PORTLAND, Maine - Maine's Department of Marine Resources has reopened the menhaden fishery, after closing it earlier this month.
Department spokesperson Jeff Nichols says the state closed the fishery because initial reports seemed to indicate that the quota of menhaden - or pogies - for Maine, Rhode Island and New York, had been used up.
But Nichols says that's turned out not to be true. "We determined that there still are more fish to catch."
That's good news for both bait fishermen and lobstermen. Pogies are second only to herring as the state's most popular lobster bait. Fishermen will have to limit their fishing to three days a week, and their catch to no more than 120,000 pounds a week.
The pogy fishery is usually fairly quiet, but a shortage of herring is dramatically increasing interest in it among lobstermen. Fishermen must declare their participation no later than noon Thursday.
