Maine leaders have decided that the state will not be increasing the minimum legal catch size for lobsters this July as was originally expected.
Following a meeting in Augusta this past Thursday where dozens of lobstermen voiced strong opposition to the rule change, Maine Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) Commissioner Patrick Keliher issued a statement announcing the decision.
“Last night, after hearing loud and clear from Maine lobster industry members that they are unified in their opposition to a proposed rule change that would increase the minimum gauge size starting in July of this year, with approval from Governor Mills I decided to pull the regulation,” Commissioner Keliher wrote.
It was previously expected that as of July 2025, the minimum legal catch size for lobsters would increase by one-sixteenth of an inch.
[RELATED: Minimum Size of Legal Lobster to Increase Next July]
Tensions were high at Thursday night’s meeting, reaching a boiling point after Keliher arrived.
Video shows Keliher yelling exploitive-laced sentiments at a Maine fisherman, an outburst for which he reportedly later apologized.
“I called up the governor on the way in. I explained to her what the risks were associated with compliance with the ASMFC,” Keliher said later during the meeting. “She agreed with me that we should withdraw the rule.”
While the intent behind the rule is to “improve the resiliency” of the state’s lobster population, lobstermen had previously expressed concern about moving forward with the increase before it is absolutely necessary.
In order to comply with these new size guidelines, lobstermen will need to update their equipment to reflect the new legal minimum, including measurement gauges and the escape vents on lobster traps.
Originally set to go into effect in June 2024, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) voted in August of last year to to delay the implementation of Addendum XXVII until July 1, 2025, giving the industry more time to adjust, as well as to engage with that officials responsible for Canada’s lobster industry.
The ASMFC is commission comprised of fifteen states that acts as a coordinating regulatory agency for the conservation and management of marine fisheries resources, including lobster.
Adopted in May of 2023, this rule was designed to be automatically triggered in the event that the young lobster population experienced a decline of 35 percent or more.
Development of this addendum first began in 2017 but was delayed in 2018 and again in 2022 as a result of the industry’s entanglement in “management and litigation concerning right while conservation requirements.”
Following a legal victory for the industry that halted the implementation of any additional regulations on the matter for six years, the ASMFC continued moving forward with hearings on Addendum XXVII and eventually voted in favor of its adoption.
Just three months later, scientists reported that the young lobster population had dropped 39 percent from its historic high, thus triggering the newly-approved provision. As a result of this, the agreed upon size increase was set to take effect in June of this year.
Keliher, however, urged the ASMFC to delay the increase until January 2025.
“I don’t think when we were sitting here in May that we expected to be hitting the trigger as quickly as we did,” he said, according to a newsletter published by the Maine Lobster Community Alliance.
With the MDMR’s decision to now withdraw Maine’s implementation of this regulation, the state will now have to take additional steps to ensure compliance with the ASMFC’s Interstate Fisheries Management Plan for Lobster (FMP).
“So this decision to pull the regulation, driven by the Maine lobster industry’s strong and compelling opposition, now requires that I go back to ASMFC and work with the Policy Board on a plan to ensure compliance with the FMP,” Keliher said. “That plan will require input from industry to ensure that we are proposing measures that achieve conservation benefits that are equivalent to those intended by this regulation.”
“In the coming months, I will be working with the newly reconvened Lobster Conservation Management Teams as well as the Zone Councils to develop a path forward,” he concluded. “I can’t promise what the outcome of that process will be, but I can promise that I will work diligently to give industry an opportunity to provide input into this process.”
Pulling back on the implementation of these regulations is not without risk, however, as the ASMFC may vote to challenge the state’s noncompliance.
If this were to happen, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce could either force the industry to comply or prevent Maine from exporting lobster altogether.
“We understand the risk associated with the compliance issues with the commission, but at the end of the day, we need to do what’s right for the industry in the state of Maine,” Keliher said, according to News Center Maine. “I’ll work it out with the commission.”
Click Here to Read the MDMR’s Full Statement
Rep. Jared Golden (D) released a statement Thursday night expressing support for the state’s decision to reverse course on the regulation.
“I have always said that Maine’s lobstermen are the best, most informed conservationists for this precious and storied fishery,” Rep. Golden said.
“Lobstermen have been saying for months that the proposed gauge increase was not only a risk to their livelihoods and their communities, but an unnecessary overreaction to questionable stock data,” Golden continued. “I’m proud of them for going to the mat for their industry, and glad their voices have been heard and that DMR has pledged to give the lobstermen a seat at the table in determining what conservation efforts, if any, are needed to protect their fishery.”
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) has also spoken out in support of the state’s decision, sharing remarks in conjunction with Golden.
“Maine lobstermen prevailed tonight as they pushed back against the increase to the minimum lobster gauge size in Lobster Management Area 1,” said Dustin Delano, a former lobsterman and Chief Operating Officer of NEFSA. “NEFSA is very thankful to Congressman Golden for his willingness to stand up with lobstermen against the proposed regulation.”
No …F@ck YOU Mr “ Commissioner “,…..
We aren’t going to let the Canadians have them !
Democrats in Augusta don’t like people with balls , and these folks from NEFSA have them .
Power to the People . Right is Right .
GOOD JOB NEFSA . If you don’t protect your jobs, the democrats in Augusta will take them away .