NORTHEAST LOBSTER: South of Maine, there's new hope that the fishery can regain its luster

摘要

Those lobster license plates on Maine pickup trucks might as well be the industry trademark now. A full 85 percent of American lobsters come from the Pine Tree State, while southern New England and Long Island fishermen struggle to recover from the 1999 lobster die-off. Southern New England enjoyed an historic 21 percent market share between 1981 and 2000. But between 2001 and 2003, it dipped to an average of 12 percent. The regulatory response has already hurt lobster-men on the far end of the range with minimum gauge changes, Long Island Sound lobstermen say.