A Model for Science, Stewardship and Adaptive Management in Tauton Bay, Maine
The title should be "experiment" rather than "model", because the results are not in yet.
The plan evolved around concerns over an aquaculture facility, as well as a DOT project that had the potential to open the bay to dragger fishing boats. A citizens group came together to address these issues.
The advisory committee was comprised of a diverse group of stakeholders.
A benthic community study was conducted.
Fishing effort is being monitored with cooperation from the industry.
In order to keep the process moving aesthetics must be addressed because this is typically a major concern of the public.
A major key to the success was that the stakeholders agreed on the goals, endpoints, and strategies at the beginning of the process.
Q: Talk about the progress and success.
A: They will be putting together a newsletter to show the progress of the past year. The stakeholder group is somewhat polarized. The group has held community meetings where harvesters are attending and participating. It has been a demonstration that the state is adaptable. Water quality studies are being conducted. Proposals for work by university groups are appearing.
Q: What is the potential for scaling this type of work up to the state level.
A: Not likely at this point. It could be possible in a few locations at a fisheries scale, but not including as many components as this project
Q: You mentioned municipal involvement was lacking, elaborate.
A: It is crucial. There has not been a demonstration of the economic benefits, so the municipalities have not become engaged.
Q: Taunton Bay is unique because here you are opening a new fishery (with the condition of participation with data collection and monitoring), as opposed to closing an established area and except where monitoring conditions are met.
A: We actually did both, mussel dragging was opened and scallops and kelp were limited. They made a mistake by not doing an adequate notification effort, in part by not wanting to attract too much outside attention. This was a big source of criticism. Once the goal of increasing the TAC was explained people came on board.
Q: Clashes of fisheries seem to be occurring, if mussel dragging moves into an area how do the wormers feel?
A: This was taken into account, and conflicts were limited.
Q: With so many stakeholders did you have a independent moderator?
A: Yes, essential. They allowed the fisheries folks take care of portioning the fishing rights as long as the conservation goals were accomplished.
Facilitation is critical. The most important outcome is to get stakeholders talking to each other, and tools can be used to inform them so that they can identify their values and then start to compromise.
Stakeholder participation helped to correct data.
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