A lobster fisherman unpacks a lobster on a wharf in Portland in May 2020. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press, file

AUGUSTA — After years of feeling overlooked, Maine lobstermen will get the opportunity to inform government data in a state-run survey addressing their views on the future of the fishery.

The Lobster Advisory Council approved the move at a meeting Tuesday based on a proposal from the Department of Marine Resources, which wants to complete the survey as soon as possible.

This is the first survey the department has conducted in 17 years — the last one gauged issues that emerged during the 2008 financial crisis.

This time, lobstermen will answer questions about what they see out on the water, their opinions on potential regulations, what they want the fishery to look like in 10 years, and what needs to be done to reach that point.

“There is broad support that fishermen want to feel like they are engaged in the process more, want to participate more, and want to feel like they’re being heard,” said Carl Wilson, Maine’s new marine resources commissioner. “I think we can do that, but it means that the work needs to continue.”

The Department of Marine Resources will bring the results in October to a regulatory board that oversees commercial lobstering along the East Coast. State officials and industry members hope it will have an impact on the rulemaking that lobstermen say could change the fishery as they know it.

The council, which unanimously approved the plan, appointed a subcommittee of council members tasked with churning out the survey as quickly as possible.

They face a mighty obstacle, though. How do they get lobstermen to participate?

“I hope people answer, I hope they are honest and I hope it sheds some light,” Joshua Joyce, a Swans Island lobsterman, said after the meeting.

HEARING THEM OUT

Lobstermen largely take issue with rules handed down to them and how regulators collect the data those rules are based on.

Many lobstermen say scientists and regulators don’t value their expertise. They believe their absence from this research has led to what they consider faulty science and faulty solutions.

This conversation grew louder as research from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the regulatory board for 15 East Coast states, concluded in 2023 that Maine’s lobster stock had significantly dropped and in turn passed rules to sustain those populations.

One of those rules would have increased the minimum size of lobsters that fishermen could keep.

But spurred by years of ire from Maine’s lobstermen, the regulatory board voted in February to repeal that change. It put pressure on Maine’s lobstermen and industry participants to come up with alternative solutions. Ultimately, Maine still needs to take action to meet conservation standards.

“You broke it. You own it. What have you got?” said board member Daniel McKiernan, director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, during the American Lobster Board’s winter meeting.

Lobstermen work at sunrise on Sept. 8, 2022, off Kennebunkport. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press

GAUGING WHAT IS GOING ON

Lobstermen have put forward a variety of ideas. Many have suggested that the East Coast states need to better enforce v-notching, a requirement to mark breeding and egg-carrying females and throw them back in the water. Other suggestions include banning lobstermen from catching any females or authorizing minimum size increases, but allowing an opportunity to decrease them once the stock rebounds.

Thus far, those experiences, opinions and suggestions have all amounted to anecdotal evidence— and for the most part, coming from the people who attend meetings and events.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources wants the survey to take that evidence and make it scientific.

“It’s a way to give a voice to the people that really are not participating in these conversations,” said Wilson, the commissioner. “Soliciting a survey from the industry is also a good-faith (effort) from the department that we want to hear and we want to listen.”

In the 2008 survey, fishermen were asked about the lobster fishery, the price of bait or number of traps allowed in a fishing zone, and what solutions were needed, such as limitations on traps and how many people are allowed to hold licenses.

“The questions are going to be around the resource, economics and the future of the fishery,” Wilson said. “I want to have the information available — here’s our most recent updates for the resource, here’s our opinion — as we see it today — from the fishing industry, here’s the strengths and weaknesses of all of this.”

GETTING BUY-IN

Council members identified one large roadblock to the survey’s success: Will enough people complete it?

Just 2,381 of the 6,832 licensed lobstermen submitted responses to the surveys in 2008 — a 35% return rate.

Many members of the Lobster Advisory Council said the survey can only make waves with widespread participation. And many were worried about making that happen.

Some audience members said participation could be low because lobstermen might view the survey as a waste of time. There are also confidentiality concerns.

“The older guys that aren’t in this room, so to speak, have the perception that ‘everything’s already a done deal, so why bother?'” said advisory council member John Drouin, a Cutler lobsterman.

This time around, Drouin, who also volunteered to be on the survey subcommittee, said lobstermen need to know how important this survey is — that it’s one that could make the biggest impact thus far.

“We need to explain to the industry that, ‘We need your participation in this. This is where we’re at,'” he said. “Do we let the feds, let ASMFC (the regional board), have control of our fishery, or do we want to be the ones controlling it?”