Inside the DMR: The Bureau of Marine Science and Bureau of Public Health

First published in Landings, March, 2013.

Striped bass, bluefish, horseshoe crabs, Atlantic sturgeon, American lobster, scallops, eels: If it swims in the sea or migrates up one of Maine’s rivers, it’s likely that the Bureau of Marine Science has counted it, studied it and measured it. One of the bureau’s chief responsibilities is gathering data necessary to create sensible management plans for dozens of the state’s commercial and recreational marine species. “If we weren’t doing this work, there would be no sound information on which to base management measures,” explained Linda Mercer, bureau director. “It’s important that the decisions made make sense.” The proposed 2013-2014 budget for the bureau is $6.9 million; there are 57 positions.

Bureau staff within the biological monitoring and assessment division collect data on groundfish, monkfish, sea scallops, lobsters, ocean quahogs, and Atlantic herring among other marine species, as well as the state’s diadromous species (those which migrate from fresh to salt water) including Atlantic salmon, alewife, American eel, shad, and blueback herring. “Sampling takes place dockside or at sea,” Mercer continued. Each spring and fall the bureau also conducts a trawl survey which covers the Maine coast from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, east to Lubec. The multi-species survey generates important data that is used by regional bodies such as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in stock assessments. “The department has been conducting the survey twice each year since 2000. The data is used in a number of important stock assessments, such as those for shrimp and lobster,” Mercer said.

In addition to the biological monitoring and assessment division, the bureau also has a marine education division and a sea-run fisheries and habitat division. The sea-run fisheries and habitat division focuses its salmon restoration efforts in historic salmon rivers such as the Penobscot, Kennebec, Dennys, and Duck Trap Rivers, among others. Salmon at various life stages are stocked in the rivers and access to the rivers protected for the fish. Restoring the Kennebec, Androscoggin and Penobscot Rivers for shad and river herring has also become a significant part of the division’s work.

The marine education program operates the Maine State Aquarium from May through September and provides education programs for school groups and others throughout the year. Educational and living history programs are conducted at the Burnt Island Lighthouse Station Resource Center in Boothbay Harbor. Education division staff take the famous DMR touch tank, full of representative marine species, to schools, public festivals and other events throughout the year.

The Bureau of Public Health, as its name suggests, concentrates on making sure that marine species harvested in Maine and eaten by the public are safe. It oversees the statewide shellfish monitoring required by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP). “The Bureau is comprised of three major programs – the growing area program, the shellfish dealer inspection program and the shellfish management program. The growing area program is the largest unit with 21 employees and two office locations, in Boothbay Harbor and Lamoine,” explained Kohl Kanwit, director of the bureau. Growing area program staff perform water quality testing in order to classify shellfish areas, conduct shoreline surveys to identify and evaluate pollution sources, and monitor marine biotoxins that could cause “red tide” or paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). The division operates four FDA-certified laboratories and two microbiology and biotoxin labs.

The shellfish dealer inspection program ensures proper sanitation at shellfish dealer facilities. This includes site inspections, a rigorous certification process and permitting of certain activities such as wet storage or bulk tagging of shellfish. The three staff within the program perform almost 500 inspections each year. “The inspectors play a key role in any illness investigation by tracing the source of implicated shellfish through the harvester and dealer tagging system,” Kanwit said.

The Shellfish Management Program is responsible for development and maintenance of municipal shellfish management programs. Maine is one of only two states in the country that allow qualifying municipalities to manage their intertidal shellfish resources including licensing, resource enhancement, resource surveys, harvest limits and enforcement. The program’s three biologists act as liaisons among the towns, shellfish harvesters and the DMR. “They attend town meetings, approve shellfish ordinances and review annual reports and license allocations,” Kanwit said. Each year the biologists attend between 150 and 180 meetings to keep track of the state’s 76 municipal shellfish programs. “These three programs work to ensure the health and sustainability of the valuable and bountiful shellfish resources of the state,” Kanwit said.