MLA Directors Meeting Summary The MLA Board of Directors met on February 11. The board welcomed representatives from Seascale Maine, a company that develops aquaculture gear for lobstermen that can be integrated into normal fishing operations to create a new revenue stream. They developed the Maine scallop pot, which looks much like a traditional lobster trap but has four stacked trays inside to grow scallops. The board asked many questions and overall thought the concept was good. They were...

Did you get a text about the Maine Lobster Economics Survey? It’s real, not spam. The MLA has heard lobstermen say the cost of lobstering has gone up and you’re struggling to make a living. We really need to collect this information, so we hope you will consider participating. The survey will be open until March 31 and can be done online using your computer, tablet, or smartphone, or by phone interview. It will take about 30 minutes. You must be at least 18 years old and have landed 1,000+...

Russell Bartovics, North Haven, is a lobsterman. The fact that he is just ten years old and in fifth grade doesn’t matter. Ask him about his boat, traps and bait and he will answer with the surety of a lobsterman decades older. Heading in! He got his license when he was eight but, as he is quick to point out, “I had traps for years before that under my dad’s license.” Russell learned the basics of lobstering early on from his father, Foster Bartovics, who goes with him now when he’s tending...