Protecting Egged-Females is a Centuries-Old Maine Practice

V-notching egg-bearing female lobsters has helped the Maine lobster fishery remain a sustainable and healthy fishery for more than a century. Through the bust years of the 1920s and 1930s to the boom years since 2000, steady presence of V-notching has helped the Maine fishery evolve into one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world.

Located on McKown Point in Boothbay Harbor, the federal hatchery released millions of larval lobsters during its long history. Photo courtesy of Omeka.net.

A 2017 research paper showed that during the 30 years between 1984 and 2014, the Gulf of Maine lobster population increased by a staggering 515%. Researchers estimated that lobster population growth in the Gulf was more than double what it would have been without conservation measures such as V-notching and maximum size regulations — a 515% increase rather than 242%.

But during the hundred years prior to the turn of the century, state regulators and lobstermen pursued other means of protecting the lobster population. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries established a lobster and fish hatchery at McKown Point in Boothbay Harbor in 1901 which operated for nearly fifty years. Between 15,000 and 20,000 lobsters were collected annually and held in the hatchery’s pound at John’s Bay in Pemaquid. According to Maine’s Sea and Shore Fisheries annual report for 1907-1908, female lobsters showing eggs were:

“taken to the hatchery pound and held there until the following spring, when the eggs become ripe and are fit for hatching. They are then taken into the hatchery and stripped of their eggs; the mother lobster is then returned to the vicinity from which it was originally gathered and there liberated, thus not decreasing the stock of breeding lobsters in a particular locality. After the young lobsters are hatched from the eggs and in proper condition for liberating, they are taken to the locality from which the mother lobster originally came, and there liberated in the proportion of 15,000 small to every mother lobster. It is generally believed that this system is of great benefit to such localities, and it is at present having the hearty co-operation of the fishermen who report large numbers of very small lobsters as being caught in their traps in the vicinity of where such plantings are made …”

According to a 1917 Bureau of Fisheries report, 175,159 lobsters were collected; 1,719,880,200 young lobsters were released between 1905 and 1916.

By the 1920s and 1930s, however, Maine’s lobster landings were sinking. University of Maine professor Jim Acheson, in his studies of the Maine lobster fishery, highlighted the dire situation faced by lobstermen in those decades.

“In the 1920s and 1930s, the period of the lobster bust, economic conditions in the industry were terrible. Catches were low, and prices in the Depression were also low. Forty percent of lobster fishermen went out of business between 1928 and 1930, and many of those remaining could barely earn a living in the fishery. The low stock sizes were produced, in some part, by the widespread violation of the conservation laws. In the early decades of the 20th century, eggs were scrubbed off female lobsters so the lobsters could be sold, and there was a large-scale trade in short lobsters.”

Lobstermen themselves became convinced that violations by lobstermen was the reason for low catches. They began to report the violations they saw to the marine wardens. In addition, lobstermen began to take V-notching seriously. More and more considered it the best way to boost local lobster stocks. After WWII, the practice got a big boost when men ending their military service took up V-notching as they returned to the water. In 1948, the state’s V-notch law, first passed in 1917, was changed so that lobsters were marked by a V-shaped notch in the tail rather than “punched” with a round hole.

The idea that the state, too, has a role to play in protecting egged female lobsters

V-notching was a family affair for the late Andy May's sons. MLA Photo.

continues to this day. In 1977 the Maine Legislature created the Lobster Fund, supported through a surcharge on lobster licenses. The Lobster Fund, which is managed by Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) in consultation with the Lobster Advisory Council (LAC), could use its revenue for multiple purposes, including research, purchasing and releasing egged lobsters, and supporting lobster hatcheries.

The idea of a lobster hatchery still had weight in 1977. The legislation stated specifically that grants to lobster hatcheries “shall be for a one-year period and shall be renewable indefinitely upon successful reapplication. There shall be no more than 5 lobster hatcheries supported under this section.” One such hatchery operated from 1986 to 1992 in Cutler (see sidebar).

Since its inception, the Fund has allowed Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Marine Patrol Officers to purchase, V-notch, and release egged lobsters as well as females not bearing eggs.

“Since roughly 2010 we have been going to the zone councils each year and asking them whether they would rather have the money used to buy lobsters or to do lobster research, such as sea sampling and monitoring,” explained Deirdre Gilbert, DMR Bureau of Policy and Management Director. “The LAC has largely used the money for research.”

However, the Fund is used to purchase egged lobsters from holding facilities to mark and release back into the Gulf. “The LAC still makes $25,000 available each year to purchase egged-out lobster from holding facilities,” Gilbert said. Lobster dealers alert Marine Patrol that they have egged lobsters, which they cannot legally sell. Marine Patrol arrives, weighs the lobsters, and gives the owner a “liberation slip” detailing the poundage. At the end of each year, the “liberation slips” are tallied, the value based on the average price for that year calculated, and the proprietor receives a check. But interest in the program is waning. “Last year was the first year that we had no requests,” Gilbert said.