More than 30 shrimp trappers were in attendance, Friday morning, at a meeting in Wiscasset with Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, Director of External Affairs Terry Stockwell and others. At least two dealers were represented at the meeting.
Fishermen said they were concerned that data from the trawl fishery, which began Jan. Jan. 23, is not being processed quickly enough to allow DMR to respond with fair regulations for trap fishermen. This year the trap season is set to begin Sunday, Feb.3 and will continue until the industry meets 85 percent of the quota set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
The consensus of those present was that there needs to be more timely reporting of catches from both the trap and trawl fisheries. Keliher told the group approximately 30 percent of Maine’s 175 fish dealers have not reported shrimp landings. He said some of those may not be buying shrimp. He also described the process that takes data reported on Tuesday six days to be useable for regulatory purposes.
Maine Shrimp Trappers Association Executive Director Stephenie Pinkham said she is in daily contact with fishermen who have access to cell phones and texting. She volunteered to gather daily reports on the trap fishery’s catch and pass those numbers on to DMR. Keliher said that would be a good, informal way to help with daily decision-making about open and closed fishing days.
Keliher asked fishermen to advise his office as to how they wanted this year’s shrimp season to proceed.
Fishermen agreed that they did not want to be held to a schedule of alternate fishing days, because severe weather could keep them off the water more than necessary to preserve the resource.
For the first week of the 2013 season, shrimp trapping will be allowed to take place Monday through Saturday. Traps may be set on Sunday and Monday, but cannot be hauled until Tuesday. Stockwell said the rate of landings will be reviewed every couple of days as information is fed into the department’s database.
The Lincoln County News will publish a compete report on the Feb. 1 meeting in its Thursday, Feb. 7 print edition.
