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The
Maine Lobstermen Association (MLA) opposes landing of bycatch lobsters in
Maine. Understandably, the MLA is concerned about the economic wellbeing
of this $300 million fishery. Fortunately, the Portland Fish Exchange’s
bycatch lobster landings proposal will adhere to all conservation measures
required by law.
The
lobster resource is managed by the federal Atlantic States Marine Fishery
Commission. The Commission sets conservation rules such as minimum sizes,
trap limits, and other rules. These rules apply to all states on the East
Coast.
States may enact additional measures if they choose. Maine is the only
state to have prohibited bycatch landings of lobster.
The
Commission has discussed bycatch lobster harvesting for over 10 years
(most recently in October), largely at the behest of Maine’s delegates to
the Commission. The overwhelming majority has repeatedly supported
allowing incidental lobster landings. It has found no evidence that
bycatch harvesting harms the resource.
In
fact, if bycatch lobsters suffered the damage the MLA describes, they
would not be fit for sale. Yet they are being landed and sold daily
elsewhere throughout New England.
Maine is also the only state to have enacted
a maximum, as well as a minimum, size on lobster landings. The MLA
incorrectly states that the lobsters over this size limit would be landed
by Maine’s bycatch fishery. The Exchange’s proposal adheres to
Maine’s maximum size law. Groundfishermen, like lobstermen, will
return large lobsters to the sea to reproduce and sustain the resource.
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