Nine members of the Department of Marine Resources Advisory Council voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of having DMR adopt a new rule that will allow lobster processors in Maine who have an import/export license to process lobsters from Canada that exceed the maximum size limit for lobsters that can be caught in Maine.
Col. Joseph Fessenden, head of Maine Marine Patrol, told the panel that the new rule is intended to benefit processors, who up until now have had to set such lobsters aside and ship them whole and alive out of state for resale.
Fessenden said that by not being able to process oversized lobsters, many processors have sustained significant losses because the large lobsters they had paid for often died before they could be sold and shipped out of state.
“It was unbelievable, the number of lobsters that just rotted and that they had to throw off the dock,” Fessenden told the council.
The concept was endorsed earlier this year by the Legislature, which then instructed DMR to craft a rule that would allow the practice. With Wednesday’s vote by the advisory council, the rule will now go into effect.
The Legislature mandated a two-year sunset clause in the new rule so that legislators can address any problems that may arise if the rule is going to last beyond October 2013. DMR officials have said that processors will have to keep precise records of their Canadian imports and provide that information to DMR, which will allow state officials to keep track of any effect the new rule might have on Canadian imports.
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