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Sportsman's Alliance of Maine Events Raffles Merchandise Contact us 205 Church Hill Road, Augusta ME 04330 Telephone: 207-622-5503 FAX: 207-622-5596 |
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SAM’s Fishing Initiative Committee SAM organized this important committee of avid anglers in 1995 to focus attention on fishing issues and forge initiatives to improve fishery resources and expand fishing opportunities. In 1996, this committee was made a permanent standing committee in SAM’s bylaws. Active committee members at this time are: Gary Corson, Dennis Smith, Vaughn Anthony, Steve Brooke, Bill Laflamme, John Hunt, Dennis Bolduc, Larry Fiori, Ed Courtenay, Harold Porter, Jim Lynch, Harry Vanderweide, Greg Ponte, Jeff Levesque, John Boland, and George Smith. The FIC debates current fishing issues and prepares recommendations for SAM’s Board of Directors on those issues. The committee also offers policy and program recommendations to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and actively participates in DIF&W’s fisheries projects and working groups. And the committee has created and implemented a number of initiatives and special projects. Perhaps the committee’s most important project was the creation of a comprehensive Fisheries Policy for Salmonids. The FIC’s proposed policy, along with some of our correspondence with DIF&W, is included in the appendix to this report. The correspondence provides some insight into the frustration FIC members encountered in dealing with the department on this issue, both in our attempt to convince DIF&W to adopt a comprehensive policy, and in monitoring the implementation of the salmonid policy that was adopted by the department. The FIC also developed a Rules Policy for consideration of the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Council and the legislature’s Fish and Wildlife Committee. That policy is included in the addendum, and offers a rational approach to rule making that we hope will be utilized by the department and its Council in the future. The FIC provided strong support for Commissioner Bucky Owen’s Quality Fishing Initiative. SAM continues to be the principle sportsmen’s group advocating for quality fishing opportunities in Maine. In fact, the FIC has been attempting to implement a quality landlocked salmon initiative for the past three years, with little support from the department. Some of the materials generated for that initiative are included in the appendix. In 1998, SAM received an $8,000 grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund to implement our quality salmon initiative. We’re still trying. The FIC also won an Outdoor Heritage grant to produce a 35-minute fishing video demonstrating catch-and-release techniques. That video is available for purchase or loan from DIF&W or SAM. The video has been shown on television and used in a variety of forums from fish and game clubs to sporting camps to the Hooked-on-Fishing program. One important role played by the FIC is as a working group within SAM’s Pickering Rules Commission, an on-going project that prepares recommendations to reduce and clarify Maine’s hunting and fishing laws and rules. An extensive set of fishing law changes was successfully submitted to the legislature by the FIC in 2000. And some fishing rule changes were submitted to the Advisory Council this year. The FIC’s advocacy for expanded fall fishing opportunities is well known. Led by FIC member Gary Corson, and assisted by advocates on the Advisory Council, nearly all stocked waters throughout the state are now open to fishing in October and/or November. Among other projects, the committee prepared a special 1998 anglers edition of SAM News, published in partnership with DIF&W and funded by a grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund. 90,000 copies were distributed to resident and nonresident anglers. The paper was a positive promotion of fishing in Maine and contained a great deal of educational material on current fishing issues and special projects like Hooked-on-Fishing. In 2001, the FIC’s highest priority was the legislative enactment of an FIC proposal for an outside professional assessment of DIF&W’s fisheries division’s policies and programs. The legislature enacted an amended version (offered by Commissioner Perry) of SAM’s bill, and SAM has worked in partnership with the Commissioner to find the funds necessary to conduct the assessment, and to get the assessment underway. Two FIC members have offered to serve on the Commissioner’s panel that will design the scope of the assessment and hire the national experts to conduct the assessment. The committee also provided strong support for the creation of the Hatchery Commission, currently working to design a hatchery system to meet the state’s needs for the next decade or more, and the FIC has participated in the Commission’s work through its representative, George Smith, who serves on the Commission. The FIC also provided three members to serve on DIF&W’s fish species working groups that were organized to help draft new management plans for each principle fish species in Maine. We plan to submit additional recommendations for these new plans to the Advisory Council for consideration when the Council examines and acts on the plans. DIF&W’s lack of an effective stocking policy has been a problem that received attention from the FIC – and we believe our complaints led to the department’s adoption of a stocking policy this year. We are planning to critique that policy sometime soon and issue recommendations for improvements. Alarmed by the lack of action and an effective policy to address illegal stocking of fish in Maine waters, the FIC has pressured DIF&W to address this serious problem. We have noted an increased effort by the department to educate anglers on the problem, and even some efforts to remove illegally stocked fish from a few waters. We believe much more needs to be done. SAM is currently completing work on a brochure on illegally stocked fish, utilizing a grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, and we hope to distribute the brochure to all licensed anglers in 2002. An editorial in The Maine Sportsmen credited SAM’s Fishing Initiative Committee with “the most progressive thinking about the future of Maine’s fresh water fisheries” and reported “thanks to their efforts, we can look forward to better fishing in the future.” We would like to think that those statements are true!
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