US lobster fishery faces delay in gauge-size increase; Canadian harvesters call for government to do more to combat illegal fishing

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Board has initiated the process to delay a gauge size increase for the U.S. lobster fishery until 1 July 2025. The ASMFC first delayed an increase in the lobster gauge size in October 2023, after lobster trawl surveys indicated a decline in the population of sub-legal lobsters. The gauge size increase was first initiated in 2017 as a proactive measure to improve the resiliency of the lobster stock in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, but that process was paused to focus on issues related to entanglement of North Atlantic right whales. In May 2023, ASMFC adopted Addendum XXVII, which created a trigger mechanism to implement management measures to protect the lobster spawning stock biomass. Those changes would increase the gauge and escape vent sizes, based on changes in recruitment abundance. The current minimum gauge size is 3.25 inches, and the new gauges would increase that to 3.3125 inches. It would also ban ...