Study: Maine's lobster co-management system offers lessons for other fisheries

MAINEBIZ • September 24, 2020

In the 1990s, Maine’s lobster industry and state regulators developed a co-management system that established seven lobster fishing councils, comprised of local fishermen, to oversee fishing practices in seven zones along the coast. The system was designed to integrate the knowledge of local fishermen to help manage certain aspects of the fishery, as an alternative to top-down management by government regulators. That model has lessons for fisheries beyond Maine, according to a new study by University of Maine conservation scientists.