Maine's lobster fishery — one that supports thousands of jobs statewide — is extensively monitored. Management efforts are informed by biological monitoring surveys observing changes in abundance and distribution of the lobster population, and dealer and harvester reporting from the industry. Yet these statistics don't tell the whole story of an industry shaken by supply and market disruptions and geopolitical conflict, or the welfare of the people and communities that rely on it.
Since the annual commercial lobster landings have declined 27% from 2016-2022, the Maine Lobsterman Association sought new ways to monitor the socioeconomic resilience of the industry and better position its leaders to respond to social, economic, environmental and regulatory changes.
After two years of data collection, quantitative and qualitative analyses, meetings and interviews with lobstermen and other stakeholders, a University of Maine-led team of researchers devised new indicators to holistically monitor the industry's resilience. These metrics have the potential to offer greater insight into the well-being of fishermen and their families, haulers, processors, restaurateurs, other businesses and the communities in which they all reside.
"For far too long, fishery managers have lacked the data needed to consider the social and economic impacts of regulations on Maine's lobster industry. This study provides a suite of indicators to fill that gap so that future regulations may address sustaining the resource, lobstermen and Maine's coastal communities," said Patrice McCarron, executive director for the Maine Lobstermen's Association.
Published in the academic journal Marine Policy , the team identified eight socioeconomic indicators: coastal accessibility, operational condition, business investments, community composition, financial health, risk taking, personal spending and physical and mental health. Coastal accessibility is the availability and affordability of waterfront housing; operational condition equates to business expenses and cost proxies; and community composition means demographic information.
Each indicator is backed by secondary data from state and federal agencies, as well as publicly available information from certain businesses and organizations. For example, the operational condition indicator uses landing, trip, crew and gear data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources; while coastal accessibility uses inventory, price and demographic data from the Maine Housing Authority, Realtor.com and Airbnb.com.
"These indicators define important socioeconomic components of the fishery that lobstermen have been describing for many years. Quantifying the indicators provides an opportunity for fishermen, local communities and managers to identify and quickly respond to changes in socioeconomic condition of the fleet," said Theresa Burnham, a research associate with the UMaine School of Marine Sciences. Burnham co-led the study conducted to create these socioeconomic indicators with Joshua Stoll, associate professor of marine policy.
Diving into the data
