Maine’s American Indian tribes want state officials to come to the table for a potentially wide-reaching agreement on the way the tribes harvest commercial species of fish.

Maine’s tribes have fished for thousands of years and deserve a bigger role in state decision-making, said Passamaquoddy legislative Rep. Matthew Dana. His bill, which is up for a possible committee vote Wednesday, would allow for cooperative management of lucrative marine species such as lobsters, clams and baby eels.

The tribes’ request represents a broadening of their earlier effort to reach agreement with the state on fishing for the baby eels, also called elvers. The Passamaquoddies and state regulators clashed last year over a state requirement that tribal elver fishermen be subject to individual quotas. The tribe eventually relented.

Dana said his bill, if passed, would allow the state and four tribes to “co-manage” fishing resources. The tribes are currently subject to state law as well as tribal law.

“The tribe has done this since time immemorial. Our culture is fishing,” Dana said. “It’s about sharing resources within the tribe.”

State Marine Resources Commissioner Pat Keliher testified Monday that he is opposed to the idea of entering into a “memorandum of agreement” with any of the four tribes on fishing management. He told the state Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources that tribal members are subject to state authority over fishing issues to the same extent as anyone else.

Keliher said his department “has shown a willingness to work with Maine’s four tribes” and he is “committed to discussing issues with the tribes as they arise.”

Rep. Walter A. Kumiega III, D-Deer Isle and chair of the marine resources committee, said an agreement between the state and tribes could help keep squabbles over fishing resources out of court.

“Tribes are federally recognized sovereign entities and should be treated with the respect that comes with that,” Kumiega said.

But he noted that an agreement between state regulators and the tribes might be blocked by Republican Gov. Paul LePage. LePage recently rescinded a 2011 executive order that sought to promote cooperation between the state and the tribes.