Maine To Set Up New Collaborative To Research Lobster Fishery
A scientist holds a lobster underwater on Friendship Long Island in July 2007. Photo by Robert F. Bukaty for Maine Public
Maine’s Department of Marine Resources is launching a half-million-dollar project to get a more comprehensive scientific assessment of one of the state’s most valuable resources — lobster. The new Maine Lobster Research Collaborative will focus on the lobster fishery’s biological, physical and social dynamics, as the request for proposals puts it.
DMR spokesman Jeff Nichols notes that while lobster populations in southern New England crashed this decade, Maine’s landings soared to record levels. Yet there is little research to show whether that can be directly linked to Maine’s management policies. And landings are down this year, while disparate monitoring programs.