In July, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) with NMFS’s preferred alternative for the whale rules, which will amend the Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. While this is … Continue reading
To Your Health: Watch out for your dusty rope!
Maine lobstermen have spent a lot of time over the winter, spring and summer applying purple marks to their rope. The Department of Marine Resources has mandated that by September 1, all lobstermen, including those … Continue reading
Assessing Vertical Line Use & Functional Breaking Strength in the Maine Lobster Fishery
first published in Landings, February, 2020 In the summer of 2018, the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and partners at FB Environmental and the University of Maine received a three-year grant from NOAA to assess … Continue reading
Adaptation Part Of Life For Maine’s Lobstermen
Maine is home to more than 4,800 licensed lobstermen operating along the coast. Those lobstermen represent fishing traditions that go back more than one hundred years. Within the small towns that dot the Maine coast, … Continue reading
From lobster rope to Old Glory
First published in the Ellsworth American. Reprinted with permission in Landings, July, 2015. Rope is not scarce in Maine. Brightly colored polypropylene line, piled on wharves and in the back of pickup trucks, is a … Continue reading
In the News: October 2013
First published in Landings, October, 2013. Marine patrol officer promoted Rene Cloutier, a 20-year veteran of the Maine Bureau of Marine Patrol, has been promoted to Lieutenant of Division I, which includes the Maine coast … Continue reading
Research shows troubling signs in entangled whales
First published in Landings, July, 2013. In a report released in May, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) scientists provided a new assessment of how fishing lines change a whale’s diving and swimming behavior. They found … Continue reading
Lobster rope becomes huge New York City sculture
First published in Landings, June, 2013. This is a story about how Orly Genger, an artist in Brooklyn, New York, found her medium of choice – rope – in the Maine lobster fishery. In 2009, … Continue reading
In the News: March 2013
First published in Landings, March, 2013. Calling for old rope The Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation (GOMLF) will purchase used groundlines or endlines from fishermen in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, through … Continue reading
The scope of rope in the Maine lobster industry
First published in the MLA Newsletter, February, 2012 Ask four Maine lobstermen which rope they prefer and you will likely get four answers today, and four different answers next month. Regardless of where lobstermen fish, … Continue reading