Small-scale lobstermen fishing out of Jonesport, Beals and Jonesboro are backing a proposal to expand a protected fishing zone in Englishman Bay, aiming to keep buoyed gear clear of long commercial trawls.
The Lobster Zone A Council voted unanimously last week to advance the plan, which would push the boundary of a restricted area 3 miles farther out to federal waters on its western edge, while leaving the eastern border unchanged, The Maine Monitor reported. Under current rules established in a 2011 agreement, the zone limits fishermen to buoyed lines carrying up to four traps; the new proposal would allow up to five traps per line inside the expanded area.
The change would also bar vessels running heavier gear — trawls of 10 to 20 traps anchored with large balloons — from fishing the expanded western zone.
Dana Beal, who brought the proposal forward, told the paper that mixing traps and trawls creates unsafe conditions for small-boat fishermen retrieving gear that's been buried under a longer line. Other fishermen at the meeting described friction between generations of fishermen with different gear strategies, with older, more established fishermen tending to stay closer to shore and younger fishermen needing to run trawls farther out to make a living.
The proposal also lines up with a broader push to get ahead of federal right whale protections. Reducing the trap count from four lines to fewer vertical lines in the water — via the shift to five traps per line — is intended to lower entanglement risk, according to the report. Those protections are currently set to expire in December 2028, though the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee has voted to extend that timeline to 2035; full congressional approval is still required.
John Drouin, chair of the Lobster Zone A Council, praised the Jonesport and Beals fishermen for reaching a compromise despite what he called a chaotic discussion.
The council's vote sets a formal referendum process in motion. Lorraine Morris of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) said she'll draft the referendum language for the council's late-August meeting; if approved there and by the DMR commissioner, Carl Wilson, it will go out to roughly 1,000 active commercial license holders in Zone A. A two-thirds majority in favor would send the measure to the commissioner for final rulemaking, which includes a public hearing and DMR Advisory Committee review.
