Every islander knows that lobstering is the lifeblood of nearly all of the state’s 15-year round island communities. It is the engine that drives island economies.
It’s one of the few careers left in which young people can earn enough to be able to afford the dramatically higher cost of living on islands. Fathers can still teach their sons and daughters how to lobster, and carry on this traditional work.
The lobster industry plays a much bigger role on islands than on the mainland. According to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, 18 percent of islanders hold lobster licenses, compared to only 1 percent of mainland residents. On some islands, almost everyone is a lobstermen. On Matinicus and Frenchboro, 60 to 70 percent of islanders hold lobster licenses, according to the Island Institute’s 2009 Island Indicators report.
When lobstermen decided in 1996 to run their own fishery, through the adoption of seven zones along the Maine coast, it was an important step, allowing these fishermen to manage parts of their own fishery, in cooperation with the state.
This development, however, meant that all year-round islands, with the exception of Monhegan (which has its own zone) became part of larger, mainland zones. And now every zone except Zone C (from southern Penobscot Bay to western Blue Hill Bay) is closed, which means those seeking to get lobster licenses are now on long waiting lists.
Each lobster zone also has a system in place for new licenses to be issued, based on the number of tags (or traps) already in the water. In some zones, that means up to five lobstermen have to retire before a new license can be issued. Since everyone is on the same waiting lists, islanders end up competing with mainland residents for licenses.
So when an island lobstermen retires, his tags do not go to another islander, but go to the next person on the waiting list. Islanders who wait for years to get a full lobster license may give up, meaning islands will lose both lobster licenses and the men and women who sustain these communities.
“The Maine islands that depend on lobster fishing to maintain their year-round populations will slowly die if they continue to lose lobster licenses,” said Swan’s Island lobstermen Sonny Sprague, in a story by Sandra Dinsmore about island lobster licenses in the February-March 2009 Working Waterfront.
Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree and Rob Snyder, the Island Institute’s vice president of programs, have both heard over the past two years from islanders about the shortage of island lobster licenses and the threat it poses to these communities. “I heard from a number of islanders who were expressing concern, particularly those in Frenchboro and Islesford,” said Snyder. The Island Institute held a meeting of island lobstermen who sit on the lobster zone councils. “It was a matter of seeing if everyone could come to agreement on a particular approach,” Snyder said. This bill “was the approach everyone felt would best serve the islands.”
So Rep. Pingree, from North Haven, proposed a bill to help island lobstermen (L.D. 1231). It would allow each island to determine a specific number of licenses that will help support the island. And these islands could then set up their own waiting lists for the island licenses.
If the bill passes, a two-thirds vote by island lobstermen would be needed to set up this new system. Those who apply for the island license must have lived on that island for at least five years and document that they harvested lobsters in all of those five years.
Mainland lobstermen would be eligible to apply for the island license. “The idea is to keep fishing fleets on islands, it is not about excluding mainlanders,” said Snyder.
This bill marks an important step in fisheries management. It introduces the concept of homeport licenses, in which a specific port or island can retain the rights to fish. The rules for licenses in the lobster industry are completely different from the rules that govern groundfishing licenses. However, why couldn’t this concept also be applied to the groundfish industry, where the entire coast of Maine is in danger of losing fishing licenses?
Without lobster licenses, year-round unbridged islands could face an uncertain future. This bill is not just about lobster licenses; it is about preserving a way of life on the state’s year-round islands.