Marine resource bills coming before the Maine Legislature in 2017

The below list of fishery-related bills is as of 1/27/17  Additional bills will appear  they are finalized
Bill Topics:  lobsters, shellfish, marine ,worms , eels, smelt & rockweed


LOBSTERS
*  LD 14   An Act To Extend the Legal Hours for Harvesting Lobster
*  LD 68   An Act To Implement an Owner-Operator Requirement in the Scallop and Sea Urchin Fisheries
*  LD 113  An Act To Stabilize Lobster Bait Prices
*  LD 149  An Act To Provide Additional Management for Limited-entry Lobster Zones
*  LD 202.  An Act To Abolish Municipal Shellfish Ordinances
This bill eliminates the authority of a municipality to adopt a shellfish conservation program and ordinance


SHELLFISH

* LD 68,  An Act To Implement an Owner-Operator Requirement in the Scallop and Sea Urchin Fisheries
* LD 233  An Act To Establish a Statewide Scallop Harvesting Limit and Extend the Scallop Season

* LD 200    An Act To Allow Certain Municipal Shellfish Conservation Wardens To Seize and Sell Marine Organisms Taken in Violation of a Shellfish Conservation Ordinance

 
MARINE WORMS

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* LD 115

An Act To Protect the Marine Worm Industry

EELS 

* LD 286,  An Act To Promote and Encourage the Sustainability of the Elver Fishery 

SMELTS

* LD 28 Resolve, Prohibiting the Commissioner of Marine Resources from Adopting or Enforcing Certain Rules Limiting the Quantity of Smelts a Person May Take from the Coastal Waters of the State until after Completion of a Study

ROCKWEED 

  * LD 199,  An Act To Implement Decibel Limits for Mechanical Rockweed Harvesters

 * LD 196   An Act To Protect Personal Information of Participants in a Community Well-being Check Program

 

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Maine bill would require killing all squatter fish found in fish pens.

For 2008, Maine DMR has introduced LD 2137. An Act To Clarify the Licensing Requirements for Aquaculturists and Allow for the Appropriate Handling of Bycatch from Aquaculture Lease Sites

The bill proposes requiring aquaculturists to kill and dispose of any 'squatter fish' found living inside the net pens along with the farmed fish or shellfish. Squatter fish (my term, not theirs) are wild species like pollock, that either were trapped in the fish pens when they were set up, or entered the pens when small enough to slip through the mesh, and have grown up with the farmed salmon, eating their food and commingling with them.

DMR fears that these animals could have become tainted with salmon diseases or parasites, and if captured and thrown back into the wild, could spread "it", whatever "it" might be. Make sense? Perhaps so. Perhaps not.

The bill's proposed addition to state law reads

"...upon harvest of finfish from the leased area pursuant to an aquaculture lease, any finfish of a species that was not cultivated on the leased area but occurred in the enclosure must also be harvested and retained for appropriate disposal by the holder of a lease. Such finfish may not be sold and may not be released or disposed of into the waters of the State and must be reported to the department at the same time as reports of the harvest are filed."

The legislation also "clarifies that leaseholders do not need a harvester’s license unless raising shellfish." says DMR