March 4, 2016 — It’s been months since the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission released its latest report on how lobsters are faring in the Atlantic Coast. But it’s still a hot topic among fishermen in the Ocean State.
The latest lobster stock assessment found lobsters in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank are doing well; but lobsters in southern New England are not. Most southern New England fishermen disagree with that assessment, according to David Spencer, president of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation and a lobster fisherman.
“I don’t think all the fishermen are saying that things are tremendous and rosy,” said Spencer, “but I think the biggest disagreement seems to be in the severity of the assessment and fishermen think that the resource is actually a little bit better than that.”
Spencer said most fishermen have seen an uptick in the lobster population in the last couple of years and the assessment doesn’t reflect that progress because it’s based on data through 2013.
The assessment doesn’t include more recent data because it takes time to collect, enter and analyze data, explains Toni Kerns, director of the Interstate Fisheries Management Program at the commission.