By Will Tuell

Maine’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is offering 19 scallop drag and dive licenses to qualifying fishermen this fall, the agency said in a press release last week. Because Maine’s scallop fishery is “closed” to general entry, lawmakers and DMR have set up a system where newcomers wanting a chance at a license can enter either the drag or dive lottery based on the number of fishermen who have left the fishery in the past year.