F R O M   T H E   C R O W E ’ S   N E S T

Access For Future Generations



It’s been 21 years since Richard Max Strahan’s claims against the lobster fishing industry in particular regarding the northern right whale, went to the U.S. Supreme Court. His MO is making noise, waving signs, hollering in public places and filing a near constant stream of law suits back to 1970. After 48 years in, it is safe to say that this is his career.

Nick named “Mad Max”, he is not going away, willingly at least. Even if he did go away his legacy of lawsuits regarding the right whale would continue. More immediately, upcoming significant cuts to the lobster industry’s primary bait supply of Atlantic herring has fishermen facing higher costs and reduced landings.

Fortunately, with a nod to this season of thanks, we have been a nation of laws a lot longer than we have been a nation of madmen or those seeming to be so. Less fortunately, it is much more expensive to mount a defense against law suits, than it is to file them. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has created a legal Defense Fund to pay for these specific whale lawsuit threats.

The necessity for the lobster industry to bring in legal advisers may serve to prepare other marine occupations for a future where a growing number of stakeholders and investors have interests in a shrinking amount of marine space.

Along the Maine coast several communities are developing programs that introduce students to the coastal and marine world they live near as a laboratory. They do field work studying the plant and animal life with an eye toward a wide range of possible occupations and businesses. If Maine coastal communities are for generations to remain places where families can live and make a living in marine based occupations and businesses of their choice, they too may need to look to legal protections for the future right to do so.

Legal advice will not improve herring stocks, but it may help insure provisions like the Maine scallop fishery’s owner/operator regulation are included in other existing and emerging aquaculture fisheries. Groundfishing through catch shares has seen greatly consolidated ownership of permits. Lobstering would be the same without an owner /operator regulation. The many emerging small shellfish and seaweed aquaculture operations will be subject to rapid corporate consolidation without legal provisions that protect scale, transfer and access for future generations.