Budget cuts threaten shellfish diggers

WALDOBORO – Maine’s top fishery official is proposing to eliminate the state’s red tide monitoring program in order to comply with required budget cuts, a move shellfish diggers fear could drive them out of business.

Commissioner George LaPointe of the Department of Marine Resources said Gov. John Baldacci’s order to reduce his budget by 10 percent, or $1 million, requires either radical cuts in the marine patrol or the scrapping of all shellfish inspections.

“What good choice do we have?” LaPointe told WCSH-TV, Portland. “The two big pots of money are in marine patrol and in the public health division. And either one of those would be extreme.”

LaPointe said he is choosing to eliminate his department’s three red tide monitoring staffers and its three shellfish inspectors, along with three employees in marine patrol.

The commissioner acknowledged that the proposal would essentially close Maine’s $50 million shellfish industry but said deep cuts in marine patrol would hurt all of the state’s fisheries.

Abden Simmons, a clam digger from Waldoboro who serves on Maine’s Shellfish Advisory Council, said doing away with monitoring would put him and hundreds of other diggers and dealers out of business.

“Its going to kill us. It’s going to kill the industry,” he said.

As an alternative, LaPointe proposed a 20 percent fee increase for all commercial fishing licenses, which would generate enough money to keep all programs in operation. The commissioner also said Maine may be able to redirect some of the federal disaster money it’s getting to mitigate red tide damage.

Red tide is caused by blooms of naturally occurring algae that produce a toxin that is absorbed by shellfish as they feed. Clams, mussels and other shellfish with high levels of toxins can cause people who eat them to become sick or even die.

Periodic red tide outbreaks have forced the closing of parts of the Maine coast to shellfish harvesting in recent years, but officials credit the state’s intensive monitoring program with allowing areas that have escaped contamination to remain in business.