...In fisheries there are essentially two types of permits, open access, meaning that anyone can go and buy one and go fishing, and limited entry which means that there are only a certain number of them that exist and that there are a series of rules that outline who retains those permits.
For Maine fishermen, scallop is limited entry, meaning that at one point a decision was made by the state to restrict the number of permits in existence. For scallops, this happened in 2008 when it was decided that if you didn’t have a permit you couldn’t get one in 2009. This was done because the previous 10 years had seen a significant decline in the scallop biomass, the data suggested the fishery was on the verge of a rebound, and the hope was that by restricting the number of participants the Department of Marine Resources could better manage the resource for growth and long-term sustainability.... learn more in the Maine Coast Dock Talk podcast.
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