Maine Lobstermen's Association

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“For the past 62 years the Maine Lobstermen’s Association has advocated for lobstermen from all parts of the Maine coast. Its longevity is due to the men and women who make up its membership. Staying strong and relevant means successfully drawing new members into the association year after year..”
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Adaptation to Whale Rules is part of Life for Maine’s Lobstermen

Maine is home to more than 4,800 licensed lobstermen operating along the coast. Those lobstermen represent fishing traditions that go back more than one hundred years. Within the small towns that dot the Maine coast, men and women head to sea each day as their parents and grandparents once did, using their hard-earned skills to capture lobsters and bring them to shore. Now that tradition is at risk as fishery regulators consider the need for increased protections for North Atlantic right whales, regulations which could threaten the livelihoods of these resolute lobstermen.

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Whale News

Senators call for greater Canadian protections
A group of New England senators is calling on the U.S. government to speed up an analysis of Canada’s efforts to protect the endangeredNorth American right whale, and to consider trade action if Canada’s rules do not prove as strong as in the U.S. The senators say U.S. fishermen have made big sacrifices to reduce impacts on the whales. Now they’re calling on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to investigate whether fishermen in Canada are being held to similar standards. If not, they say, then NOAA should consider barring the import of Canadian seafood from the relevant fisheries. The letter to NOAA was co-signed by senators from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

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Steaming Ahead – Bait Issues

Out of the frying pan into the fire…. We can now add a pending bait crisis to the list of major issues facing the Maine lobster industry.
The MLA has been hard at work informing lobstermen about the possibility of new whale rules, which will be discussed at the Take Reduction Team (TRT) meeting in October. To date, the MLA has convened eight meetings along the coast to update a diverse group of industry leaders about the status of right whales and the pressure facing our industry to implement additional whale protection measures. These meetings have served to begin discussions about the state’s strategy at the fall TRT meeting. The MLA is also working to gain intervener status in the pending court case filed by several environmental groups against NMFS seeking stronger whale protection measures focused on the lobster industry. Ropeless fishing and the use of weak rope are two suggestions being pushed hard by many in the research and conservation communities. The potential for additional whale regulations is certainly one of the most significant issues ever to face Maine lobstermen and it has galvanized the MLA board of directors as well as the Department of Marine Resources.
So as the MLA works tirelessly to ensure that Maine’s lobster industry remains intact after this fall, we received devastating (though still preliminary) news that the herring fishery is likely to face drastic cuts in quota beginning in 2019.

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