August 4, 2023 — The U.S. state of Maine recently passed an act to create a Lobster Innovation Fund to provide financing to commercial fishermen to test new lobster fishing technologies, just days before the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) released a report finding a full transition to ropeless lobster gear would cost the fishery in more ways than just higher equipment costs.
The new fund, created through a law signed by Maine Governor Janet Mills on 27 July, would pay lobstermen to test new gear to learn how the gear would impact their fishing. The testing would add to the growing body of scientific data obtained through studies of alternative in both Maine and Massachusetts.