Sherman is based at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension office in Waldoboro and works locally, statewide, and regionally on commercial fisheries and aquaculture projects. Sherm works with fishermen, scientists, and regulators to increase the capacity of local fishermen's groups and government agencies to practice sustainable fisheries management. His projects often involve collaborative fisheries management initiatives, including co-management and community-based management, with fishermen directly involved in managing their local fisheries.

Sherm's capacity-building work with the lobster fishery has included developing a local lobster zone newsletter, facilitating conflict reduction work sessions, promoting the lobster zone governance process, and helping to incorporate research information into governance. Working with the sea urchin fishery, he has facilitated productive meetings and organized an annual sea urchin "summit" where industry can help make management decisions based on research findings. Sherm worked for two years with fishermen and selectmen from five municipalities in the midcoast area of the state to create a regional clam management program with clammers managing their fishery.

Sherman Hoyt
Fisheries Outreach Coordinator

Knox-Lincoln County Extension
235 Jefferson St.
P.O. Box 309
Waldoboro, ME 04572
Voice: 207.832.0343
Fax: 207.832.0377
Email Sherm Hoyt

Fisheries Education Workshops

The decline of many commercial fisheries in New England has led to drastic actions to reverse over-fishing and improve fisheries management. Regulatory actions and economic consolidation have reduced the fishing capacity of many coastal communities traditionally dependent on commercial fishing. Also, marine resource management in the Gulf of Maine has become increasingly complex over the past decade. To inform the fishing industry and coastal communities about some of these critical issues, Marine Extension Team (MET) members offered a Fisheries Education Workshop Series on by-catch reduction in the groundfish industry, the use of marine protected areas as a fisheries management tool, and rights-based fisheries management.

These three workshops were part of a northeast regional Sea Grant fisheries extension enhancement project involving Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine Sea Grant programs and coordinated by Rhode Island Sea Grant. Sherman Hoyt coordinated the three workshops held in Maine. For more information, visit the Northeast Sea Grant Fisheries website.

Fourth Annual Sea Urchin Summit

On April 3 in Ellsworth, Sherm led the fourth annual sea urchin summit. This year's summit drew over one hundred urchin harvesters who worked in small, facilitated groups to develop alternatives to a statewide closure of the urchin fishery next year. These alternatives must be acceptable to Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) urchin scientists and the DMR commissioner. Several proposals for experimental local urchin management with stock enhancement were discussed.

Shrimp Management Workshops

During April 2004, Sea Grant, in partnership with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) conducted workshops in Maine and New Hampshire with the shrimp industry and scientists on the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee. Sherm was Project Coordinator for these workshops, which explored the possibility of using specific tools (made available by the ASMFC's approval of Amendment One to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp) to improve the management of northern shrimp. Results of these workshops will be available to the ASMFC's shrimp managers and may be incorporated into their new management plan for this regional fishery.