“I’m here to deliver a message sterner and harsher than last year,” said George Lapointe, Commissioner of Department of Marine Resources (DMR), told the Sea Urchin Zone Council at its Feb. 12 meeting.
“The best action is to close this fishery,” Lapointe said, having analyzed the season so far with input from scientists and harvesters.
The resource “continues to decline,” he said, “and we have tried incremental measures.”
He noted that experience in the world fishery indicates that when urchin numbers drop below a certain point, recovery is very difficult.
One year ago, Lapointe asked for substantial cutbacks for the current season. The council successfully argued for keeping the same number of days, 94, by using other measures to reduce effort: culling on bottom (Zone 1 divers), larger openings in mesh bags (Zone 2 divers), escape panels on draggers, and tightened tolerances for over and undersized urchins.
These measures were added to tools Maine used to manage the fishery: minimum and maximum size, restricted season and a cap on licenses.
Initial data indicates that harvests are at 60 percent of the 2002-2003 season. Landings reached a high of 39.3 million pounds in 1992-1993, declining to 5.1 million pounds in 2001-2002.
The number of license holders has also dropped from 1,840 in 1995, the first year licenses were required, to 738 in 2003. Many of these licenses are inactive.
The reduction of days and license holders finds those who remain fishing are the most successful and efficient. This season has been a decent one for them.
The prices quality urchins fetch primarily depend on demand and strength of the Japanese yen. Typically they are higher in September, and in late December before Japanese holidays. December 2003 prices reached a high $3 to $4 per pound because the yen was 20 percent stronger this year against the dollar and because a bad storm grounded competitors from the Russian coast near Hokkaido Island, Japan.
Urchin harvesters, some passionately and some analytically, tried to convince Lapointe at the February meeting not to close the fishery.
Some argued that there were enough urchins there to make a living, and others, particularly from Washington County, pointed that few other jobs were available to them.
Leo Murray, a dragger working in Cobscook Bay, explained that his bay is an exception. “Our fishery is vital because we self-stock it and DMR policy,” he said. “Urchins haven’t declined here.”
Everyone agrees that Zone 1 (the coast west of West Penobscot Bay) has few urchins left. Zone 2 has been hit hard by harvesters west of Schoodic. This year buyers are converging in Jonesport as more harvesters sweep further and further east, increasing the level of effort to the Canadian border.