Maine fishermen hauled in 110.8 million pounds of lobsters in 2017 with a value of more than $400 million. While still incredibly large, this volume represented a 16 percent decline and $100 million loss compared to previous years of record-setting landings. Since the late 1980s Maine’s lobster landings have multiplied six fold, while the area […]
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University of Maine marine sciences research professor Richard Wahle has been named director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, effective Sept.1. He succeeds Robert Bayer, who has directed the institute since 1995 and is retiring from UMaine this year. Wahle joined UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences in 2009. He is based at the University’s […]
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The Free Press quoted Robert Bayer, the director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, in an article about tariffs from China and their effects on the lobster industry. The Chinese tariff on Canadian lobster is 7 percent, while the corresponding tariff on U.S. lobster is 40 percent for live lobster and 35 […]
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In a paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers, including lead author Joshua Stoll of the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences and the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, map the global trade routes for lobster and quantify the effect they have on obscuring the relation between those who catch the valuable crustacean […]
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A 2012 YouTube video, “Lobster Cooking and Eating,” by University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the UMaine Lobster Institute has been viewed more than 1 million times. The video, featuring Lobster Institute executive director Bob Bayer and Jason Bolton, UMaine Extension food safety specialist and associate Extension professor, identifies distinctive lobster characteristics, and shows how […]
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More than 70 students, researchers, fishermen, aquaculture entrepreneurs and other marine professionals recently gathered at the University of Maine Darling Marine Center for the 2nd annual SEA Fellows Summer Science Symposium. Undergraduate students from across Maine — including UMaine, the University of Maine at Machias and Colby College — shared their research on topics ranging […]
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Despite an abundance of egg-bearing adult lobsters and record-breaking harvests, the number of young lobsters continues to fall in the Gulf of Maine. That’s the 2016 update from the American Lobster Settlement Index (ALSI), an international monitoring program founded in 1989 by University of Maine marine scientist Rick Wahle. The ALSI, a collaboration between fishermen […]
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Lobstermen and women, restaurateurs, sommeliers and consumers will create the 2017 blend of Big Claw white wine to pair with lobster 2–4 p.m. Thursday, April 27 on the Portland waterfront. The event will be held at the office of Steve Melchiskey, winemaker and co-owner of Big Claw Wine, at 94 Commercial St. Big Claw Wine, […]
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The University of Maine’s Foster Center for Student Innovation and Lobster Institute will host Maine entrepreneur Luke Holden at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 12. Holden is the founder of Luke’s Lobster restaurant, which has 22 locations across the U.S. and five locations in Japan. With its processing plant Cape Seafood in Saco, Luke’s Lobster is […]
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Research professor Rick Wahle and graduate student Carl Huntsberger are testing a technique at the University of Maine Darling Marine Center to determine the age of lobsters. Unlike fish, mollusks and trees, Wahle says lobsters and other crustaceans molt — or cast off their skeletons thereby discarding external signs of growth. That means a lobster’s […]
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