Dollars for data Lobstermen back trap fee increase to fund whale habitat research

ELLSWORTH – There would be a price to pay for Maine lobster fishermen if the federal government, seeking to offer more protections to endangered whales, requires the fishermen to switch to more expensive, whale-friendly fishing gear.

But lobstermen seem to be willing to pay another price first to try to prevent the rule from being implemented.

In an effort to raise money for whale habitat research, two lobstermen’s associations in Maine have voiced support for raising the price of the state-issued tags that fishermen must attach to their traps. The fishermen would want the extra revenue to be used for studying the presence of whales in Maine’s coastal waters.

The board of directors of the Down East Lobstermen’s Association voted unanimously last week to support a temporary increase in the trap tag fee from 30 cents a tag to 40 cents. But they said that they want the increase to last only for two or three years and that they want to know exactly how the extra money would be spent before the increase goes into effect.

“There’s got to be a sunset [clause],” Norbert Lemieux of Cutler told his fellow DELA board members. “It shouldn’t be open-ended.”

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association, which with 1,200 members is the largest commercial fishermen’s association in Maine, also has endorsed increasing the trap tag fees. With most Maine lobstermen limited to 800 traps apiece, a 10-cent increase would mean an additional annual expense of $80 a year for each fisherman – small change compared to an additional annual cost of $10,000 to $15,000 that many say each fisherman would face by switching to sinking rope.

Under legal pressure from whale conservation groups, and in response to reports of endangered whales caught in lobster fishing gear, the National Marine Fisheries Service is considering implementation of a new rule that would require all fishermen to use sinking rope on their traps. Fishermen who set their traps within a proposed zone that extends approximately three miles from shore would be exempt from the new rule.

Many fishermen, especially those in the eastern part of Maine where the ocean bottom tends to be rocky, use floating rope between their traps to keep their gear from getting caught on the bottom. Floating rope rises off the ocean floor, creating vertical loops between traps that can snag whales as they dive toward the bottom to feed.

If all lobstermen used sinking rope, whale conservationists argue, there would be less chance of whales getting snared in lobster fishing gear. But the lobstermen, most of whom work relatively close to shore, claim whales don’t swim where they set their gear.

Fishermen hope the trap-tag funded research would support their argument and help prevent NMFS from mandating the change in gear.

On Monday, Gov. John Baldacci and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe sent separate letters to NMFS chief William Hogarth, urging him to review and reconsider the draft rules. They also asked Hogarth to delay implementing the rule until at least June 1, 2010, and to consider moving the exemption line farther offshore.

In response to lawsuits filed by conservation groups, NMFS has agreed to issue its final rule by Oct. 1. The rule would go into effect one year later on Oct. 1, 2008.

MLA Executive Director Patrice McCarron said Monday that a 10-cent increase would generate $300,000 a year while a 20-cent increase would raise $600,000 annually. She said MLA believes the economic impact of requiring the gear change would be severe and that whales do not feed on rocky bottom the same way they feed on sandy or muddy bottom.

“There’s a lot of research that needs to be done,” McCarron said. “We need to dig deeper into the whale sighting data. Ultimately, we need a probability study.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.