Maine lawmakers wade into lobster-trap dock flap

Photo by: Pat Wellenbach

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo

In this Feb. 16, 2011 photo, snow covered lobster traps and gear are seen on a dock in Freeport, Maine. A lawmaker has introduced a bill this legislative session that makes it legal for traps to be stored on wharfs year round.

Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Maine

A Maine seaside dock without a pile of lobster traps is like chowder without clams. But as down-home as a Down East scene can be, the state wanted to kick the traps off one lobsterman’s dock.

Now a bill’s working its way through the Legislature to make sure such iconic images will no longer get the regulatory heave-ho.

“Part of Maine is fishermen throwing lobster traps on docks,” said Rep. James Parker, who’s been lobstering since he was 12. “That’s what people come to see.”

Parker, R-Veazie, has joined other members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee who voted unanimously in favor of a bill that bars state agencies from prohibiting or regulating the storage of lobster traps on docks. They even strengthened it by saying traps and related gear, such as ropes and floats, can’t be banished, either.

Unanimous committee support means the bill is likely to pass when it comes up for House and Senate votes. And the mood in the State House is decidedly friendly toward such legislation this year, as a newly elected Republican legislative majority and governor, Paul LePage, draw a bead on excessive, redundant and costly regulations.

To some, outlawing lobster traps on Maine piers was as far from long-standing practice as you can get.

“This should never have happened,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, told the committee before last Tuesday’s vote. McCarron said it’s “difficult to understand a recent case in which two state agencies undermined a local lobsterman’s ability to store lobster traps on his dock.”

The story began about five years ago when David Rice, a lobsterman in the fishing town of South Bristol, went to the state Department of Environmental Protection to get a permit for a dock along Clark’s Cove on the Damariscotta River.

The request seemed straightforward enough until the state Department of Marine Resources got involved, and said shade cast over the water from the lobster traps would harm aquatic life, such as seaweed. So the DEP issued a permit, with the condition that the dock couldn’t hold lobster traps — the whole purpose of the structure in the first place. To some, it was like getting a permit to build a garage with the condition that you can’t park your car in it.

Rice appealed, leading to a four-year battle that was finally refereed by the state Board of Environmental Protection.