Poliquin, Pingree bill will ease rules on sea urchin fishery
U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin are celebrating a victory following the unanimous passage in the U.S. House of Representatives of a bill that will streamline the inspection process for the sea urchin fishery.
Processors buy urchins harvested in Maine and Canada and process them in Maine. For now, urchins from Canada are inspected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when coming into the state. After they are processed, all urchins — regardless of where they were caught — are again inspected before being exported.
Pingree and Poliquin’s bill would end inspections of exports. The House Natural Resources Committee amended the bill to also exempt squid, octopus and cuttlefish from these inspections.
“This is a big win for Maine jobs,” Poliquin said in a statement. “Our state’s sea urchin and sea cucumber industry employs more than 650 hardworking Mainers and is a critical component of our coastal economy. These men and women take on an extremely dangerous job in diving for their catches in treacherous conditions. There is no reason for bureaucrats in Washington to get in the way of their livelihoods by imposing unnecessary and harmful rules that directly threaten their businesses.”
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