“Turbulent” is a word often used in reporting about the relationship between the people who lobster for a living and the people who regulate that business.

Same goes, when it comes to dialogue, for “heated” and “tense.”

The state of Maine last week announced something that might take the temperature down: As it develops new rules for fishing, it has undertaken to conduct the first survey of commercial lobstermen in almost 20 years. Good. And, managed correctly, restorative.

This regulatory landscape is generally uneven and hotly contested. A January television report about the fiery meeting on the subject of proposed federal regulation that would have increased the minimum size for harvested lobsters by one-sixteenth of an inch described the event as “awash with raised voices and cutting profanity.”

The state, which ultimately sided with the lobstermen on the size question, has a chance to be taken more seriously here, and it needs to take full advantage of it.

Even the invitation to participate in the survey, which originated with the Department of Marine Resources and has been issued with some urgency, is a good start. Too infrequently are the primary sources of each of our state’s most valuable and vital industries — and none of greater cultural importance than lobster fishing — asked for their informed, experienced read. The financial crisis spurred the last such survey, in 2008. This type of public-private outreach shouldn’t be so rare.

When it comes to lobster and the rate of change affecting the fishery, the need for the most reliable accounts of a business that outsiders tend to struggle to follow is pronounced.

Fishermen were kept on the sidelines of the process of ropeless gear testing in 2023, which fueled already-pulsing distrust of a technology that was suspected to lead to inefficiency. Constructive dialogue seemed like a long shot then. And now?

If this survey is poorly handled, it will likely corrode trust. Leaving it optional, rather than compulsory, introduces a degree of risk; low participation won’t give lobstermen confidence that their input has managed to move the needle. Rushing it through too fast is likely to drive skepticism. The survey needs to be extremely exhaustive … without asking too much. It’s a tall order, one that’s important Maine makes its very best effort to fulfill.