Southern Maine Takes the Prize in the Billion Egg Challenge

The Billion Egg Challenge team competition has come to a close! The Southern Maine Future Catch, co-captained by MLA board members Christian LaMontagne and Chris Welch, V-notched 34,070 female lobsters from July 1 to September 25. The team will be awarded the coveted Motha Notcha Trophy at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum next March. More than 1,400 people from 50 states signed up to support the three teams.

Alan Crowley notches another! MLCA photo.

More than 180 lobstermen signed up for the friendly three-month competition, hosted by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the Maine Lobster Community Alliance, to see which section of the coast could V-notch the greatest number of lobsters toward the contest goal of protecting 1 billion lobster eggs.

Research shows that just 1% of lobster eggs spawned in a season live to become legal-sized lobsters. An average female Maine lobster carries about 10,000 eggs; larger lobsters may carry more than 100,000 eggs. A V-notch can take up to three molts to disappear, which means about six years of protection during which the female lobster can produce her eggs.

By adding 1 billion eggs to the Gulf of Maine, up to 10 million additional lobsters could survive to boost the future population.

“We set a big goal, but Mother Nature decides when and where those egg-bearing females show up,” said Patrice McCarron, Maine Lobstermen’s Association executive director. So Maine lobstermen will keep V-notching egg-bearing females through the remainder of the season while participants in the Challenge record those notches until 100,000 V-notches — reaching the 1 billion egg goal — have been collected from throughout the Maine coast.

V-notching has helped strengthen the Gulf of Maine lobster population as conditions in the Gulf have changed over the past two decades. It is an important part of the conservation ethic that supports the sustainability of Maine’s lobster fishery. It is critical that the public understand more about the practice. That is why this challenge mattered. People want to support fisheries that are doing the right thing.

As Brian Billings of Stonington, co-captain of the Midcoast Notchmen, said earlier this summer, V-notching is like investing now for your future self. “I compare it to your boat payments,” Billings said. “You are going to be paying on the boat for seven to ten years or longer. You want to protect your landings seven to ten years later as well.”

The Billion Egg Challenge was supported by Atwood Lobster, Bold Coast Seafood, Brooks Trap Mill, Cousins Maine Lobster, East Coast Seafood, Get Maine Lobster, Greenhead Lobster, Luke’s Lobster, Maine Lobster Now, and Ready Seafood.