After the resignation earlier this month of Marine Resources Commissioner Norman Olsen, the former Cabinet official issued a statement claiming that LePage wasn’t interested in helping Portland fishermen because the governor didn’t enjoy political support in the city. That governor said that wasn’t true.

Mavodones said that didn’t come up at Thursday afternoon’s meeting. He said the two officials did talk about efforts to return the groundfishing fleet to Portland from Massachusetts, and that the governor pledged to seek legislation to do that.

Mavodones says the roughly 20 fishing boats that left represent tens of millions of dollars in direct and indirect benefit to Maine.