Project

Resilience, Adaptation, and Transformation in Lobster Fishing Communities

Using lessons learned in the past to inform the future

Fishermen and fishing communities have adjusted to ecosystem changes in the past, and insights from these experiences may provide useful lessons for communities anticipating future changes. Using the American lobster fishery as a case study, we will draw lessons from community experiences through a downturn in lobster populations in Southern New England that could help identify conditions and decisions that support resilient fishing communities in the Gulf of Maine as they face potential future changes.

Project Goals:

  • Characterize outcomes experienced by Southern New England fishing communities after declines in lobster abundance in the late 1990s.
  • Understand individual and community choices and the contexts associated with specific community outcomes.
  • Assess how current contexts surrounding Gulf of Maine fishing communities may influence choices and outcomes if faced with future lobster population declines.
  • Share experiences from Southern New England and potential resilience and adaptation pathways with interested participants in the Gulf of Maine lobster industry.

Project Team

Project Sponsor

NOAA logo

This project is funded by NOAA’s National Sea Grant Office as part of its American Lobster Initiative under award NA19OAR4170398.

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