Urchin Decline Lowers
Tote Limit Downeast
Offloading urchins at Eastport, ME. The Department of marine Resources has said that unrestricted harvesting without a tote limit during the remainder of the 2012-13 sea urchin harvesting season in the Whiting & Denny’s Bay Area will further deplete a severely diminished resource. Chessie Crow.e Gartmayer photo
Maine’s urchin landings have declined precipitously from a peak of over 41 million pounds in 1993 to less than six million pounds each year since 2003, reaching an all-time low in 2011 of 2.4 million pounds (Figure 1). DMR began a dive-based fishery-independent survey of the state urchin resource in 2001. Coast wide surveys in 2012 found the resource to be healthiest in the Whiting & Denny’s Bay region of Cobscook Bay, due to this area being closed to harvest since 2009, with patchy and poor abundance along the rest of the coast.
In March 2012, the Whiting & Denny’s Bay Area was surveyed specifically, in addition to the annual dive survey, in anticipation of its re-opening this season and was found to have by far the highest urchin density in the state. Because of this relative abundance, Whiting & Denny’s Bay has been intensively fished upon its reopening on December 3rd to divers and rakers and on December 4th to draggers. Over 50 dive and 30 drag boats participated and some harvesters removed in excess of 20 and 40 totes each day, respectively. This constitutes an unusually large concentration of fishermen, capable of depleting the supply of urchins.
The most recent scientific information for this fishery based on the annual assessment that utilizes the dive survey and landings data indicated that a 50% decrease in fishing mortality was necessary to prevent continued depletion, due to a continued drop in sea urchin biomass in Zone 2.
While effort was reduced this season by 33% through a season shortening of 9 days (from a 45 to 36 day season) and the requirement for divers to cull on bottom, the Department is concerned that unrestricted harvesting without a tote limit during the remainder of the 2012-13 sea urchin harvesting season in the Whiting & Denny’s Bay Area will further deplete a severely diminished resource beyond its ability to recover, as this is the last standing urchin stock that has shown any successful recovery for the entire state.
Continued unrestricted harvesting in the area of Whiting Bay and Denny’s Bay Area would also damage sublegal urchins that could be caught during subsequent fishing seasons, and could impact the recovery of populations outside of Whiting and Denny’s Bay. The significant immediate conservation measures of a ten (10) tote daily limit per individual diver, raker and dragger is necessary to reduce the risk of unusual damage and imminent depletion. Due to the fact that sea urchin populations throughout the state are at extremely low levels and have not shown a recovery, but rather a further decline, particularly in Zone 2, the Commissioner hereby adopts an emergency ten (10) tote daily limit of Maine’s urchin fishery for divers, rakers and draggers in the Whiting & Denny’s Bay Area as authorized by 12 M.R.S.A. §6171(3).