New Hampshire will not follow new lobster harvesting rules, Governor Ayotte says – The Boston Globe

The guidelines were meant to protect the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine after the commission found a 39 percent decrease in the spawning stock when comparing 2020-2022 to 2016-2018.

The new rules were intended to cover three states that fish in the Gulf of Maine: Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. But now officials in both Maine and New Hampshire have said they won’t adopt the new rules. Massachusetts has yet to weigh in.

“I suspect there may be some changes at the February ASFMC meetings in D.C., given the state action,” said David H. Watters, a Democratic state senator from Dover, who also represents New Hampshire on the fisheries commission.

The controversial rules have already been delayed and are scheduled to take effect over a two-year period, starting July 1, when the minimum catchable lobster would increase by 1/16 of an inch. It would go up again on July 1, 2027.

Watters said the updated rules were part of efforts to make sure fishing in the Gulf of Maine is sustainable and that lobster populations aren’t depleted. He said while lobster supplies look good now, there have been a few years where lobster spawning has been very poor, which could be related to warming waters in the Gulf of Maine.

Because it takes between 5 and 7 years for lobsters to grow to catchable size, it will take some time for the effects to surface.

“I think we are facing potential real difficulties with the fishery,” Watters said. In the coming years, he said, “There might be a whole lot fewer lobsters.”

But Ayotte called the new rules unnecessary and disruptive. She said they could cause lobstermen to lose a third of their catch and they would put New Hampshire fishermen at a competitive disadvantage with Canada, where the same regulations don’t apply.

American lobster is the top seafood species harvested by New Hampshire fishermen, both in terms of its economic value and by weight, according to a report from New England Feeding New England. In 2023, over 6 million pounds were harvested by commercial operations, worth about $39.5 million.

Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.