Scientists: Conservation aids lobster population

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Scientists who study the warming of the ocean say in a new study that conservation practices have allowed northern New England’s lobster industry to thrive in the face of environmental changes.

The lobster fishery is the backbone of Maine’s economy, and business has been booming in recent years. Southern New England fishermen’s lobster catch, meanwhile, has plummeted. Ocean temperatures have risen in both areas, to levels that scientists have said is favorable for lobsters off northern New England and Canada but inhospitable for them in southern New England.

Scientists led by researchers at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland say differences in conservation practices have contributed to record hauls off Maine and population collapse just a few hundred miles south. Their findings were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A key difference is that Maine lobstermen worked together decades ago to create a strategy to protect older, larger lobsters and egg-carrying females, said Andy Pershing, a scientist with Gulf of Maine Research Institute and one of the study authors.

Maine lobstermen return big lobsters to the sea, and mark a “v notch” on the tail of an egg-carrying lobster before throwing it back. The notching technique, used in Maine for about a century, provides a sign to other fishermen to leave the fertile lobsters alone. Fishermen in other states use the notch, too, but some got on board only recently; Connecticut established its program in the mid2000s.

“Our study shows that these protections helped Maine’s fishery take advantage of the optimal temperature conditions that occurred in the early 2000s and that these protections will be essential for maintain the fishery as oceans warm,” Pershing said.

Maine lobstermen often catch more than 80 percent of America’s lobster haul. They set a record of more than 130 million pounds of the crustaceans in 2016. The product is also especially valuable right now, as Maine’s lobster fishery was worth a record of more than $530 million at the docks in 2016.