The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Board has initiated the process to delay a gauge size increase for the U.S. lobster fishery until 1 July 2025.
The ASMFC first delayed an increase in the lobster gauge size in October 2023, after lobster trawl surveys indicated a decline in the population of sub-legal lobsters. The gauge size increase was first initiated in 2017 as a proactive measure to improve the resiliency of the lobster stock in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, but that process was paused to focus on issues related to entanglement of North Atlantic right whales.
In May 2023, ASMFC adopted Addendum XXVII, which created a trigger mechanism to implement management measures to protect the lobster spawning stock biomass. Those changes would increase the gauge and escape vent sizes, based on changes in recruitment abundance. The current minimum gauge size is 3.25 inches, and the new gauges would increase that to 3.3125 inches. It would also ban imports of lobster smaller than the new gauge size.
Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher had pushed for a longer delay to discuss how to handle changes in fisheries management along the Canadian border, where Canadian lobstermen could end up catching lobster U.S. lobstermen were forced to throw back.
Now, ASMFC announced it has initiated “Draft Addendum XXXI” to Amendment 3 of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American lobster, which will consider postponing the implementation of the gauge-size increase.
Separately, members of the Canadian lobster fishery are demanding stricter enforcement against illegal lobster sales.
The Coalition of Atlantic and Quebec Fishing Organizations and the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance said that fisheries ministers in the country need to step up enforcement of illegal sales and stop illegal harvests outside of lobster season.
"Enforcing one set of rules for everyone is the key to a strong fishery. Impartial, independent enforcement officers at Department of Fisheries and Oceans is at the heart of a sustainable fishery," Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board President Gordon Beaton said. "We are concerned about potential changes to enforcement, we need more, not less, independent enforcement of the rules."
