Open up the fishing grounds. Great idea.
There are not many valuable fish to catch.
It takes a long time to recover from decades of over-fishing.
Maine’s lobster fishery is lucrative because it is highly regulated. It’s a coastal fishery (no one goes off-shore to catch lobster). New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts have no coastal lobster fishery. New Hampshire? No clue.
In Maine, a lobsterman (or lobster woman) can have 800 traps. One can’t just go to Maine and get a permit for 800 traps. You have to apprentice.
Lobsters below a certain size have to be thrown back; lobsters above a certain size have to be thrown back. Females with eggs must be thrown back (and their tails notched). Females caught during certain months must be thrown back and notched.
When Maine heavily regulated the lobster fishery 30-40 years ago, the lobstermen about rebelled. The scientist pushing for the regulation was a woman. She was HATED.
Today, lobstermen and lobsterwomen revere her.
Why? Today, the lobster fishery in Maine is lucrative AND coastal. Lobster boats DON’T go offshore for lobster.
Running a lobster boat is hard, physical, potentially dangerous work. BUT, it is not going out to the Grand Banks.
It’s 5:00 or 6:00 am to 2-3:00 pm. If the weather sucks, the lobster can wait.