Efficiency of the Maine Lobster Fishery

The Maine lobster fishery is the most valuable commercial fishery in the state, and as such, supports a large number of families across very diverse communities. Researching efficiency of the Maine lobster fishery is important platform from which to understand how regulation impacts the fishery dynamics and the economy. An efficient fishery maintains a specific yield while reducing effort and costs. Although current Gulf of Maine lobster landings are at a historical high, the large quantity of traps (and thus fishing effort) used in the fishery makes it less profitable. To research efficiency, an individual based model (IBM), previously developed for the Gulf of Maine lobster, will be modified and used to evaluate how yield may change  at different levels of fishing efforts i.e., traps hauls. The lobster IBM mimics the life history and fishery of individual lobsters and quantifies how they grow in size, become mature and die due to fishing and natural mortalities. Using this model, we simulate the Maine lobster fishery under different realistic management strategies. This research focuses on identifying ways to maximize economic value of the Maine lobster fishery through improved fishery efficiency.