Saving Seafood

Trapped: Soaring fuel costs hurt Maine lobster industry before midterms

October 26, 2026 — Lobsterman Steve Train starts every workday before dawn about $1,000 in the hole, a hike in expenses driven by soaring fuel costs that are hammering Maine’s flagship maritime industry ahead of US midterm elections.

Before hauling a single trap from picturesque Casco Bay, north of Portland, the 59-year-old lobsterboat captain counts the costs: Thirty gallons of diesel at $6.49 per gallon — nearly 45 percent up from one year ago — and three drums of increasingly expensive bait at $260 a pop.

“It’s hard to make a business plan with so many uncertainties and so much change,” Train, who works with his brother, told AFP aboard their 36-foot (11-meter) single-engine boat named “Moira Bay.”

They had just finished unloading 430 pounds (195 kilograms) of American lobster at the Portland pier. “We had a good day,” Train said.

But a storm is brewing — and the fuel costs affecting Maine’s lobster industry feature prominently in November’s midterm vote, where the state’s veteran Republican Senator Susan Collins is fighting a strong challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson.

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

MAINE: Maine farmers and fishermen can get federal assistance to offset high fuel prices

October 22, 2026 — Maine farmers and fishermen can now get federal assistance to offset rising diesel prices.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday that farmers and fishermen are eligible for assistance under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $8 billion “Harvest Fuel Relief” program.

Under that new program, farmers and fishermen can get a one-time payment to offset those higher production costs. Rates will be announced in November.

“The rising cost of fuel and other inputs has placed significant financial strain on hardworking farmers, fishermen, lobstermen, and their families. After speaking with both the White House and Secretary Rollins, I am pleased to have been assured that Maine fishermen and lobstermen will benefit from the Administration’s new agricultural relief package,” Collins said in a statement. “I will continue advocating for Maine’s fishermen, lobstermen, and specialty crop growers, who are integral to our state’s heritage, economy, and way of life, to ensure they receive the support they need to overcome these challenges.”

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

Decline in baby Maine lobsters is warning to the fishery, study finds

October 19, 2026 — A sharp decline in baby lobsters offered an early warning of substantial losses in Maine’s Midcoast lobster population, according to a new University of Maine study that connects falling numbers across successive stages of the crustaceans’ lives.

Researchers found that an 80% decline in baby lobsters sampled between 2010 and 2022 preceded declines farther along in the population: a 70% decrease in young lobsters since 2015 and a 50% decrease in adults large enough for fishermen to catch.
The findings show how a shortage of the smallest lobsters can work its way through the population, eventually reducing the number reaching harvestable size. They also underscore the importance of monitoring lobsters years before they enter the commercial fishery.
The study’s midcoast region, extending from Brunswick to the Schoodic Peninsula, recorded the steepest declines in the Gulf of Maine. That broad study area encompasses the waters off Waldo County and much of Maine’s central coast.
The losses followed a substantial boom. From the 2000s to the 2010s, the number of lobsters sampled in the region doubled before the trend reversed.
The research adds to evidence that the Gulf of Maine’s lobster population has declined since the mid-2010s, raising questions about the future of a fishery that generated more than $461 million in Maine landings in 2025.

House passes bill extending right whale regulatory pause

September 2, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 9436, legislation that would extend the current pause on new North Atlantic right whale regulations affecting the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries through 2035.

The Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026 passed the House on Sept. 1 by a 219-196 vote. The bill would extend the existing regulatory pause from its current expiration at the end of 2028 to Dec. 31, 2035.

The legislation has drawn support from Northeast commercial fishing organizations, which argue additional time is needed for ongoing research and technology development to inform future whale regulations. Conservation groups, meanwhile, say the extension would delay measures they believe are necessary to reduce the risk of serious injury and mortality to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), which urged lawmakers to pass the measure ahead of the House vote, welcomed its passage.

“The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association strongly supports passage of H.R. 9436,” Jason Joyce, NEFSA’s director of advocacy, said in a statement provided to National Fisherman.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MAINE: Lobsters remain plentiful in Maine, but outside forces cast uncertainty on industry

September 1, 2026 — There was a time when lobsters were so abundant along the Maine coast that they could be plucked by hand from shallow water. Those days are long gone, but for most people — whose interactions with lobsters happen on plates and rolls — it might be hard to say how lobsters and the lobster industry are doing. Lobster rolls might cost more, like everything else, but they’re still available.

