An amended form of LD 527 (the alternative bait bill) was voted out of committee with a unanimous “ought to pass,” earlier this session, and was awaiting final approval by the Maine Legislature in May. The original bill was drafted by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) and was sponsored by state Sen. Dennis Damon (D-Hancock).
The purpose of amending the bill was twofold: to give the Department of Marine Resources immediate authority to adopt rules to regulate the use of alternative baits in marine fisheries and to ban the use of “offal” as bait for fishing lobsters or crabs as of Jan. 1, 2006.
Alternative baits were defined, in the amendment, as ones that don’t “naturally originate from the ocean.” The word “offal” was defined to include “carcasses, waste parts, renderings, or remains” from both wild and domestic animals, except for hairless animal hide.
MLA executive director Patrice McCarron explained last month that LD 527 was drafted because the association wanted to put the state in the position to respond if alternative baits were found to have a negative impact upon lobster health, public health, or the lobster market. She added that two reasons why lobstermen had resorted to using alternative baits were the reported scarcity of herring and the increased cost of herring in recent years.
“There are times of the year when bait is pretty scarce,” said McCarron. “It’s gone up quite a bit in the last few years. Bait prices have been escalating.”
Sen. Damon stated recently that lobstermen have also chosen to use alternative baits because of their effectiveness in attracting lobsters and because the baits last longer in the traps. However, he noted that some lobstermen have expressed concern regarding the unknown effects of alternative baits on the health of lobsters and on the lobster industry. He said that those were some of the reasons why he sponsored LD 527.
“It’s important to protect the resources or there won’t be anything there to go fishing for,” said Damon, who comes from a family of lobstermen. DMR lobster biologist Carl Wilson said last month that he had not located any published studies regarding the effects of alternative baits on lobster health. An important issue, he said, is the type of nutrition that the lobsters will receive from feeding on alternative baits.
According to DMR deputy commissioner David Etnier, another bill approved, earlier this year, giving the Commissioner of Marine Resources the authority to adopt rules regarding public health issues related to marine resources.
“We thought that it was best if these were handled here because we knew the issues better than other agencies,” said Etnier, who added that the drafting of this bill was also prompted by concerns about the use of alternative bait.
Etnier said Maine is one of only six states to ban the use of offal as lobster bait. He said that this effort to protect the quality of Maine’s lobsters should send a positive message to consumers. “Maine lobsters have always been the best,” he commented. “This will just prove to the world that we’re concerned about the quality of Maine lobsters.”