In days gone by, when a lobsterman’s world was limited to his own harbor and the surrounding bays, state government, let alone federal government, barely intruded.
Now, with U.S. federal laws and regulations on lobster fishing layered over state laws and regulations, and all interacting with their Canadian and provincial counterparts, lobstermen everywhere have a lot in common.
So the Lobster Institute hauled over 170 lobstermen and a dozen scientists into Portland on April 23. “It was time,” said Dana Rice, a member of the Institute’s board, “to get us all together to find the things we all agree on and to work together proactively. I hope this continues.”
Bill Adler of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association set the tone of the meeting by pointing out that from Newfoundland to New York, there were no lines drawn in the sea.
“We are the Lobster Nation,” he proclaimed.
After the two-hour meeting, the scientists briefly introduced themselves and then mingled with fishermen one-on-one to exchange information.
Dr. Robert Steneck of the University of Maine’s Darling Center pointed out that fishermen do the same thing scientists do – use observation to inform themselves and understand lobster behavior and habitat.
In the afternoon, smaller groups met to discuss issues such as lobster health and disease, lobster nutrition and food availability, status of the stock and lobster life cycle, gauge size as conservation measures, and water quality and temperature.
Rice urged the fishermen “to voice your opinion here today; hopefully some of the things we never talk about, we’ll get a chance to. If nothing else this meeting puts us all in the same room.”
Maine’s Bob Brown didn’t shy away from controversy when he opened the discussion. He advocated an international maximum gauge size for lobster as the way to put all fishermen – inshore and offshore – on an equal footing.
Several lobstermen from the Canadian Maritimes disagreed. In their experience, large lobsters fed on smaller, more fertile lobsters. The limiting factor, they felt, was the decreasing amount of food available. The issue, they believe, is a decrease in the amount of biomass on the coastal shelf.
Dana Rice pointed out that it isn’t just the fishermen who were getting together, but the scientists were as well. “There was a time getting scientists in the same room was hard,” he said.
Bob Bayer, head of the Lobster Institute, credits Rice with the idea of the Lobster Town Meeting. The Institute, founded in 1987, has become a central clearing house for lobster information.
Darden Restaurant, a company that owns Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones, quickly signed on as primary sponsor of the event.
If this meeting is deemed successful, another could follow next year, perhaps in Yarmouth, N.S., said Rice, adding, “Very few folks left early.”