BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 14, 2022
Maine’s quota for an increasingly important lobster bait will rise dramatically next year, reflecting recent shifts in the Gulf of Maine’s fisheries. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission last week upped the Pine Tree State’s baseline quota for menhaden — known as pogies — from 0.5 percent to almost 5 percent. The exponential increase could free Maine from its past reliance on special allowances to keep lobstermen’s bait bags full throughout the season. Maine lobstermen have turned to pogies as the schooling fish’s populations grow in the Gulf of Maine and herring — a once major piece of the bait industry — continues to diminish.