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“New Regulations Proposed to Protect Lobster Population Through Legal Size Restrictions”
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Rules governing the minimum and maximum size of lobsters that can be caught off New England could soon become stricter, potentially bringing big changes to one of the nation’s most valuable fishing industries.
Fishermen must measure lobsters from eyes to tail and discard the crustaceans if they are too big or too small. The rules, which may vary slightly depending on the fishing area, are designed to maintain a breeding population of the lobsters in key areas like the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.
The Atlantic Ocean Fisheries Regulatory Commission is considering changing standards in some fishing grounds by a fraction of a duty. The commission said it was considering the changes because of a worrying shortage of baby lobsters growing off New England.
The changes would come at a time when the lobster industry is seeing record highs in both catch and value, and consumers are paying more for lobster — already a premium product — than they were just a few years ago. The industry is also being challenged by warming oceans and new fishing regulations to protect rare whales.
Recent surveys showing a decline in juvenile lobsters raise concerns for the future of the fishery, said Caitlin Starks, senior coordinator of the commission’s fisheries management plan.
“Those numbers have been declining,” Starks said. “The number of new lobsters recruiting into the fishery was particularly low and there were concerns a decline would be predicted.”
The commission is asking for public comments on the proposal and plans to hold public hearings on it in March, Starks said. The changes would affect lobster fishermen from Maine to the waters off southern New England, and the hearings would be held in those locations, Starks said.
Changes could be implemented by fall 2024 if approved, Starks said.
Lobster fishing groups like the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association are following developments, said Beth Casoni, executive director of the group. The federation has no position yet as the exact specifications of the proposed changes are yet to come, she said.
“We’re waiting to see what the preferred management options are,” Casoni said.
The size of the US lobster catch has increased dramatically over the past 15 years. Maine’s catch, by far the largest lobster producer, is typically more than 100 million pounds (45 million kilograms) a year. Fishermen had never eclipsed 80 million pounds (36 million kilograms) in a single year, not even in 2008.
But the lobster population off southern New England has collapsed. And scientists conducting studies of baby lobsters from eastern Canada to Long Island, New York, have found below-average numbers of them have settled on the seabed in areas like the Gulf of Maine since 2012, the commission said in a statement.
“Given the economic importance of the lobster fishery for many New England coastal communities, particularly Maine, potential reductions in landings could have a huge socioeconomic impact,” the statement said.
Canadian fishermen harvest the same species of lobster and have their own measurement standards, hampering efforts to manage the population.
The reason the U.S. measurement standards are changing is because it gives lobsters more opportunities to reproduce, said Richard Wahle, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Maine who directs the Lobster Institute at the university. The change would also have implications such as marketing implications for US-Canada trade, he said.
More restrictive valuation guidelines “would be consistent with the precautionary approach to hedging bets against bad vintages,” Wahle said.
Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press
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