetings with lobstermen in September to discuss ways to improve the current licensing system. “I’ve been in management a long time. Most often what’s been missing was the benefit of open dialogue prior to legislative meetings and hearings. I think it’s best to have those conversations up front and then develop laws that take into account what was heard. Or to not take any action at all, that’s even more important,” Keliher said in a recent interview.

DMR’s first round of 16 meetings during the winter of 2013 “almost killed me,” Keliher said with a laugh. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s 2012 report, “An Evaluation of the Lobster Limited Entry System,” had just come out after a summer of plunging prices. The topic at hand was the possibility of instituting a tiered licensing system for lobstermen. Of the nearly 6,000 commercial lobstermen in the state at the time, approximately 1,600 turned out for those meetings. “Some of it was novelty, checking out the new commissioner,” Keliher recalled. “But also I think there was some appreciation of the dialogue.” As a result of those meetings, DMR withdrew the proposal of a tiered licensing system put forth in the report. “History shows that fishermen have always had to react to a drafted law. The sea change was to truly have a conversation,” he said.

Lobstermen gave Keliher and his staff an earful. But despite the sometimes rough exchanges during the meetings, the talk that took place afterward in the parking lot or via email tended to be fruitful. “After any meeting people would come up to talk to me. It’s all about laying out the information so people understand, so that we get through to them,” Keliher noted.

In February, 2014, Keliher once again hit the road, this time to talk to lobstermen about data showing a drop in juvenile lobsters along the coast and about the problem of latency among lobster license holders. Latency refers to the number of unused traps that lobstermen could at some point put in the water. “Those meetings were somewhat somber,” Keliher recalled. “The settlement numbers made lobstermen feel sort of like ‘uh-oh, the eggshell’s cracked.’ Plus there was natural skepticism about the science.” It was at this round of meetings that the notion of creating a state Fisheries Management Plan for lobster was first introduced.

This year’s latest round of meetings in September focused on the licensing system brought different responses from each zone, according to Keliher. “For example, Zone A is the poster child for the other zones. They changed from trap tags to licenses for their entry standard and 22 people came off the waiting list [in the last 2 years]. That gives some predictability,” Keliher said. In Zone B, by contrast, very few lobstermen are leaving the fishery. “Lobstermen came to the Zone B meeting saying ‘Yup, we never envisioned this. We didn’t have to go through this [waiting list] to come in and we need to find a way to fix it.’ It [changing the entry/exit standard] is something that we can do that does not threaten the fishery right now. Licenses will continue to decline by zone, but in a trickle, not in a rush,” Keliher said.

While the typical fisherman’s notion of government is that its aim is solely to constrain fishing activities, Keliher’s point of view is different. “Technology exists right now that could destroy any fishery,” he said, referring to the complex electronics and other fish-finding gear used by many fishermen. “Our job is to regulate to assure the sustainability of the stocks. At the same time, we have to be an advocate for the fishermen as well as the fish. It’s a balance.” Keliher spoke of the state’s scallop fishery as a successful example of that balance. As a result of closing scallop beds for three years throughout the coast on a rotating basis, Maine’s scallop landings have increased dramatically during the past two years. “We worked hand-in-hand with the fishermen to allow fishing while the stock recovers,” Keliher said. “I remember meeting with about 200 scallop fishermen in the Whiting town hall. They were pissed off. We said, ‘here’s what we have to do [based on NEFMC criteria], so help us, talk with us.’”

Creating a Fisheries Management Plan for lobster will also require this type of collaborative process. Components of the plan went out to the Lobster Advisory Council in the spring, then to the Zone Councils. The next step will be to send out the Stock Assessment section through the same process, followed by specific elements, called “triggers,” during the winter. “While the Lobstermen’s Union continues to talk about the FMP as if this is a power grab on the part of DMR, it’s not. It does not have the force of law, it’s a guidance document,” Keliher emphasized. “We are doing this now, when the sky’s not falling. At each meeting I ask people in the room to raise their hands if they think that lobster landings will stay at this level in the future. No one raises their hand.”