In response to a three-and-a-half-year battle between a Bristol lobsterman and the Department of Environmental Protection, trap and gear storage will now be allowed on wharfs throughout the state.
Representative Jonathan McKane of Newcastle introduced LD 49 “An Act to Allow Storage of Lobster Traps on Docks”.
Governor Paul LePage signed the bill into law last month, allowing Maine lobstermen to store their traps, trap lines, buoys and bait bags on docks.
Before the bill was signed, Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials had the authority to regulate and prohibit storage of traps on docks.
McKane introduced the bill after the DEP told South Bristol lobsterman
David Rice that he couldn’t store traps on his 108-foot pier on the Damariscotta River during the winter months. Rice was told that the traps would cause a permanent loss of habitat due to shading of marine vegetation beside the dock.
McKane informed committee members during the public hearing
regarding LD 49 that the lobsterman had been fighting with the DEP for three and a half years trying to get permission to store his traps, when not in use, on the dock which he built for that purpose.
Samantha Depoy-Warren, director of education and outreach for the DEP, reported that Rice applied for a permit in September 2007. She said that the DEP relied on the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) to determine what impact a wharf permit would have on marine habitat.
“The DMR determined that docks with traps would cause permanent loss of habitat because of shading and substantial loss of marine vegetation,” she said. “The DMR suggested that upland storage of traps would be preferable. So we issued the permit with one exception—storing traps off docks just in winter.”
Depoy-Warren said that Rice appealed to the DEP but they upheld the decision based upon input from the DMR. So Rice contacted the DMR.
In 2009 he put in a request to the DEP to review the permit and remove the exception. The DMR revisited the situation and decided to reverse it.
It was noted that studies show that rockweed can survive for long periods of darkness and that it doesn’t grow much in the winter months anyway.
“They did not believe that it would pose a consequential impact,” said Depoy-Warren.
The executive director of the Maine Lobsterman’s Association, Patrice McCarron, supported passage of the bill, stating that the state of Maine boasts 5,300 miles of coastline but that only 20 miles of working waterfront remain. She expressed concern that, because 60 percent of the waterfront is privately
owned, it could also be converted to nonworking uses. She told lawmakers that Maine’s 5,500 commercial lobstermen are individual owner/operators who depend on full access to the waterfront to carry on their work each day.
McKane said that it was unfortunate that it took so long to get something off the books that was detrimental to one of Maine’s most longstanding professions.
Governor LePage commented that “This is just one example of the good work our legislators are doing to
remove unnecessary regulation which will ease the burden on working families.” According to LePage, “LD 49 seeks to rectify this wrong in our regulatory system.”
The bill will go into effect 90 days after the last day of the current legislative session.
Wanda Curtis is a freelance writer living in Jefferson.