Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today announced $559,181 in federal funding for four NOAA Sea Grant projects, which will be conducted by Maine organizations researching the future of American lobster industry in the face of the global climate crisis. This research will address critical gaps in knowledge about how American lobster is being impacted by environmental changes in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and southern New England. 

“Mainers rely on the lobster industry for our economic livelihood; about 5,000 Mainers are employed by the industry, which brings in $1 billion to our state’s economy every year. Lobster is booming in Maine, and we’ve seen record hauls in the past few years. But the Gulf of Maine is warming at a rate faster than 99% of the rest of the world’s oceans, and we must know how the climate crisis will affect the future of the lobster industry,” said Pingree. “As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I fought for this funding because we must understand and to mitigate the potentially devastating effects of the climate crisis on Maine’s economic future. Sea Grant’s American Lobster Initiative will go far to make sure the lobster industry understands the challenges to come.”

Details of the four projects are as follows:

• Fishing in hot water: defining sentinel indicators of resilience in the American lobster fishery, The University of Maine at Orono ($125,808)
• Incorporating changes in thermal habitat and growth to improve the assessment of American lobster stocks and spatial distribution in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and Southern New England, The University of Maine at Orono ($100,766)
• Testing and developing effective non-invasive female maturity assessment methods and protocols for the American lobster (Homarus americanus), Maine Department of Marine Resources, Boothbay Harbor, ME ($102,587)
• Understanding and improving spatial distribution projections for lobster: Considering predation and building expert consensus, Gulf of Maine Research Institute ($220,020)

Congresswoman Pingree is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, where she prioritized increased funding for Sea Grant in the Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations legislation. In addition, Pingree encouraged Sea Grant to fund partnerships between industry experts, academia, and state agencies to research the impact of climate change on the American lobster industry.

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