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Group Seeks Public Comment On Plan To Improve Lobstering Data

Robert F. Bukaty
/
Associated Press
A lobster fishing boat heads out to sea at sunrise off Portland in September.

The Atlantic States Fisheries Management Council is asking for public comment on draft rules that would change the way lobstermen report their harvest.

The group’s lobster coordinator, Megan Ware, says data deficiencies have emerged during recent efforts to protect sensitive marine resources. She says right now, harvest data are collected over swaths of ocean so large that it’s hard to measure fishing activities around certain features, such as deep-water coral canyons off Mt. Desert Rock or, farther south, offshore wind turbines.

“Data granularity is what we’re really hoping to achieve. There are changes happening in the fishery, so we are seeing more lobster being harvested from further offshore. I don’t think at this point we can conclude if lobsters are migrating offshore or if there are just more fishermen out there right now,” she says.

The new attempt to get more granular reports could include a pilot project for GPS tracking of individual vessels — but final action won’t be taken until February.

A Columbia University graduate, Fred began his journalism career as a print reporter in Vermont, then came to Maine Public in 2001 as its political reporter, as well as serving as a host for a variety of Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Television programs. Fred later went on to become news director for New England Public Radio in Western Massachusetts and worked as a freelancer for National Public Radio and a number of regional public radio stations, including WBUR in Boston and NHPR in New Hampshire.