Ogunquit News
Ogunquit lobsterman catches monster lobster
By C. Ayn Douglass
Ogunquit lobsterman Grant Hubbard shows off the "monster lobster" he caught in that town's waters. Due to state regulations, huge lobsters like this one - identified as key breeders - are returned to the waters of Maine in an effort to protect the longevity of the species.
Photo by C. Ayn Douglass
Under Maine regulations, lobsters exceeding five inches measured from the eye socket to the beginning of the tail (the carapace) are required to be put back into the water.
Had this fellow been caught in New Hampshire, where there is no maximum size law, he would have been kept and sold for somebody's dinner.
This nine-plus pounder had a crusher claw the size of a grown man's hand, and local lobsterman Grant Hubbard returned it to the farthest point in Ogunquit's waters - with the hope the lobster wouldn't migrate to New Hampshire.
Maine's law protects the oversized lobsters as they are proven breeders and, as the females grow, those that are breeders, as distinguished by the a V-notch in the flipper of their tails put there by lobstermen, will only breed with males of their own size or larger.
Returning notched females to the water has little benefit if the oversized males aren't available with which to breed, according to Maine's lobster industry.
Last year, the catch in Maine was estimated at 65 million pounds of lobster with a market value of $301 million.
Conservation measures such as the minimum sized law, the maximum sized law, the V-notch law and limiting the number of commercial lobster licenses are aimed at assuring Maine lobstermen will continue to provide 90 percent of the lobsters eaten in the United States.
