Tag Archives: University of Maine’s Lobster Institute
The Maine lobster fishery is coming off a record year, faces challenges ahead
Maine’s lobster fishery scored a record-breaking value in 2021, with a 75% increase over 2020 and a 10% increase in landed weight. But fishermen face increasing pressures, including difficulty finding and keeping crew, rising operational costs, competition for fishing grounds from other industries, new regulations affecting fishing gear and methods and coastal development pressure that’s squeezing waterfront access and opportunities to live they work. >click to read< 09:25
Canadian-U.S. Lobstermen’s Town Meeting set for this weekend
The University of Maine’s Lobster Institute will host the 15th edition of the Canadian-U.S. Lobstermen’s Town Meeting at the Westin Portland Harborview Hotel on Friday and Saturday, April 5 and 6. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Two Nations, Two Fisheries: Shared Challenges, Shared Opportunities.” Lobstermen, dealers, processors, scientists and policymakers from the Northeast United States and Atlantic Canada will gather together for discussions about the status of the lobster resource and the business of lobstering. >click to read<19:06
Wahle named director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine
University of Maine marine sciences research professor Richard Wahle has been named director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, effective Sept. 1. He succeeds Robert Bayer, who has directed the institute since 1995 and is retiring from UMaine this year. Wahle joined UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences in 2009. He is based at the University’s Darling Marine Center, where he will continue to teach and conduct research. In 1989, Wahle founded the American Lobster Settlement Index, a program that now monitors the number of juvenile lobsters that settle to the seafloor at over 80 sampling sites from Rhode Island to Atlantic Canada. The index sheds light on the ocean processes that deliver lobster larvae to their rocky coastal nurseries, and serves as a predictor of trends in recruitment to the fishery. >click to read<10:36
Science Pushed to Back Burner, as Swiss Outlaw Live Lobster Boiling
Some find it strange, while others, simply fascinating. And others still put it on their dinner menu because they’re drawn to its preparation in a macabre sort of way. But the government of Switzerland believes the practice of throwing a live lobster in a pot of boiling water is unnecessary, and most of all, cruel.,, And this heartfelt legislative decision – presumably not on humanitarian, but lobsterian, grounds – was made Jan. 10. In short, the Swiss simply feared that these tasty, sea creatures experienced agonizing pain during those final, heated moments of their lives. There’s only one problem with that: it’s impossible, since there’s no scientific evidence to support the position. >click here to read< 10:09
