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April 19, 2013

Regulators change stance on 'dragging' bill

The Maine Department of Marine Resources supports a bill that would allow groundfishing vessels to land lobsters that they drag up as bycatch.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Maine's lobstermen have consistently opposed similar bills (a version was rejected in 2007), as has DMR.

At an April 8 public hearing, the paper reported, DMR Deputy Commissioner Meredith Mendelson said the state agency supports the bill this time around because other states — primarily Massachusetts — allow the practice.

As a result, state officials and those in the ailing groundfishing industry believe that allowing lobster bycatch here is both a boon to those struggling fishermen and a way to bring more groundfish landings back to Maine.

The Northeast groundfish industry was hit with steep fishing quota cuts earlier this year, including a cut to the cod catch of 77%.

Mendelson told legislators the bill would be a way to help sustain the state's groundfish industry.

The "dragging" bill, as it's commonly called, would only allow groundfishermen to net as bycatch lobsters caught more than 50 miles offshore, a distance at which proponents of the bill say Maine lobstermen don't set their traps.

The bill would be limited to groundfish boats and not scallop boats or other kind of draggers.

Bert Jongerden, general manager of the Portland Fish Exchange, told legislators that yearly landings at Gloucester, Mass., include about 100,000 pounds of dragged lobster, which is a fraction of Maine's total annual lobster catch. He argued that allowing the practice would boost groundfish landings by 15 million pounds — to 20 million — making for a total of $20 million worth of fish passing through Portland.

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