Lobster reproduction and growth in changing environmental conditions and the potential effects of offshore energy installations on seafloor habitats are among the topics to be studied through $2 million in grants awarded to the Maine Sea Grant program by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The money was divided into two tranches.
Maine Sea Grant, which is part of the University of Maine, received $1.4 million split across four years for research and outreach with regional partners to include fishermen, policymakers and the public in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southern New England.
They will go toward a competitive research competition to be announced this spring, along with extension and communications around the competition.
Changing habitat
Another $600,000 is going to second-year support for four lobster research projects led by UMaine, the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, Mass.
The goal of the projects is to advance understanding of lobster reproduction and growth in changing environmental conditions and to examine potential effects of offshore energy installations on seafloor habitats used by lobsters.
“These funds will enable my project team and me to continue to grow our dataset and fill in important data gaps around lobster growth allowing us to understand better how a changing environment may affect how lobsters grow and reproduce,” said Amalia Harrington, assistant professor of marine biology at UMaine.
The project, called the American Lobster Initiative, includes researchers, managers and industry partners and looks at lobster biology, population dynamics and related socioeconomic and management issues.
Findings are helping inform fishing practices and management decisions.
Outcomes so far include a “story map” that will continue to be updated as additional findings become available.
The American lobster (Homarus americanus) is among the nation’s most valuable fisheries, with approximately 113 million pounds landed in 2024, valued at $715 million. The industry supports the fishing and seafood supply chain and faces growing uncertainty driven by environmental and market change.
Since 2019, Sea Grant’s American Lobster Initiative has funded 40 projects to date.