Fisheries group seeks to start lobster hatchery

STONINGTON – A fledgling, community-based fisheries organization has taken on two projects – one short-term, the other long-term – as part of its effort to support the local fishery.

Penobscot East Resource Center is currently raising funds for the two projects, development of a lobster hatchery in space donated by the Stonington Lobster Co-op, which could be producing seed lobsters by this summer, and a resource center that would support education and research efforts in the region.

The goal of the hatchery project is to raise young lobsters for seeding in the state’s Zone C management region, which includes the area from Vinalhaven to the Blue Hill Peninsula and supports approximately 1,000 fishermen, according to Robin Alden, who is acting as director of the center.

The project has received a $25,000 grant from The Tides Foundation in San Francisco, and the center is now trying to raise another $25,000 to get the project off the ground. The effort has generated support from area fishermen, who have responded to a fund-raising mailing to Zone C lobstermen earlier this month.

“The letters are coming in, and they’re averaging about a hundred dollars apiece,” Alden said Tuesday. “I’m confident we’ll raise the money.”

Without being asked, Stonington selectmen included an article in the town meeting warrant seeking to raise $5,000 for the hatchery project.

Although recent efforts at building a hatchery in Stonington have not been successful, Alden said the plan is to use a new lobster-rearing technique developed by Dr. Brian Beal of the University of Maine at Machias and the Downeast Institute which has increased the survival rate among the young lobsters to between 50 and 60 percent, she said. Old methods achieved about a 5 percent survival rate.

Work will begin in April to convert the co-op’s space to a hatchery which would be raising lobster by sometime in June. The plan, Alden said, is to raise them to the fourth stage in their development, at which point the young lobsters are about a half-inch long and are just beginning to look like lobsters.

In the wild, they would normally float in the water column, where they are easy prey. At Stage 4, they begin to settle to the bottom, where they seek out rocky areas with hiding places where they can continue to develop.

With the help of local lobstermen, the young lobsters will be taken from the hatchery and be distributed in selected areas in the nine different districts in Zone C.

The Zone C fishermen who are supporting this effort, she said, see this as insurance for the future, when they expect lobster stocks will fall off from current levels.

“The lobster production in recent years has been phenomenal,” Alden said. “Everybody expects that not to last. This is also a way to learn a lot that might be useful in the long run.”

Supporting community-based research is part of the goal of the center’s other current project, developing a resource center that could house both research and education activities, office space for the center and other groups, and a fisheries museum.

The center plans to convert the former Colwell building on the Stonington waterfront for such a center. The towns of Stonington and Isle au Haut jointly purchased the site about five years ago. Last week, working with the center, they applied for a $140,000 state Community Development Block Grant. The grant will provide funding for the $300,000 first phase of a three-part project.

The center, Alden said, will provide the necessary infrastructure to support fisheries research and education in a region where interaction between researchers and fishermen is often limited. Initial plans call for the center to house a small research lab, a classroom and meeting room with access to interactive television, office space and a fisheries museum.

The effort is planned in three phases. The first phase will move the existing building to the west and back from the water onto a partial foundation. Relocating the building will provide better access to the existing wharf and make it easier for the towns to rebuild the wharf and make it usable again, which is the second phase of the project to be done by the towns.

The third phase will include the renovations to the building to make it usable.

The center needs to raise about $50,000 for the project, which also is being partially funded by the two towns.