When the 1966 Federal Sustainable Fisheries Act identified Maine’s lobster stock as over-fished, the state was obliged to takes steps to rebuild stocks. Discussions among various concerned organizations produced two initiatives. The first (in 1997) divided the coast into zones and limit entry into the fishery by zone. The second (in place by 1999) was a mandatory apprenticeship program for all residents wishing to apply for a commercial lobstering license.
The apprenticeship program is zero tolerance: there are, to date, no exceptions (except illness or military service). A lapsed license is a lost license. And that’s where some sticky problems arise. If a fisherman “forgets” to renew, is late in renewing, or pleads ignorance of the law, he/she must start from scratch, no matter how long he’s been at it. “People get pretty upset,” admits Lisa Cote, License Eligibility Specialist at the Department of Marine Resources.
Thirty-year-old Seth Dube and his brother are the sixth generation of lobstermen in their family, with relatives still fishing from Monhegan and Port Clyde. Seth’s father and grandfather both fished from Camp Ellis. Grandmother, Mary, ran the pound attached to his grandparents’ house. “I was glad I grew up around it,” says Dube. He got his license as a kid and lobstered with his grandfather, his father and at a young age, ventured out on his own.
After eight or ten years, “I thought I was sick of fishing – but that was before I started punching a time clock. When you’re 18 or 19 and you don’t have a boss, it’s hard to get yourself out there sometimes, and I’d never done any other kind of work,” he says. Letting his license lapse five years later, when he changed his mind about fishing, the apprentice program was in place. “I was pretty irritated at first that I couldn’t get right back in.”
As it turned out, there was a fisherman who needed help at the same moment Dube needed a sponsor. He dutifully fulfilled the requirements of the apprenticeship although it took him over two years. Then he spent a year on the zone waiting list.
Today Dube is in his second year of fishing with his license back and has 400 traps in the water. All in all, he recommends the program. “I went through it and it didn’t kill me so I guess it’s good,” he says. “It’s a way to preserve what we’ve got. You’ve got to have some kind of boundaries.”
Fifteen years ago, Dube’s father moved to Arizona. He’s back in Maine now and enrolled in the apprentice program. “He’s lobstered longer than half the guys he works for,” says Seth, “but then he has been out 15 years.”
Controlling the number of commercial fishermen who fish in each zone has an immediate and obvious effect. The apprentice program has broader goals. As the state puts it, “the purpose of the Lobster Apprentice Program is to ensure that the people entering the fishery understand their responsibilities to the resource and to other fishermen.”
The applicant for a lobster license must purchase an apprentice (or student) license. He or she must then work a minimum of two years, documenting 1,000 hours, 200 fishing days with up to three sponsors. Logs must be kept and signed by the sponsoring fisherman. Every 50 documented days the local Marine Patrol Officer must also sign the log, after which the applicant sends the completed log sheets to the Department of Marine Resources for review.
A commercial lobstering license is issued after satisfactory fulfillment of these requirements with an initial limitation on the number of traps that can be legally fished (300 the first year, increasing annually to a maximum of 800).