The controversial lobster gauge increases permanently repealed

Stimulated by years of anger on the part of Maine’s Lobstermen, a board of directors which regulates the lobster industry voted on Tuesday to repeal a rule for 11 states aimed at retaining the reduction of lobster populations in the Gulf of Maine and beyond.

This would have effectively increased the minimum size of lobsters that fishermen could legally catch and sell while scientists and regulators identify an increasing need to preserve Frai stock.

But the lobstermen, concerned about the fact that the rule seriously harmed the most precious fishing in Maine, put intensification pressure On rule diets to reverse the course. And fearing a lack of purchase, the commissioner of the Maine Marine Resources Ministry, Pat Keliher, proposed to repeal the rule to allow the industry more time to offer alternative solutions. He would have entered into force on July 1.

“The reversal of resilience measures is not at all what I wanted to have taken place. After several meetings of the Council of Zones, we could not convince the industry that it is now Appropriate time act, Keliher said to the board of directors. “It’s Bclearly that the melder The lobster industry focuses on short -term. »»

Members of the American Lobster Board of the American Lobster Board of the American Lobster, including delegations from other states of the East Coast, reluctantly accepted the need for the repeal. But a feeling of resentment remains.

The members of the Board of Directors now demand that the members of the industry get involved to find a solution.

“You broke it. You own it. What did you have? said the member of the board of directors Daniel McKiernan, director of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Division. “We go down here in good faith, we negotiate, we work with industry. We delay this Addendum twice to help industry, then to have it scuttled at the 11th hour per 100 angry fishermen of Maine for reasons that we could also have seen is unacceptable. »»

Little claws

In 2023, the Commission adopted regulations that would have increased the minimum size – from 3 1/4 inches to 3,5/16 inches – on the gauges that lobs use to measure lobsters and determine if they are allowed to harvest them. A second increase would have taken effect two years later, bringing the minimum to 3 3/8 inch. The rules also affected the vents of the traps which allow the undersized lobsters to escape.

A gauge is a rule that measures the shell or the body of a lobster to help determine if they are long enough to catch. And the escape vents guarantee that small lobsters can leave traps and return to their habitat to continue to grow.

The rule articulated on a trigger point – it would come into effect once the data indicated that the label stock of Maine dropped by 35% of the evaluations on average between 2016 and 2018. This trigger point. But five months later, This trigger was triggered.

The data continues to show that warming water linked to climate changeWho was first a boon of the Maine lobster industry could soon be his fall.

Steamed

Lobstermen were immediately concerned. Members and industry groups claim that the minimum gauge limits would have forced fishermen to take lobsters from 1 to 1.25 pounds – which are their most popular – out of the dinner table.

Lobstermen also calls into question the accuracy of federal data – claiming that it has been collected in a small and abnormal period which does not indicate the reality of the trends of the population.

The rules have led to years of disagreement. The Lobstermen called on the State, the lobster council of the fisheries commission is and the politicians of the fishing committee is to interrupt the rules to enter into force. Representative Jared Golden, D-2nd District, also urged regulators to delay at least the rules to take effect until better research is collected and alternative solutions are proposed.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission postponed the date of start of January 1, 2025 to July.

The several year saga resulted in an altercation between Keliher and Lobstermen During a public hearing last month.

Warning: The following video contains an explicit language.

A video from Reunion shows that Keliher talks about how the future of the industry is at stake and people of the public who start talking about him before Keliher asks the crowd to listen to him.

“We don’t have to listen to you,” cried a man. “You have sold the Noaa and Canada.”

Keliher, who has historically kept his composure under the public examination of the industry, cursed the man in response. The crowd has become even more moving. One person accused Kelihe of being closed, other people also used blasphemies, while some have said that everyone should leave the meeting.

At the meeting of the Board of Directors of the American lobster on Tuesday, Keliher briefly discussed the argument.

“I could no longer take attacks on me or my staff,” he said.

At the end of the January public hearing, Keliher announced that he would not apply the rule in Maine – a decision that Governor Janet Mills approved. Mills also supported Kelihar’s decision to propose the repeal, a spokesperson said on Tuesday afternoon.

If the American lobster board had not eliminated the take for the 11 states, Maine should have found another way to comply with conservation standards.

After the end of the celebrations, the work must continue

Seven State delegations approved the repeal, one opposed it and three abstained from the vote. But those who voted in favor are barely delighted.

“We all turn our noses,” said Dennis Abbott, a delegate from New Hampshire. “I don’t think anyone likes, but I think we have to accept reality.”

Steve Train, a Lobsterman and delegate from Long Island and New York, has also pushed the perception that all lobsters stand against size limits.

“People say” what are we going to do now? “It’s not all” Oh well, we beat it, “said train.” I would like to see the possible alternatives. … But I don’t see where we are moving from here. I understand what’s going on. I understand why we have to do it.

Many, however, are now pushing a sigh of relief.

“Every day, regulators listen to the Lobstermen is a good day for Maine,” Golden said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon. “I“I am proud to have resisted these mainers to defend their industry and will continue to support them to ensure that they have a seat at the table to assess stock data and decide which regulations – if necessary – are necessary In the Gulf of Maine. No one is invested in the future of our fishing.

Rules directors must now return to the drawing board.

Kelihe wants to do it with “a blank slate”. And he wants members of the industry to have a pen in hand. But even without the deadline of July 1, the pressure has not disappeared. Keliher said in a statement that he always intended to work intensively in the coming months to strengthen the resilience of the Maine lobster population.

The association of Maine Lobstermen, the most eminent group group against the rules, is all to find the solutions that meet the needs of rules and fishermen.

“We understand and respect the need for a system of governance of the lobster industry. No one really understood how it would explode, “said the group’s executive director Patrice McCaron. “The deputy is 100% determined to work with the State, to other industry leaders, to associations and to attend the meetings of the Council of Zones to crop the problem on how to be resilled in the industry . “

However, they have work to do. Relations will have to be repaired. And a vocal group of skeptical lobs will have to convince that there is a problem to be solved, at all.

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