The state’s leading lobster lobby is pushing back against claims that government intervention is an obvious fix for the dwindling fishery.
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association on Monday acknowledged severe drops in the lobster landings.
“That isn’t surprising to anyone on the water,” Kevin Kelley, association spokesman, told The Maine Wire. “The ecosystem is changing, and no one expected the boom to last forever.”
The association says the answer isn’t necessarily more regulation, despite any claims to the contrary.
The lobstermen are speaking out in the wake of a report last month from regulator Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission saying that the lobster catch is down 34 percent from its record peak in 2018.
The commission said it now considers overfishing of the species to be occurring, and that could bring new management measures that restrict fishermen from catching them in the future, according to The Associated Press.
Not so fast, say the guys and gals setting and hauling traps.
“There are still plenty of lobsters in the water to support a healthy resource and a sustainable fishery,” Kelley said. “The population decline is real, but it’s not a crisis.
“The confusion,” Kelley added, “comes from the phrase ‘overfishing is occurring.’”
In the eyes of lobstermen the term “overfishing” is based on a misleading fractional, not substantial, change.
“It’s simply a measure of how efficiently lobstermen harvest lobster, something that has always been high in this fishery,” Kelley said.
“The resource is changing, but it remains strong,” he added. “Now is the moment for the industry to talk openly about what this shift means and how fishermen want to shape the future of the fishery.”
The commission’s assessment said the catch decline and overfishing were taking place in fishing areas off Maine and Massachusetts where most lobstering takes place.
The assessment also considered the southern New England lobster stock, which it said has been depleted for years and remains so.
Regulators have attempted to enforce new rules on lobster fishermen to try to stem the decline in recent years, but they have been met with resistance.
They had planned to increase the minimal harvest size for lobsters in key fishing grounds. That would have required fishermen to throw back lobsters that previously could have been sold.
