Maine Department of Marine Resources to try dynamic management style
BASS HARBOR — Following the historic six-year pause on any new federal regulations, the lobster industry is potentially shifting to a new type of management to help lobstermen and women keep doing what they do best.
This management style is known as dynamic management.
“It’s a management tool that would allow us to monitor the presence of whales within the Gulf of Maine, and we would monitor their presence by using acoustical listening devices, as well as flyovers with planes,” said Patrick Keliher, Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner.
Dynamic management has been considered before, and a version of it is being used in parts of the United States and Canada.
With the six-year pause successfully passing in the omnibus spending bill, many fishermen are excited about the opportunity to try out dynamic management and gauge its benefits.
“Fishermen are on board because they do want to protect right whales,” said Virginia Olsen, executive director of the Maine Lobstering Union.
“With dynamic management, you’re able to fish the area without being forced out of it unless there is a whale in the area,” said James Dow, treasurer of the Maine Lobstering Union.
Based on what Commissioner Keliher has seen, he believes dynamic management would help propel the lobster industry forward in its fight against restrictions they say endanger the fishery’s future.
“We’re at the very early stages discussing dynamic tension but it’s something that we feel is a very viable tool and we’ll be able to show this as we collect more data,” said Keliher.
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