F R O M   T H E   C R O W E ’ S   N E S T

Life Without Fishing



Changes to lobster licensing regulations in Maine is by now inevitable. The discussions about how to do that are varied, complicated and at times contentious. This problem has seemed irresolvable for a long time and in some ways more so with every passing year. The problem has evolved with a fishery that has moved from, in retrospect, a simpler and more stable industry and resource. Evolving along with it have been changes to the other fisheries of Maine and the habitat for Maine lobster. Global warming changing the greater Gulf of Maine could ramp up greater unknown changes to the fisheries of Maine—fishing that, every year, is more defined by the lobster fishery.

The once diversified fisheries of Maine and once seasonal lobster fishery have changed. It may not be possible to key licensing changes to an unknown marine future, but changes could be made that might accommodate the greater economic importance of keeping the lobster resource within reach of the fishing families of Maine.

As the dollar value of lobster increases, it increases its attraction for investors with no skin in the game of community life on this coast. If the right to fish is commoditized through license sales, can the state or the industry control the future of access? Alaskan fishing rights are largely in the hands of fishing corporations through the commoditization of access rights. That future should be the central consideration in planning and changing lobster licensing in Maine.

All the other issues being discussed about lobster licensing don’t matter much if the people of Maine have lost their right to access. The rebuilding of fisheries, as with inshore scallops, will provide diversity, taking pressure off lobster. Currently, the lobster resource is healthy. There are indicators scientists see that suggest it may change. If there were a dramatic decline in the catch, it would change demand for access. But it would not change the need to protect access.

The need to protect access is essential, whether the value of the resource continues to soar or as suddenly plunges back to where it once was not so very long ago—back to where it provided a living that held communities together, but not without fishermen having to be exceptionally resourceful ashore as well.

Preserving access for future fishermen regardless of their means is to preserve a way of life that cannot exist without fishing.