Officials with the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said surveys have detected a 39% decline in young lobsters in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank areas for 2020-22 compared to 2016-18The population of young lobsters has declined nearly 40% in some of the most critical fishing waters off New England, officials said Wednesday, triggering new restrictions for the fishermen who harvest the valuable crustaceans.
The drop in lobster recruitment is a continuation of a recent trend off New England, said Caitlin Starks, senior fisheries management plan coordinator with the commission. The initial timeline in the new rules would have brought the stricter rules into play on June 1, 2024, but Commissioner Patrick Keliher of the Maine Department of Marine Resources successfully moved to delay implementation to Jan. 1, 2025. Keliher said the decline must be taken seriously, but the U.S. lobster fishery would have inequities with Canadian fishermen if they switched to new size requirements too quickly.
How much the new rules will impact the availability or price of lobsters to U.S. consumers is difficult to say. Lobsters caught by Canadian and American fishermen both enter the U.S. supply chain. Live lobsters have been readily available to New England seafood consumers in recent years, though retail prices have been fairly high.