The Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the Maine Lobster Community Alliance last week launched the Billion Egg Challenge, a statewide team competition among Maine lobstermen to protect one billion lobster eggs through the industry’s longstanding V-notching conservation practice.
The challenge kicked off with a video launch from Winter Harbor lobster harvester and social media creator Jacob Knowles and runs through Sept. 25, which was designated by the U.S. Senate in 2025 as “National Lobster Day.” The video is posted on a website called “Billion Egg Challenge.”
“V-notching is about tradition, conservation and heritage,” said Sonny Beal, a Beals Island lobster harvester and chair of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “I’ve taught my boys that every V-notched lobster is an investment in the future of Maine’s lobster fishery.”
10M future lobsters
V-notching is a way of marking egg-bearing female lobsters by cutting a small V-shaped notch in their tails before releasing them back into the ocean.
“Why does protecting one billion eggs matter? Those eggs could grow into 10 million future lobsters,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. “The Billion Egg Challenge is a way to celebrate Maine’s world-class stewardship of the lobster resource and make sure consumers, managers and the public understand the conservation leadership of Maine lobstermen.”
Landings decline
The competition comes at a time when lobster landings have steadily declined in recent years.
According to preliminary data released earlier this year by the Maine Department of Marine Resources, Maine lobster harvesters landed 78.8 million pounds in 2025, down from 87.2 million pounds in 2024 and from 110.7 million pounds in 2021. Maine lobster harvesters took over 21,000 fewer fishing trips in 2025 than in 2024, a nearly 10% decline that likely contributed to the landings decline.
The declines don’t indicate a problem with the resource, McCarron said.
“The lobster resource remains healthy,” she said. “Changing ocean conditions, temperatures and price volatility for both input costs and boat price for lobster have contributed to the decline in landings.”
She continued, “We continue to hear from lobstermen that they are seeing high-quality lobsters, lots of egged-out females and lots of shorts coming through their traps.”
Maine’s lobster management program limits what can be landed to leave enough lobsters in the ocean to keep the resource strong, she noted.
“Any lobsters that are caught in traps and can’t be landed are returned to the ocean alive,” she added.
The decline in fishing trips is attributable to changes in the economics of the fishery, she said.
“The cost of fishing has increased significantly due to rising costs of equipment, bait, fuel and everything else,” McCarron said. “On top of that, the water was colder last year, so landings were later and streamed in over the course of the season, rather than having large pulses in the landings. That meant that traps needed to soak longer to bring in enough product to cover costs.”
Century of conservation
Lobstermen began voluntarily marking “eggers” over a century ago as a way to ensure the survival of the fishery, McCarron told Mainebiz.
“After World War II, the practice gained support when many lobstermen credited increasing catches to V-notching,” the association wrote in an article published by the Maine Lobster Community Alliance. “Marking egg-bearing females was originally done by punching a hole in the tail. In 1948, Maine passed a law to mark egg-bearing lobsters with a V-shaped notch in the tail rather than a round hole. From that time on, it became known as the V-notch program.”
From the mid-1980s through the early 2000s, the association did an annual V-notch count with lobstermen each fall to document to scientists the practice’s effectiveness, McCarron continued.
The count was no longer needed when the state expanded its sea sampling program, she said.
Stewardship — with fun
But with a goal to educate harvesters and the public about the practice’s benefits, the association partnered last year with the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, a South Portland nonprofit advocating for wild fishery harvesters, to create messaging through social media, posters down on the docks and a website.
“Given everything the industry is facing, this year we wanted to celebrate our stewardship and have a little fun for a change,” McCarron said. “We came up with the idea for the Billion Egg Challenge to bring the entire lobster community together to celebrate the fishery’s world-class conservation program and promote the industry’s sustainability practices.”
An average-sized female carries 10,000 eggs.
“The larger the lobster gets, the more eggs she will carry — and it can be up to 100,000 eggs,” she said.
According to the Billion Egg Challenge website, V-notched females can produce up to nine times more eggs compared to a lobster that does not get a V-notch.
“Scientists estimate there were 201 million lobsters on bottom in 2025 and set the goal to reach 229 million lobsters,” the website says.
Only 1% of eggs reach harvest size, so preserving 1 billion eggs could add 10 million more lobsters to the population.
The competition consists of three teams: the Downeast Tail Pinchers, captained by Sonny Beal and Jacob Knowles; the Midcoast Notchmen, captained by Brian Billings and John Tripp; and the Southern Maine Future Catch, captained by Christian LaMontagne and Chris Welch.
Public participation
Lobstermen and student lobstermen are invited to join their regional team. Participants will receive custom Billion Egg Challenge V-notch jars to save their notches throughout the competition. Each week, participating lobstermen will report the number of egg-bearing females they V-notched. Team totals and progress toward the one billion egg goal will be updated weekly on a challenge leaderboard.
Members of the public can support their favorite team for a chance to win free lobster for a year. Businesses and industry supporters can sponsor the challenge to help fund conservation tools, education and outreach.
Sponsors include the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Maine Lobster Community Alliance, Cousins Maine Lobster, Luke’s Lobster, Maine Lobster Now, Get Maine Lobster, Bold Coast Seafood, Brooks Trap Mill, Greenhead Lobster, East Coast Seafood and Atwood Lobster.
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association, established in 1954, is the oldest fishing industry association on the East Coast.
