Patricio Bensenda throws back a lobster that was too small to keep while checking his trap aboard the Sea Smoke on Casco Bay in August 2023. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Federal regulators hope to give lobstermen an additional six months to prepare for a new rule that would slightly increase the minimum size of lobsters they are legally allowed to harvest.

The one-sixteenth of an inch increase, which is designed to help boost a dwindling stock of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine, might seem minor but it could have big consequences. Lobster harvesters and dealers say that the fraction-of-an-inch change could eliminate the most lucrative segment of their catch and give Canadian competitors an unfair advantage.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said on Wednesday that it intends to delay a planned gauge increase until July 1, 2025. The rules were previously set to go into effect Jan. 1.

The decision to delay the change still needs to go through a public comment process and an additional vote, but a spokesperson said Thursday that the board’s goal is to approve the addendum before the original Jan. 1 implementation date.

Kristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said that while the lobstermen oppose the increase, they feel that the delay shows the commission is listening to their concerns.

“Delaying the gauge increase until July 2025 is a big win for lobstermen at a time when our industry continues to face enormous challenges,” he said in a statement. “This delay allows time for Maritime Canada to consider increasing its gauge size and leveling the playing field, and for the U.S. fishery to better prepare for reduced landings and market disruptions.”

The proposed rules would increase the minimum size – from 3 1/4 inches to 3 5/16 inches – on the gauges lobstermen use to measure lobsters and determine whether they are allowed to harvest them. A second increase would take effect two years later, bringing the minimum to 3 3/8 inches. The rules also affect the vents in traps that allow undersized lobsters to escape.

A gauge is a sort of ruler that measures a lobster’s carapace, or body, to help determine whether it is long enough to catch.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says it is making the changes to preserve the long-term future of the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine, which federal data show has sharply dropped.

After 2016, when Maine’s lobster fishery had its highest landings on record, settlement surveys, which measure trends in how many juvenile lobsters are in the Gulf, began dropping.

Given the potential economic impact that could come from slashing lobster landings, the commission decided the new rules would only go into effect if the lobster stock dropped 35% from the 2016 through 2018 assessments.

The Gulf of Maine hit that threshold in October 2023, setting the stage for gauge and vent size adjustments. In theory, lobsters that are too small will be put back in the water so they can grow, protecting the lobster population for the future.

But lobstermen say the rules threaten those already fishing on the water without actually guaranteeing stock protection. They say the increase takes some of the industry’s most popular lobsters – ones that are 1 to 1.15 pounds – off the table.

These so-called “chicken lobsters” are in high demand among restaurants, wholesalers and European markets.

The gauge increase also threatens 3- to 4-ounce lobster tails, popular with cruise lines and restaurant chains as part of “surf and turf” dishes. The tails are usually harvested from lobsters that are below the proposed minimum allowable catch size, dealers said in a letter asking the commission to deny or delay the increase.

CANADIAN MONOPOLY FEARED

With U.S. sizes limited, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association fears that Canadian markets will have a monopoly on smaller lobsters. That would likely impact where processors and dealers get their stock and how much money Maine lobstermen make, the association said previously.

To mitigate the impact, the commission’s lobster board voted unanimously on an amendment that bans any import of lobsters from Canada that are under the U.S. minimum size.

U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, on Monday, implored regulators to delay the implementation, giving the board and fishermen more time to collect more accurate and comprehensive stock data and study the economic impacts of a U.S.-only change.

“This gauge change hurts the U.S. while benefiting Canada, whose lobstermen fishing in the same waters as American lobstermen would not have to adhere to the same restrictions,” he said. “We know dealers and processors must have a steady lobster supply to keep their businesses open, which is why proceeding without ensuring that Canadian regulators impose similar requirements is not only economically detrimental but will do nothing to protect the future health of lobster stocks.”

Last month, Golden also introduced a budget amendment that would block federal funding from being used to administer or enforce the gauge increase.

The gauge increase is just the latest in a string of rule changes that members of the lobster industry say threaten their livelihood.

Lobstermen are simultaneously pushing back against rule changes by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Regional Fisheries Commission to protect lobster stock and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The new requirements include new gear-marking mandates, a reduction in the number of vertical lines in the water, the insertion of weak points in rope, a seasonal closure of a nearly 1,000-square-mile area in the Gulf of Maine, tracking devices on boats that fish in federal waters and electronic reporting of daily landings data.

Some of these regulations have been challenged in court, delaying some rules from taking effect for similar concerns about adverse impacts on the fishery.