Lobster population falls off New England, leading regulators to declare overfishing

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A new report says America’s lobsters, which have been in decline since 2018, are now being overfished off New England.

The stock has declined by 34% since that year in its most important fishing grounds, the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said Thursday. The commission said it now considers overfishing of the species to be occurring, and that could bring new management measures that restrict fishermen from catching them in the future.

Lobsters are among America’s most lucrative seafood species, and they were worth more than $700 million at the docks last year. The industry caught record high numbers of the crustaceans in the 2010s.

But the lobster population has shown “rapid declines in abundance in recent years,” the commission said in a statement.

The assessment said the decline and overfishing were taking place in fishing areas off Maine and Massachusetts where most lobster fishing takes place. The assessment also considered the southern New England lobster stock, which it said has been depleted for years and remains so.

Regulators have attempted to enforce new rules on lobster fishermen to try to stem the decline in recent years, but they have been met with resistance. They had planned to increase the minimal harvest size for lobsters in key fishing grounds this summer. That would have required fishermen to throw back lobsters that previously could have been sold.

The commission backed off the rules earlier this year after months of protest from lobster fishermen who found the new rules unnecessary and threatening to their livelihoods. Fishermen in the industry are also contending with challenges from potential new rules to protect rare whales, warming oceans and volatile trade markets.

“Even as the resource adjusts from record highs, lobstermen remain deeply committed to stewardship, sustainable practices, and to protecting the fishery that sustains thousands of Maine families,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

The American lobster fishery is based mostly in Maine. Carl Wilson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said the state “will continue to engage industry in discussions about the stock assessment and the future of the fishery” and he is “confident in the commitment of this industry to conservation of this resource.”