2024 Maine Scallop License Lottery Winners Announced

Augusta - The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) has announced the latest winners of the state's scallop license lotteries. The winners include the following:

Drag Licenses

• Jesse Elwell, North Monmouth
• Kyle B. Look, Columbia
• Zachery E. Ladd, Brooksville
• Larsen T. Foye, Eliot
• Michael J. Perkins, Wells
• Michael E. Bernier, Birch Harbor
• Robert Jones, Jonesport
• Daniel E. Gray, Addison

Dive Licenses

• Heron J. Wagner, Hampden
• Kevin T. Murray, Robbinston
• Brent G. Hallissey, Machias
• Justin M. Villone, Perry
• Aidan W. Rittenhouse, Addison

Each winner is responsible for applying for a license within 30 days of notification.

The new licenses are the result of a limited entry system established by the legislature and implemented through regulation in June 2018 that allows someone who did not hold a scallop license in the previous year to be eligible for one.

Under the regulation, each year two individuals will be awarded eligibility for a drag license through the lottery for every three individuals who did not renew their drag license in the previous calendar year. One person will also be awarded license eligibility for every person who held a commercial dive license but did not renew their license in the previous calendar year.

This year there were 74 entries for dive licenses and 1,095 entries for drag licenses. With $35 of each lottery entry fee deposited into DMR's Scallop Research Fund, a total of $40,915 was raised to support scallop research and management.

Lottery winners were chosen at random by InforME, an enterprise created in 1997 by state law to ensure access to public information through technological solutions.

Information on the scallop fishery can be found at https://www.maine.gov/dmr/fisheries/commercial/fisheries-by-species/scallops