A controversial proposal to increase the minimum catch size limits for Maine lobster has been withdrawn.
The Department of Marine Resources withdrew a proposed rule to increase the minimum size requirements for lobsters to be caught in Maine on Thursday.
Maine lobstermen use a gauge to measure each lobster’s carapace from eye socket to tail. Under current rules, those that are smaller than the minimum gauge size of 3.25 inches must be put back in the water so they can grow, protecting the lobster population for the future.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission originally said increasing the minimum lobster size would help stop the decline of baby lobsters.
Maine harvests the most U.S. lobster. That harvest fell from more than 132 million pounds in 2016 to just around 93 million in 2024.
The Department of Marine Resources proposed a gauge increase of one-sixteenth of an inch — two times larger than the last gauge increase 30 years ago.
Opponents argued the rule change would have given Canadian lobstermen an unfair advantage as they would not have been impacted by the change.
At a hearing about proposed rulemaking in Augusta on Thursday, Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher announced his agency would withdraw the rule pending new stock survey data and include fishermen in data collection.
He also said Maine lobstermen will be included in crafting any future conservation strategies designed to protect stock levels in the Gulf of Maine.
“I have always said that Maine’s lobstermen are the best, most informed conservationists for this precious and storied fishery,” U.S. Rep. Jared Golden said. “Lobstermen have been saying for months that the proposed gauge increase was not only a risk to their livelihoods and their communities, but an unnecessary overreaction to questionable stock data. I’m proud of them for going to the mat for their industry, and glad their voices have been heard and that DMR has pledged to give the lobstermen a seat at the table in determining what conservation efforts, if any, are needed to protect their fishery.”
