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Gloucester Flag Law Modified!

The Gloucester City Council today announced a revision in the controversial divers' flag law. After several fact finding meetings involving representatives from scuba clubs, lobster boat operators and attorneys, the town reached what it feels is a compromise that benefits all parties.

The requirement that each diver tow his or her own flag is rescinded, effective immediately. Instead, groups of divers may all dive under one flag, provided that all divers in the group remain tethered together. The committee heard testimony from professional dive instructors about the difficulties and safety issues that would result from the 1 Diver/1 Flag regulation.

After due consideration, and giving heed to the lobster boat operators' concerns about accidental collisions with divers without flags, the committee found the compromise to be an effective resolution to what had been a tense standoff between the diving and lobstering community. By eliminating the extra flag lines in the water, the risk of entanglement with one another has been removed from the list of divers' concerns. At the same time, by requiring each diver in a party to be tethered to the next, at intervals of 8 feet or less, lobster boat operators can be assured that all divers will remain in close proximity to their flag, eliminating the accidental collision concern, which the lobstermen explained, had always been their only concern.

The committee also restated its concern for the dwindling lobster population in the Gulf of Maine, and the Cape Ann area in particular. In consideration of that problem and because of the concessions granted to scuba divers in its revision of the flag law, the City Council enacted a new fisheries management program, which is as follows:

City of Gloucester Lobster Fisheries Give Back Directive
(1) Definitions:

(a) "Qualifying Lobster" shall mean a hard shelled American Lobster (Homarus americanus) with carapace measuring at least 3 1/4" but not more than 5" , bearing no eggs, no so-called "V-Notch" of any size with or without setal hairs, and with both the crusher and pincher claws intact and of normal size, shape and proportion.

(b) "Participating Diver" shall mean all recreational scuba divers

(i) diving in or through the waterways of Gloucester, Massachusetts, or

(ii) who has engaged in scuba diving from a boat that departs from or returns to a port in Gloucester, regardless of the location where the scuba diving activity occurred.

(c) "Qualifying Lobster Pot" shall mean a lobster pot or trap of legal size and dimension, bearing the colors or other indicia of a Gloucester lobster fisherman, found anywhere within the waters of the Gulf of Maine.

(2) Participating Diver Requirements

(a) Upon the earlier occurrence of:

(i) taking and keeping four (4) lobsters, or

(ii) the accumulation of forty-five (45) minutes of bottom time

a Partcipating Diver shall take a Qualifying Lobster and place it in the so-called "bedroom" of a Qualifying Lobster Pot.

(3) Enforcement

(a) In recognition of the facts that:

(i) enforcement of the regulation may be impossible; and,

(ii) no competent legislative body should pass unenforceable rules or regulations; and,

(iii) we are a competent legislative body,

Subsection (b) hereunder is adopted as the method of enforcement of this provision.

(b) The daily Bag Limit for Participating Divers is hereby set at twelve (12) since lobsters five (5) and ten (10) and fifteen (15) will be presumed to have been Qualifying Lobsters duly handled pursuant to this regulation.

(4) Effective Date

(a) the effective date of these rules and regulations is hereby set as of the date of first publication, to wit: April 1, 2007.