Fisheries regulators have given the lobster industry a brief reprieve by delaying new size limits for six months.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has said increasing the minimum lobster size by fractions of an inch will help rebuild stocks affected by troubling declines in young lobsters.
The commission’s lobster board argues increasing the minimum catch size will let younger lobsters live longer and reproduce more. Board members voted overwhelmingly Monday to delay the rules during the commission’s annual meeting.
Under the new rule, the minimum carapace measurement for a legal lobster will increase in July 2025, from 3 1/4 inches to 3 5/16 inches, and increase again a year and a half later.
The restrictions were supposed to go into effect at the beginning of the year.
But regulators hope that a delay will give the lobster industry time to adjust. It also gives extra space for Canadian regulators to add matching size restrictions.
Increasing competition from the Canadian lobster industry, which has not adopted bigger legal sizes, has been one of the central criticisms to the new regulations from U.S. lobster fishers.
Dan McKiernan, director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, acknowledged the changes will have an economic impact. Harvesters can expect landings to decline 9 percent to 11 percent under the new rule, he said.
“But I think by the time these two gauge increases take place, they will see a net gain in weight and I hope we can stabilize the stock for the future,” McKiernan said.
The delay will also let U.S. lobster processors import crustaceans from Canada in May and June before the rule kicks in. After the new minimum size takes effect, it will be against the law to bring in foreign lobster that doesn’t meet the new restrictions, according to the commission.
Increased minimum sizes were triggered by lobster population surveys that estimated the population of lobster nearing legal size had declined 35 percent from 2018.
Some members of the lobster industry claim the survey methodology is flawed and presents inaccurate lobster numbers. Recent research indicates that lobsters in shallow water have relocated from sheltered, rocky habitats to open sandy and muddy areas. That’s raising questions about the assumptions behind the fisheries manager’s survey and assessment methods.
But Steve Train, a lobsterman from Long Island and a commissioner, noted that updated stock assessments presented this week showed a 44 percent drop in juvenile lobsters based on data from 2020-2023.
“I had great hope that the information we got today would show us that we were already going the other direction,” Train said, adding he supported increasing the legal size.
“A 44 percent decline — I mean, how can you not follow the science with a number like that for a resource and industry that’s this important,” he added.
In a statement, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said it remained opposed to the minimum size increase, but was satisfied with a delay.
“We are hopeful that this will provide more time to address unintended consequences of an increase, specifically the fact that unless Canada also changes its gauge size, Canadian lobstermen will still be able to catch smaller lobster,” the association said.
“This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.”
