Lawmakers nix lobster bycatch bill
Despite new support from the state's fishing industry regulators, a bill to allow fishermen to land lobsters they catch while dragging for groundfish has been killed in committee.
The Portland Press Herald reported the Legislature's Marine Resources committee voted unanimously — with two members absent — to recommend that the bill be rejected by the full Legislature.
Supporters said the bill would be a way to help groundfishermen who face drastic federal reductions in their catch limit quotas. They said it also would attract more groundfish landings in Maine rather than Massachusetts, where fishermen are allowed to sell their lobster bycatch.
Lobstermen and representatives of that fishery strongly opposed the bill, which had its first public hearing earlier this month.
The bill would have limited lobster bycatch landings to those made in federally regulated waters 40 miles from the coast.
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