Adaptive Capacity of the Maine Lobster Fishery: Insights from the Maine Fishermen’s Climate Roundtables

Abstract

Climate change is altering the abundance and distribution of fish stocks globally, resulting in changes in catchability and availability to commercial fisheries. The Gulf of Maine in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean is considered one of the world’s fastest warming marine regions and supports major commercial groundfish and shellfish fisheries in the U.S. Concomitant changes in ocean conditions affect growth, survival, distribution, and health of marine organisms; these include American lobster (Homarus americanus), which supports important fisheries in Maine. Lobster licenses are held in every coastal and island town in Maine and the lobster fishery contributed $391 million to Maine’s economy in 2022. Beyond economic value, lobster fishing holds cultural significance to coastal Maine communities. In this study, we examined the social-ecological domains of adaptive capacity in the Maine lobster fishery using insights from the Maine Fishermen’s Climate Roundtables. We examined these records to address the following questions: (1) What oceanographic and ecological changes have fishermen observed over the last 15 years? (2) How are fishermen responding to these observed changes, as well as other pressures the fishery is experiencing? Fishermen reported an overall shift in lobster biomass further east and offshore, resulting in strategic expansion of fishing seasons and geographic locations as a response. Shifts in biomass were thought to be connected to increases in sea surface and bottom temperature, decreases in salinity, a shift in the Eastern Maine Coastal Current, and a loss of historic lobster predator species. Fisheries learning exchanges, such as the Climate Roundtables, create social networks that foster continued knowledge sharing beyond the event as well as an opportunity to build more effective participatory conservation strategies that in turn support the continued viability of local livelihoods.