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Good evening,
Please be advised that DMR will implement an emergency conservation closure in the area below, effective Sunday, February 1, 2026:
- Pickering Island Area within Middle Penobscot Bay Rotational Area, Zone 2
The Scallop Management Area Map will updated Friday afternoon to reflect these closures. The closure charts have been posted to the website on the 2025-2026 scallop season management page.
The notice of emergency rulemaking will be posted to DMR's website shortly and is included in this notice below.
NOTICE OF AGENCY EMERGENCY RULE-MAKING
AGENCY: Marine Resources
CHAPTER NUMBER AND TITLE: 11.08; Targeted Closures: (10) Casco Bay Islands; (11) Lower Blue Hill & Jericho Bays; (12) Upper Narraguagus; (13) Inside Chandler Bay; and (14) Cobscook, Whiting & Dennys Bays.
CONCISE SUMMARY: The Commissioner adopts this emergency rulemaking to establish a scallop conservation closure within the Middle Penobscot Bay Rotational area east and south of Pickering Island. The Department is concerned that continued harvesting for the remainder of the 2025-2026 fishing season in this area will reduce legal scallop abundance further, increasing risk of recovery, as well as increasing incidental mortality on sublegal scallops observed during the 2025 scallop surveys. Sublegal scallop aggregations are essential to the ongoing growth and recovery of the scallop resource. An immediate conservation closure is necessary to reduce the risk of unusual damage and imminent depletion of the scallop resource in this important scallop harvest areas. For these reasons, the Commissioner hereby adopts an emergency closure of Maine’s scallop fishery in these areas as authorized by 12 M.R.S. §6171(3)(A).
EFFECTIVE DATE: February 1, 2026
Please do not reply to this email; the mail box is not monitored. For more information, I can be reached at [email protected] or 207-441-5040. Thank you!
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