Maine is changing the way new fishermen enter its state scallop drag fishery, pairing its longtime license lottery with an apprenticeship program designed to put experience, safety, and mentorship ahead of a simple random draw.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) adopted the new requirements this year after years of discussion with the Scallop Advisory Council, making the 2026 lottery the first to include an apprenticeship requirement.

Under the new system, prospective scallop drag license holders must identify a sponsoring captain when entering the lottery. If selected, an applicant receives an apprentice license and has two scallop seasons to complete required training before becoming eligible to purchase a commercial drag license.

The change addresses two concerns that have followed Maine's scallop lottery for years: whether licenses are reaching people who actually intend to fish and whether new entrants have enough experience to safely operate in the winter fishery.

Since the lottery began in 20218, more than 1,000 applicants have entered in some years for only a handful of available licenses. According to DMR, roughly one-third of the licenses awarded through the lottery have never been used.

Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association reported that DMR has issued 61 drag licenses through the lottery since 2018, 21 of which have never been fished. In 2025 alone, 1,024 people applied for roughly eight licenses.

The apprenticeship is intended to narrow that pool toward fishermen already connected to the fishery while giving new license holders hands-on experience before they begin fishing on their own.

Sponsors must have held a scallop drag license for at least five years and can sponsor only one apprentice per lottery. If the applicant is selected, the sponsor must purchase a $250 endorsement.

The apprentice then has two scallop seasons to complete a Coast Guard Drill Conductor course, an eight-hour scallop safety and operations workshop and at least 15 fishing days with their sponsor. Applicants with certain previous scallop fishing experience can have 10 of those 15 days waived.

Safety was one of the driving forces behind the change.

DMR said interest in an apprenticeship increased following several fatal accidents in Maine's scallop fishery. The department, the Scallop Advisory Council, and the Legislature's Marine Resources Committee saw requiring some instruction and experience with scallop drag operations as one way to potentially reduce risk for future license holders.

Alex Todd, an 11^th-generation fisherman from Chebeague Island, has held a drag license since 1990 and serves on the Scallop Advisory Council. He told MCFA that under the previous system, someone could win a license without ever having worked aboard a scallop boat.

“If you’re asking somebody how a winch works, you shouldn’t be picking gear up over another man’s head with it,” Todd said, recalling winners calling him to ask how to operate.

Todd said the sponsor requirement may ultimately be the most important part of the new system because it gives working fishermen a role in determining who they are willing to train. “It’s not just the fifteen days; it’s that you don’t have to sponsor somebody you think is going to kill themselves or somebody else,” Todd said. “You can say no.”

Keeping licenses in the fishing communities

For Todd and other fishermen, it reaches far beyond safety.

Maine stopped issuing new state scallop licenses in 2009. The lottery created in 2018 reopened a path into the fishery, but because winners are selected statewide, licenses have not necessarily replaced fishermen leaving individual coastal communities.

Todd said Chebeague Island has lost several scallopers since the fishery was capped, leaving him as the island’s only active scalloper and, under the new system, its only fisherman currently able to sponsor an apprentice.

"The average age of a scalloper in this state is not young," Todd told MCFA. "It's time to let young people in and keep the heritage going, and handing licenses to people who never leave the dock doesn't do that."

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) has also backed the program's principle, pointing to the role working fishermen and the Scallop Advisory Council played in developing it.

"Fishermen know this fishery better than anyone, and they should have the ability to help shape its future," NEFSA vice president John Drouin said. "If there are issues with the apprenticeship program, the fishermen involved in developing it should also have the opportunity to improve it."

However, not everyone is sold on the new approach.

The public rulemaking record includes concerns that requiring a sponsor could favor applicants who already have connections within the scallop fleet. The program also does not address every concern surrounding access. Maine's exit-to-entry ratio means the overall number of drag licenses can continue to decline even with the apprenticeship in place.

Todd also acknowledged that 15 days is considerably shorter than the apprenticeship originally discussed by fishermen, which contemplated as much as two years and 60 fishing days. Still, he sees the new system as an improvement over allowing someone with no scallop experience to receive a license through a random drawing.

"Fifteen days is enough for somebody to get comfortable and not get anybody hurt," Todd said. "But it's a lot less than what we started out talking about."

DMR has indicated the program could continue to change. The department said it is tracking questions and concerns raised during the first lottery under the new rules and will discuss them with the Scallop Advisory Council, with the possibility of modifying regulations for future lotteries.

For Todd, one measure of success will be whether the new approach does more than put licenses in fishermen's hands. It will be whether those fishermen actually use them and whether Maine's coastal communities can begin bringing another generation into the fishery.

"That's the part that lets fishermen shape where this fishery goes," Todd said. "That hasn't existed before."