Lobstermen are at the mercy of a range of outside forces: economic, ecological, regulatory. Trends in the lobster harvest and its value suggest lobstering is in a healthy position right now. But zooming out to include factors such as global trade and climate change show there is much uncertainty.

In the long view, the number of lobsters coming across wharfs is way up. From 1950 until the end of the 1980s, Maine lobstermen were landing around 20 million pounds of lobster each year. Some years the amount deviated, as low as 16 million and as high as 24 million, but the catch looks pretty consistent through those four decades.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchour

MAINE: What’s the biggest threat to the lobster industry?

September 1, 2026 — Lobstermen are under threat. They all agree on that much. The threats they describe vary from one to the next. But they are worried about their future, and the future of a livelihood that many learned from their fathers and grandfathers and want to pass to their children and grandchildren.

The risks are larger than any one lobsterman — or even the industry as a whole. Lobstering “is not only an economic driver of coastal and island communities, it is an identity of our communities,” said Kristin Garabedian, a community development officer with the Island Institute’s Center for the Marine Economy. In other words, losing lobstering would make a town like Harpswell less like Harpswell.

Most lobstermen see the biggest threats coming from outsiders pursuing their own aims without regard for the lobstermen who live and work here. Those might be wind-power proponents, whale protectors, big businesses or homebuyers.

Few, if any, see climate change as an immediate or catastrophic threat, although they are deeply in tune with the changes happening in the Gulf of Maine and are worried about human impacts on the environment they depend on.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchor 

House to take up bill extending right whale regulatory pause to 2035

August 31, 2026 — A bill that would extend the current pause on the new North Atlantic right whale regulations affecting the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries until 2035 is moving toward a vote in the U.S. House, with fishing industry groups renewing calls for lawmakers to pass the measure.

H.R. 9436, the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, would extend the existing regulator pause from its current 2028 expiration to 2035. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-New York, and Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine.

As National Fisherman reported in July, the House Natural Resources Committee advanced the bill in a bipartisan 22-13 vote on July 15. The committee has since formally reported the legislation, and it is moving toward consideration by the full House.

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), one of several commercial fishing organizations supporting the extension, sent a letter to Congress ahead of the expected House consideration urging lawmakers to pass the bill.

“As H.R. 9436 comes before the full House, we respectfully ask you to support its passage and to help ensure that this bipartisan committee-supported legislation moves forward without delay,” NEFSA Vice President John Drouin wrote to Congress.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Maine lobster protected: Canada removes seafood from retaliatory tariffs

August 28, 2026 — Lobstermen in Maine breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after Canada amended its retaliatory tariffs against the United States, removing seafood and fish products from the items that will face the new fee.

In an announcement late Wednesday night, Canada’s Department of Finance said the Canadian government was working with Canadian industries to assess the effectiveness of retaliatory tariffs. Based on feedback, the department said it made “select adjustments to protect against broader economic harms.”

Read the full article at WMTW

Lobsters and acidic seas: can shellfish help neutralise one of the greatest threats to the ocean?

August 21, 2026 — For many in the US region of New England, the lobster roll is synonymous with summertime. Loaded into a toasted bun, chunks of the sweet meat are served hot and soaked in butter, or chilled and slathered in mayonnaise with celery and herbs.

The only thing more debated than the recipe is the price: the once-humble roll now routinely fetches $30 (£22), or even $50, in a sign of the changing times – and seas.

A third-generation lobster fisherman, Scott Lord spends his days hauling traps on the Gulf of Maine, which is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans. “Whether you agree with who says why it’s happening, it is happening,” he says.

Bycatch that was once plentiful, such as sea urchins, sand dollars or starfish, are increasingly rare. And, most concerning, Lord has noticed the number of inshore lobsters dropping dramatically over the past 15 years, pushing fishers farther and farther offshore.

Motivated to find a remedy, Lord joined a regional shellfish committee. “Why are there not clams where there used to be clams? Why are they not coming back, no matter what we do?” he asks.

Hundreds of miles to the south in Massachusetts, on a sandy crook of land that spins out to form Cape Cod, Adam Subhas, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is trying to find the answers.

Read the full article at The Guardian