PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 2, 2024
The Maine Department of Marine Resources is calling on federal regulators to reevaluate new rules that would increase by one-sixteenth of an inch the minimum size of lobsters fishermen are legally allowed to harvest. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says it is making the changes to preserve the long-term future of the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine, which federal data show has sharply dropped. Maine lobstermen, however, say that while the increases appear miniscule, they will impact their livelihoods by taking their most popular catch – 1- to 1.25-pound lobsters – out of the running.