By Sheila Dassatt
As I sit here and look at this blank screen, I really don’t know where to begin with this article. This is actually the January issue, but we are still in the December Christmas holiday mode. As I mentioned in my DELA Report, the boats and traps are coming up a little early this year and the price has hit an all time low. We have seen quite a year all around when it comes to our fishing season, regulations, near misses with regulations and a few successes.
The year started out with the Coast Guard announcing that they wanted to do away with the navigational buoys along the Gulf of Maine and the Atlantic Coast. This was our first challenge as an association, along with the rest of the associations. What a nightmare that would be if we didn’t have our beacons to go by! There was a comment period, we all pitched in and testified, wrote letters and did our best to save ourselves once again. I ask myself, why is everything so difficult to save if it just uses common sense? We are in a world of electronics now, but not everyone has that kind of technology, especially on the Maine Coast.
After all the struggle was “said and done,” they did give the navigational buoys a reprieve and saved them until the next round.
We moved from that to the challenge with ropeless gear. Of course there was government funds to pay fishermen and internships to try out the ropeless gear, take it around to the public and give demonstrations on how it all works, let the fishermen lift them, watch them perform, look them all over and draw their own conclusions. Of course, whether it was dockside or out on the water with the fishermen, it was all inspired with government funds to push it along. You see, this is the only way that the fishermen in certain areas can fish. There is a special permit that they can acquire that allows them to fish as long as they use the ropeless gear. The incentive for this is to get paid a certain amount each time they do the “pop.” This does create a certain amount of animosity among the industry, understandably so. Once again, we are being led by the whale huggers and environmentalists. So far, this is at a low roar for now. As an industry, we have had our work cut out for us with many challenges to overcome. One big challenge that we also faced was the resignation of our long time Commissioner, Patrick Keliher. That was a rough spot, as he was the longest running Commissioner that we had in the industry. This had a lot to do with the proposed gauge increase. This was not a calm time and the results came as a major change. Carl Wilson was chosen as our new Commissioner with a lot of challenges ahead of him. The big issue here is that we, as a fishery, still have a say over our decisions for regulations. We are in the midst of making suggestions for the upcoming whale ruling that will be here before we know it.
If we don’t want the gauge increase, which most don’t, then what are we willing to “give up?” This is when we were presented with a survey for the industry to answer, which was a help in a way, but most felt that by answering it, we could crucify ourselves. I believe that there was around a 30% response to the survey. According to the DMR, this wasn’t a bad percentage. I know that I have said it many times recently, but we have gone from 7,000 active licenses down to around 3,000 to 4,000 active licenses in this state. We really need to stay involved and if you can, or a willing to, join the associations. We work harder than people realize to help maintain our industry and try to keep it alive for our next generations. Since Covid came along, the drop in participation is unbelievable. Let’s keep it alive and thriving once again.
Mike and I have had our challenges this year as well as many others that have suffered great losses or major health issues. Mike had a major accident in October which he was lucky to live through. (Thank God). I won’t go into a lot of detail, but it resulted in the boat coming up in October and with the kindness of our fellow fishermen, they brought his gear up. To us, these guys are the “salt of the earth” and just the best. Our fishing community looks out for one another which is very rare in this world that we live in. I don’t know what we would do without each and every one that has been there for us. This is a good opportunity to say “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.” He still has a long recovery, but we will make it, we have such strong support and lots of prayers have been coming our way.
This is definitely a season of change, we lost a lot of loved ones this year, we said Good bye to the Commercial Fisheries News, a lot of marine businesses are changing hands with our generation retiring and either closing or selling to the next generation. We think that we’re going to be young forever and things stay the same. Well I’m finding out that it doesn’t stay the same forever and that life is about change. Let’s hope for a better 2026 and we will keep the faith.
