ROCKLAND – Maine’s lobster fishermen are being asked to vote on a new system designed to reduce the number of traps in the water.

A law passed in September 2007 requires the commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources to adopt rules that establish a ratio for determining the number of traps that must be retired in a particular fishing zone before new traps can be introduced to that zone.

The law changes the method for calculating what is called a zone’s exit-to-entry ratio. Instead of basing the ratio on lobster licenses not renewed from the previous year, it will be based on trap tags retired. Lobster traps must have a tag. The new law, which takes effect in 2009, is a more precise way to regulate the number of traps in the water.

“A change in the system is something lobster fishermen wanted because they thought there were too many traps and too many fishermen,” said resource management coordinator Sarah Cotnoir of Marine Resources.

“If five people with 200 trap tags each retire and the one coming in has 800, that spells it out,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association in Kennebunk, said of the new system.

She said the system was designed “to reduce the effort,” or the number of traps, on the water.

The Lobster Zone D Management Policy Council voted Jan. 17 to conduct a survey asking lobstermen about a new limited entry to recommend to Marine Resources for Zone D. The answers the lobstermen provide will be compiled and used by the council to determine which exit ratio to recommend to Marine Resources for Zone D.

A table provides information for lobstermen to consider when selecting an exit ratio. It shows the exit and entry of new licenses that have occurred since 2003, using a 5-to-1 ratio based on the old system of licenses. The table was designed to show lobstermen what the yearly entry in the future could be, depending on what ratio they recommend.

Zone D covers the midcoast area from Stockton Springs to Bristol and includes some islands in Penobscot Bay. Altogether there are seven zones in Maine, lettered A through G. Six of the zones have limited entry restrictions except for Zone C for Blue Hill, Surry and Brooklin, which has its own method of determining control on the water.

If a zone’s maximum is 800 trap tags, then a ratio of 1-to-1 would mean that 800 tags would have to retire out of the fishery before one person would be allowed in. A 2-to-1 ratio would mean 1,600 tags would have to be retired before one person would be allowed in.

The table goes up to a 5-to-1 ratio showing 4,000 tags retired before one person is allowed in.

Cotnoir and Lobster Zone D Assistant Donna Hall of the Maine Department of Marine Resources met with local lobster fishermen last week at Rockland City Hall to go over the new law.

Zone D has a list of 61 people waiting to get lobster licenses.

“The likelihood of the 61 people on the waiting list next year is zero,” said Cotnoir. “If you look at the trends of people leaving, even if we stayed at the 5-to-1 ratio with licenses rather than tags, that would mean 305 people would have to leave the fishery next year.”

“Unless we have some mass exodus, 305 people leaving the fishery is unheard of,” she added.

She said 19 left the Zone D fishery this year.

Why do people retire licenses?

“Some die, others change occupations, and some make life changes, such as getting married and moving from the coast to Dover-Foxcroft,” she said. “The trend is, though, that you remain a lobsterman until you retire or you die on your boat.

“You have to include students,” she added. “Fifteen students can get in each year who may build up to 800 traps.”

Students are 17-year-old apprentices.

“Some of the fishermen on the waiting list will get in, but not all of them,” she said.

Hall said Monday that the deadline for the surveys is March 4, when the results will be tallied. A management council meeting has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 18 at the Rockland Ferry Terminal, where the results will be announced.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

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