Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Biological And Economic Effects Of Increasing The Minimum Legal Size Of American Lobster In Maine, James Acheson, R. Reidman

Marine Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The Northeast Marine Fisheries Board recently completed a comprehensive management plan for American lobster Homarus americanus, the most important provision of which is to raise the legal minimum size of lobsters from 81 to 88.9 mm carapace length incrementally over 5 years. Its objective is to increase egg production and recruitment, and thus reduce the likelihood of stock failure; economic benefits are anticipated for fishermen. However, a model used to analyze the frequency distributions of some 9,000 Maine lobsters demonstrates that in every year the legal minimum size is increased, smaller numbers and less weight of lobsters would be landed …