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The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) and the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) today launched a season-long campaign to promote a key conservation measure among lobstermen known as v-notching.
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V-notching is an industry-initiated conservation practice that maintains healthy stocks by keeping breeding females where they belong, in the ocean. The MLA and NEFSA are promoting this essential practice together, consistent with the Maine lobster fishery’s international reputation for environmental stewardship.
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“Maine lobstermen have been v-notching proven breeders as a tool to keep the lobster stock healthy for many decades. It’s common sense,” said Jarod Bray, Chairman of the MLA board of directors. “Ensuring an egged female has a chance to breed again is like putting money in the bank. This investment is a way to ensure the fishery is health for the next generation.”
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“Maine lobstermen have ably stewarded our resource for decades,” said NEFSA COO Dustin Delano, a fourth-generation lobsterman. “As regulators get more active in our fishery, it is critical that lobstermen lead by example and underline our commitment to best sustainability practices. After all, no lobsterman wants to catch the last lobster.”
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V-notching is simple but powerful. When lobstermen catch a female lobster bearing eggs, they cut a small, harmless mark cut into the right tail flipper of egg-bearing females and carefully return her to the water. The v-notch signals to lobstermen who subsequently catch the lobster that they should return it to the water even if the eggs have already hatched.
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Lobstermen have been voluntarily v-notching for many decades and at the industry’s urging, has been mandatory since 2002. The practice is extremely effective. Studies have shown that notching lobsters produces more significantly more eggs which is important since less than one percent of lobster eggs survive to become a legal lobster.
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Through direct outreach, social media, and a new resource hub at vnotch.info, MLA and NEFSA will be sharing videos, tools, and essential information throughout the season to keep the focus on v-notching, especially at critical points of service like co-ops, wharves, and buying stations. Both organizations together represent the overwhelming majority of Maine’s lobster fishery.
The MLA and NEFSA anticipate that their v-notching awareness campaign will run through November.