Lobster peace

The old saw that a compromise must be good if both sides still grumble is, as a matter of logic, seriously flawed and, as a matter of fact, often untrue. But the compromise worked out this week between Monhegan and Friendship fishermen, while merely a temporary truce that no one especially likes, is good for several reasons: it allows the lobster season to open on time; it prevents a ruinous, potentially violent trap war; and it sets the ground rules for a lasting peace.

The agreement, good only for this season (Dec. 1 through June 25), and brokered by the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the mediating firm Conflict Solutions, essentially rolls things back to where they were before the trouble started. More importantly, both communities promise to abide by whatever permanent solution the Legislature comes up with next year.

When fishing starts next month, Monhegan’s 12 lobstermen will have exclusive rights to the two-mile conservation zone around their island that the Legislature created nearly a century ago. The five Friendship fishermen who wanted to work the zone will limit themselves to the one-mile arc the Legislature added to the southern end of the zone last year.

It was Friendship’s incursion into that arc, traditionally (but not statutorially) Monhegan’s turf, that led to the expansion of the zone. That set off a chain reaction that nearly exploded into a trap war: Friendship accused Monhegan of being not conservation-minded but greedy; Monhegan aggravated the situation by asking that its season be extended; Friendship retaliated by threatening to exercise its legal right to fish anywhere within the conservation zone; Monhegan shot back with a plan to not open its season at all. Under that scenario, not only did no one win; everybody lost.

What makes this situation difficult is that both sides are very much right and a little bit wrong. Monhegan fishermen, through generations of self-imposed restraint, have set a standard for conservation others would do well to emulate. They have created a healthy fishery for themselves and a lobster nursery that benefits the entire state. But they must accept that the ability to set local rules does not include the ability to exclude all outsiders.

Friendship fishermen, like all licensed Maine fishermen, are entitled to set their traps anywhere traps are allowed. But they must realize that the economy of an island is fragile, that islanders do not have the employment options mainlanders do and that the addition of five fishermen, while a small number, is an increase in fishing effort of nearly 50 percent, more than enough to worry Monhegan.

The permanent legislative proposal being suggested by Monhegan — a two-year apprenticeship program before one can fish solo in the zone — holds promise in opening entry while preventing a gold rush. If that proposal is to have a chance with lawmakers, though, the challenge now will be to craft a program that truly guarantees access to conservation-minded newcomers and is not merely a barrier to outsiders.