Maine Groundfish Permit Bank

Background

The Maine DMR established the Maine Permit Bank Program (MPBP) in 2010 with a $2,999,999 grant from the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). DMR utilized the majority of the funds to facilitate a onetime purchase of eleven Federal Northeast Multispecies Permits. The key purpose of the Permit Bank is to assist small scale Maine fishermen (vessels less than 55-feet). The process of how ACE/DAS are distributed is laid out in an agreement between the DMR and NMFS. These permits have bolstered Maine's groundfish industry by supplementing and maintaining continued access to groundfish stocks and fishing privileges associated with these permits. DMR is not currently seeking to purchase additional permits to add to the Permit Bank.

Who Can Participate

Each fishing year, prior to permit bank transfers, DMR must submit an allocation plan to NMFS for review and approval. This plan includes the list of vessels intending to utilize permit bank transfers. Recently, the Permit Bank quota has been used to support Maine vessels in the groundfish sector program by providing quota as low or no cost. This can support sector vessels by allowing them to catch a greater portion of healthy stocks throughout the year, or by providing initial quota and income on which to lease future quota.

To qualify for the initial round of Maine permit bank quota, vessels must meet the following criteria:

• Be a member of a qualifying Maine sector;
• Have a Northeast multispecies permit;
• Have at least 1,000 lb of documented groundfish landings in at least 1 of the previous 3 years associated with the vessel’s permit history;
• Have no major violations or substantial Federal sanctions in the last 4 years;
• Is primarily ported in Maine; and
• Lands permit bank fish in Maine.

Vessels which do not have a prior history of landings may be eligible for permit bank quota following the initial allocations. Similarly, groundfish vessels which participate in the common-pool program, as opposed to the sector program, may be eligible for Days-at-sea (DAS) via the Maine Permit Bank. The decision on whether to use a permit for DAS or sector quota must be made at the beginning of the fishing year as part of the annual allocation plan and cannot be altered throughout the year.

Recent Activity

In FY 2024, the Permit Bank ACE was used to assist 16 vessels across 2 sectors, with 736,964 lbs of groundfish stock allocations distributed out of the 926,446 lbs of ACE available in the Maine Permit Bank.

The 2025 fishing year began with ACE established through emergency rule. These allocations will be in place until Framework 69 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan final rule is published in the federal register.

FY2025 Maine Permit Bank ACE as of May 1, 2025

*These numbers will change upon Federal Register publishing of Framework 69 final rule.