Limited entry study suggests tiered system

First published in Landings, January, 2013.

In early December, the Department of Marine Resources released “An Independent Evaluation of the Maine Limited Entry System for Lobster and Crab,” a report prepared by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) in Portland. The study was called for by the state legislature in 2011 in order to better evaluate the limited entry lobster licenses system currently in place. “The time has come to revisit access issues in the lobster fishery so we can be sure we are sustaining the health of the resource as well as the economic health of our coastal communities over the long term. GMRI’s report provides us with an objective, scientific analysis as we begin that conversation,” said DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher in a press release at the time.

The report was written by Alexa Dayton, GMRI’s training and outreach program manager, and Jenny Sun, senior marine resource economist. Drawing on a survey of licensed lobstermen and of those on the license waiting lists in each zone, meetings with lobstermen throughout the coast, and more than 100 comments from individuals involved in the lobster industry, the authors laid out the specific problems in the current management system and an array of recommendations to address those problems. “In our analysis of the system, we have identified four key deficiencies, for which we offer recommendations: latent effort, long waiting periods, underaccounting of retiring tags, and an inadequacy of the system to respond to a resource decline.” (page 6).

In 2011, there were 4,933 commercial (Class I, II, or III) license holders, who bought a total of 2,876,388 tags. Latent effort refers to the potential effort that could be exerted on a fishery if everyone in it fished as hard as he or she could. But records indicate that many hold a license to lobster but do not fish during a certain year. Others may not fish all the traps they are allowed in their zone. Others might. According to the report, “GMRI estimates that 391,142 trap tags which have already been issued could be actively fished right away, and another 845,444 new traps could be issued immediately to eligible fishermen. This indicates that a combined total of 1,236,586 additional traps could enter the state’s waters, if all license holders purchased tags for, and fished, their maximum number of traps.” (p. 7). Those additional tags would mean a 39% increase in effort, although many of the tags would be held by lobstermen who harvest less than 10,000 pounds per year.

The report found that individuals wishing to enter the lobster fishery sit on a waiting list for an average of six years. There are 296 people currently on the lists, however; many of those might be on the waiting list for twenty years before receiving a license, due to the tag-based entry-to-exit ratios in most zones. The authors found that often lobstermen reduce the number of traps they fish prior to retiring.,  Thus the number of trap tags retired when they give up their licenses is much less than the number they historically fished. The authors refer to this discrepancy as underaccounting of tags.

Lobster landings in Maine have increased steadily during the past two decades, luring more into the fishery as groundfishing and other fisheries have become more restrictive. Happily, the lobster population has remained robust and abundance expanded during those years. Yet, as lobster landings have gained greater dominance among all Maine’s marine resources, coastal communities have come to rely on this one species for their economic well-being. “...if the resource were to decline, the current system would not be able to respond fast enough to prevent overfishing, which could be catastrophic to Maine’s lobster industry and coastal communities.” (p. 8).

So what should be done about these problems? To address latent effort, the study recommends that the state institute a tiered licensing system. “The outreach meetings conducted reflected a very strong interest in providing flexibility for fishermen to build up or build down, based on age and business strategy. A viable option, familiar to Maine lobstermen as a result of a 2008 Lobster Advisory Council Task Force effort, is a four-tier license structure, in which current license holders are sorted into tiers based on landings histories and tag sales, and with a mechanism for individuals to move between the tiers. A similar system has been developed in the California Dungeness Crab fishery, as a result of an industry-based task force.” (p. 72)

The study recommends changing the way tags are accounted for when a lobsterman retires as one method to reduce time spent on a license waiting list. Furthermore, they suggest that current entry-to-exit ratios should be reviewed in consultation with the DMR. “Finally, a tiered licensing system, as proposed above and further detailed in this report, would reduce waiting periods by allowing more people in the lower tiers.” (p. 9)

Positioning the state to respond quickly should lobster populations take a dive would require a Fisheries Management Plan, which the report recommends DMR begin to create in consultation with industry. This management plan would establish “clear goals for the fishery along with specific objectives that will help meet those goals. In the meantime, every effort should be made to make future effort restrictions more manageable. That goal suggests keeping effort – the number of traps – at current levels.” (p. 10)

Reaction to the report has been mixed. Patrice McCarron, MLA executive director, stated that the report provides an interesting look at where we are, and a mechanism to start the conversation. However, she noted several inconsistencies within the report. “They missed some of the changes to the limited entry system which address deficiencies that the industry has already identified with the system. The regulations changed in 2007 so that tags rather than licenses were used for entry-exit ratios. There was no analysis of the change in tags from 2007 to 2011,” she said. “The change to tags was in recognition that a limited entry program based on licenses was not working. Changing the accounting of tags would undermine the limited entry program’s ability to reach its goal – reduce effort.” On the positive side, McCarron stated, “The report correctly identifies latent effort and the industry’s vulnerability in the face of a downturn in the resource as issues that need to be addressed.”

Long Island lobsterman Steve Train thinks the authors did a good job covering a very tough subject. "There are a lot of good points in it. It’s good to have someone outside take a look at the system,” he said. Train thought that the study correctly highlighted the fact that the lobster industry is not at all prepared if the lobster population should take a turn downward. That possibility and the hidden latent effort that could pour into the fishery are definitely concerns to be tackled sooner, rather than later, according to Train. But will lobstermen make the effort? “I really hope that we as an industry can use this report as a tool to improve the fishery,” Train said. “But lobstermen are very reluctant to change.”

DMR is holding a series of meetings this month to discuss the report’s findings with lobstermen and devise recommendations for moving forward. Commissioner Keliher stated at the December meeting of the Lobster Advisory Council that the agency would begin work on a lobster fishery management plan in order to prepare for future changes in lobster abundance. In a press release announcing the January meeting schedule, Keliher said “I hope the report’s analysis will provide us all with a common understanding of what is happening in the fishery, and that it will foster a great deal of conversation about the future of the fishery. These meetings with members of the lobster industry and other interested parties will inform the development of a Department proposal for discussion with the Legislature.”