Hatchery

Purpose

The long term goal of Zone C Lobster Hatchery is the sustainability of lobster fishing in the Gulf of Maine. The more immediate objective is to discover the role hatcheries can play in enhancing localized depletion of wild stocks. The hatchery is a community-supported science project, designed to determine whether hatchery-reared lobsters can be used to restore locally depleted areas. This is vitally important in management Zone C, in the Penobscot and Blue Hill Bay area, where more than 900 lobstermen fish in 40,000 fishing acres and depend almost entirely on lobsters for their livelihood.

While European hatchery-reared lobsters have been shown to enhance depleted fishing areas, this has never before been demonstrated for the American lobster. Beyond the immediate conservation needs of the Maine lobster industry, the hatchery-rearing techniques and monitoring protocols developed here could apply to the production of other marine species and to replenishing fish-depleted areas elsewhere in the world.

Parts of Zone C have been identified in the New England Lobster Settlement Index as having good juvenile habitat but low abundance of young lobsters, making it a good place to see whether enhancement can work. Funded and overseen by Zone C fishermen, rearing lobsters is viewed as a form of insurance against potential stock failures or man-made disasters. It is a true collaboration between community fishermen and Penobscot East.

History

Zone C is one of Maine’s seven lobster management zones encompassing over 400,000 fishing acres and more than nine hundred lobstermen in Penobscot Bay and Blue Hill Bays. Aware of the fragility of this resource, fishermen attempted to establish their own volunteer-staffed hatchery in the 1980s but it was not until 2003 when the Stonington Fisheries Alliance, Stonington Lobster Coop and the Zone C Lobster Council joined forces with Penobscot East Resource Center that the hatchery became a viable operation. This community undertaking receives oversight and guidance from Penobscot East which is responsible for operational and research support and development to augment funding from the fishing community and local towns.

The Hatchery is housed in a waterfront building donated by the Stonington Lobster Co-op and guided by a 16 person steering committee representing all the nine districts in Zone C. It is staffed by a full-time hatchery manager college intern and two local part-time hatchery technicians. Ted Ames, founding Penobscot East board member and MacArthur Award recipient continues to share his experience and creativity consulting on design, staff training, and being on call for operations. Every year before the lobster season, Zone C fishermen meet with Penobscot East staff and collaborating scientists at the Collaborative Lobster Enhancement Evaluation Workshop, to discuss the previous season’s results and strategize developments for the next one.

In 2010, hatchery productions operations will be suspended until further notice but site monitoring will continue. The original goal of producing juvenile lobsters for restocking locally depleted areas has been accomplished. There is no need at present, while area lobster stocks are very healthy, to continue with production. Rick Wahle’s  research divers will undertake four monitoring dives to report on resettlement progress in 2010.

“We started the hatchery because fishermen in Zone C wanted to learn whether we could raise lobsters to replenish locally-depleted areas.” said Hatchery Director, Ted Ames.

“In just a few years we created a hatchery that can produce more than 100,000 lobsters a summer – so now we know how to do that -- it is something we can use in the future if the economics dictate.”

More details can be found in Press Release 4.12.2010: PENOBSCOT EAST’S ZONE C LOBSTER HATCHERY TO SUSPEND OPERATIONS THIS SEASON.

Hatchery Funding

In February 2005, Penobscot East mailed the first hatchery funding drive to the 915 Zone C fishermen. Winter is never the best time to ask for money , but by the first week in August, an envelope with donations from ten Matinicus fishermen put the drive over the $25,000 goal. Additional funding came from private donations, local towns and fundraising events. Construction of the hatchery cost approximately $80,000, with over $27,000 donated by Zone C lobstermen and their communities. Many lobstermen sent in individual donations averaging $100 and have continued to do so in subsequent years.

The remainder of the money was provided by Penobscot East, which secured a $25,000 matching grant from the Tides Foundation in San Francisco, and provided an additional $30,000 from its operating funds. The towns of Isle au Haut, Deer Isle, Brooklin, North Haven, Vinalhaven, Brooksville and Stonington have also supported the hatchery every year, voting money on the warrant at their annual town meetings. Local organizations including area banks, businesses, and the Downeast Lobstermen’s Association also contribute. For two years running, lobster dealer Huey Reynolds has organized a benefit golf tournament to raise hatchery funds.