Project abstract the american lobster (homarus americanus) and its fishery are facing a time of significant complexity and uncertainty with far-reaching environmental and socioeconomic impacts

This $220,478 Cooperative Agreement award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Sea Grant Support program (CFDA 11.417) will be administered by the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (MCCF) to improve the understanding of the economics of the New England lobster fishery.

The key products and services to be delivered under this award include: 1) Co-designing an updated cost and effort survey and questionnaire with a project advisory group, including fuel consumption and energy usage questions; 2) Conducting outreach activities to maximize survey participation by the lobster industry harvest sector; 3) Evaluating a latent class stochastic frontier model to describe overall fleet characteristics and profit efficiencies of identified business models using the updated harvester economic data collected; and 4) Disseminating the results and findings to inform decision-making by the Maine Lobster Advisory Councils, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and Maine's Department of Marine Resources. This data and analysis will help support the economic viability and resilience of the commercial lobster fishery in the face of ecosystem and regulatory changes.

Understanding the economic and social systems impacted by these changes can enhance the industry and communities capacity for resilience to impending environmental and resource management changes. The gulf of maine lobster industry faces a series of economic pressures in the form of increased operating costs, price instability and predicted declining catches due to variable recruitment. At the same time, declines in the north atlantic right whale (eubalaena glacialis) population have triggered protected species intervention, and fishermen in maine and elsewhere are bracing for restrictions in the use of vertical lines, even more strict than those currently in use in massachusetts BAY and in canada. Portions of the gulf of maine have now been subjected to fishery closures, with significant community impacts and more expected. There are questions about what actions are needed and what strategies are emerging for community adaptation in the face of significant operational, climate, and regulatory changes ahead. The maine center for coastal fisheries based in stonington, the #lobster port in maine, proposes to administer a socio-economic survey to the maine lobster industry to assess profit efficiency and harvester operating models for representative year fishing 2023-2024. This project will generate a vital dataset capturing primary harvester socio economic data in a consistent format to prior years to create the first and only comprehensive long-term time series of socioeconomic surveys for the gulf of maine lobster industry. This proposal directly addresses priorities #3) assessments of impacts of economic uncertainty on social systems, governance structures, and workforce diversification; and #4) to evaluate economic implications of policy and potential regulatory changes and/or other future resource management actions. Expanding uses of the marine environment and regulatory uncertainties related to the atlantic large whale take reduction plan (ALWTRP) have further introduced the potential for significant socio-economic impacts to the lobster industry. These changes affect how and where the lobster industry operates, placing additional pressures on fishing communities. This proposal provides the needed research to assess the economic implications of and adaptations to ecosystem and/or regulatory changes so as to enhance community resiliency and fill a knowledge GAP for resource managers in need of research and data to inform integrated approaches to complex marine issues. Project goal: improve the understanding of the economics of the new england lobster fishery to increase the knowledge base for making decisions that affect the profitability and economic viability of the commercial fishery. We will CO-design an updated cost and effort survey and questionnaire in collaboration with the project advisory group; include fuel consumption and energy usage questions. Design and produce survey instrument and outreach materials so as to maximize survey response rates and industry participation. We will conduct outreach activities to support survey participation by the harvest sector of the lobster industry. With an updated costs and effort raw data set for representative year 2023 - 2024, we will evaluate a latent class stochastic frontier model to describe overall fleet characteristics and profit efficiencies of the identified business models. We will ground truth and work to disseminate results and findings these data collected will provide a representative year of harvester economic profit efficiency assessments to inform decision-making of the maine lobster advisory councils, asmfc, and maines DMR. These outputs will further aid fishermen in their evaluation of proposed conservation alternatives, and gear investments. Analysis by the nation