CCE IN THE NEWS

Source: New Haven Register

Lobstermen worry about their survival

May 5, 2008

As the state battles a growing deficit expected to top $67 million by the end of this fiscal year, $1 million earmarked for a lobster conservation program called V-notch is in severe jeopardy.

Without the program, Connecticut lobstermen may go the way of the dinosaur.

“This year could put the industry out of business,” said Nick Crismale, president of the Connecticut Commercial Lobstermen’s Association.

The collapse of the V-notch program, which lobstermen see as an economically better means of conservation than size regulations, could spell the end of the local lobster industry, he said.

Still feeling repercussions of the 1999 lobster die-off that wiped out as much as 80 percent of the Long Island Sound lobster population and battling increasingly stringent regulations, it’s becoming harder to keep small lobster operations afloat, he said.

In 1998, the year before the die-off, 3.7 million pounds of lobster worth about $12 million were caught by Connecticut lobstermen, according to figures by the state Department of Environmental Protection. By 2007, the numbers dropped to 570,000 pounds of lobster worth $3.2 million.

Crismale believes the only chance for an industry resurgence is the continuation of the V-notch program, which sees that lobstermen get reimbursed for each mature female lobster that is caught, notched and thrown back in the water. Those females are protected from capture for about two years until the notch grows out, giving them time to reproduce and replenish the population.

The lobsters are notched by students from three high schools in the state and they also keep track of the number of females thrown back.

Since the program officially got under way last fall, 30,000 female lobsters have been notched and lobstermen reimbursed $180,000, according to Kasey Jacobs, state program coordinator for the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

“(The program) is really successful so far and it would be really a shame to cut it off now,” she said.

A decision last year by the American Lobster Management Board said Connecticut lobstermen must notch 60,000 mature female lobsters a year for two years in order for the program to qualify as a substitution for a size increase slated for this year. Local lobstermen have said an increase in the size of lobsters that legally can be caught would destroy their industry.

Longtime Guilford lobsterman Bart Mansi said he is remaining optimistic that the money will come through.

“I think we’re jumping the gun” in terms of panicking about the V-notch funding, he said.

Lawmakers, however, acknowledge the prognosis is not good for funding.

State Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford, co-chairman of the Environment Committee, said the lobster program is one of several initiatives caught in the budget negotiations between the General Assembly and Gov. M. Jodi Rell. “That would be another of the items that would only come about if we open up the budget to new revenues,” he said.

Larry Perosino, spokesman for House Speaker James A. Amann, D-Milford, said the growing state deficit puts the $1 million for the lobster program at risk.

“He’s fighting for it, but time is running out,” he said of Amann.

Perosino said the V-notch program has tough competition for funds, including a $10 million anti-crime bill that would hire more prosecutors and put more parole and probation officers on the streets.

“The reality check is when you are fighting for money for criminal justice, it might be hard to get money for the V-notch program,” he said.

It is possible that some money left over from this year’s $1 million for the project will carry over into the next budget cycle. A little more than $200,000 remains after reimbursing lobstermen and paying for equipment and student training. A big cost of the program is insurance for the students.

The proposed state budget has $100,000 carrying over into next year for the V-notch program, but that number is not carved in stone.

The DEP has been in talks with the governor and legislature over financing for the program.

“We understand the difficult economic times and the tough decisions that face the legislature and the governor,” DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said. “We believe it is an important program to restore and replenish the lobster program.”

For Crismale, who put out lobster traps last week for the first time this year, the continuation of the V-notch program is a make-it-or-break-it deal for the industry. He says he would never have put out any traps this year if he knew the program was done. But Crismale says he and other lobstermen are remaining hopeful that the money will come through in the end to keep the V-notch program thriving.

“I’m just not convinced the legislature is going to pull the plug on this program,” he said, adding: “If they do, it will be one of the biggest disappointments of my life.”