Our fishing communities were once sustained by many different species – lobster, codfish, herring, winter flounder, even tuna. Now, due to overfishing, advanced technology, coastal development, pollution and stricter fisheries regulations that excluded small boats, many of these historic fisheries are unavailable to local fishermen. Our coastal communities are now precariously dependent on lobster, which provided 76 percent of the value of all marine species landed in Maine in 2005.

Our coastal communities are precariously dependent on lobster.

Penobscot East Resource Center believes that communities can responsibly manage our resources and regain access to diverse fisheries as those stocks rebuild.

We work toward this goal with a tool called “Community-Based Fisheries Management”—an approach where communities directly manage their own marine resources. This management style protects and sustains communities and resources alike. When applied more broadly, it is known as Community-Based Resource Management.

Community-based management is practiced worldwide, from Alaska to Thailand, from Mexico to New England. The Deer Isle-Stonington Clam Committee is a good example of community-based fisheries management. The committee was founded by the two island towns, and is the type of organization Penobscot East exists to support.

Vinalhaven Fish Company at the turn of last century

The Stonington Fisheries Alliance also practices community-based resource management. The alliance started in 1999 to introduce the concept of managing fisheries based on principles that lead to sustainability.

The Zone C Lobster Hatchery provides a working example of Community-Based Fisheries Management. The hatchery was initiated by fishermen, and built for fishermen, as a way to learn about sustaining and protecting the resource on which they depend.

The marine ecosystem is complex and interdependent. The loss of one species will most certainly affect others. We all must be involved in managing our resources if we want to ensure a future for our fishing communities and our world.