Maine is facing the chaos over lobster price as tough situation hit the industry very badly. It is found that one veteran lobsterman shot and seriously wounded another on the Matinicus wharf that could fish in the waters surrounding the island. The chaos has been mounting since a month now the gunman is banned from the island, and the roughly three dozen other lobstermen here are pleading for help. They want the state to carve out a restricted zone where only full-time Matinicus residents can catch lobsters, an extraordinary step that the state is now considering to preserve the local livelihood and the island itself. Such a zone would most likely need legislative approval.
Clayton Philbrook, a lobsterman whose ancestors settled here in the 1820s, told that the idea is to make sure that people who are taking lobsters off this piece of bottom are living here on the island. The fishing industry is suffering nationally, a victim of depleted stocks, tightening regulations and competition from other countries.
According to Law enforcement officials these tensions are for a rash of hostile incidents among lobstermen, including the shooting on Matinicus and the sinking of three boats at the wharf in Owls Head this month. Officially, anyone with a Maine lobster license can set traps almost anywhere in state waters.
It is true that the “gear wars” are as old as lobstering itself; with few official rules, the state tacitly allows them. The feuds are usually resolved more quietly, but in this summer of discontent they have taken on operatic tones. According to the authorities on July 19, Vance Bunker, 68, shot Chris Young, 41, in the neck with a .22-caliber pistol after the two had argued for weeks over whether Bunker’s son-in-law had the right to fish off Matinicus.
The idea of a resident-only lobstering zone is not without precedent. The state approved a two-mile “conservation zone” around Monhegan Island in 1998, restricting access to local lobstermen, who had complained about interlopers from the mainland. But in return, Monhegan lobstermen agreed to set fewer traps — they are now limited to 300 each, far fewer than the 800 allowed in most of the state’s waters. Lobstermen there now say the limit is too harsh and have asked the state to reconsider.
