Many people dream of working less and making more. When it comes to New England’s lobster fishery this may not be just a dream. A new study, by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, finds that lobstermen could catch the same amount of lobster, or more, by tending fewer traps. The study, which is backed up by Australia’s lobster fishery, should further discussions of better ways to manage the lobster fishery in Maine and New England.

New England lobstermen now spend their days hauling a couple hundreds traps, tossing back lobsters that are too small, too big or bearing eggs. This is a big waste of diesel fuel – which has rapidly increased in price – bait and time, according to Dick Allen, a former lobsterman in Rhode Island and an author of the study.

Through computer modeling, he and Hauke Kite-Powell of the Woods Hole institute found that lobstermen could land as much by using far fewer traps. In some of their models, size restrictions were loosened so far fewer lobsters were thrown back. Because fewer traps would be set and hauled up, fewer large lobsters would be caught, leaving them to reproduce, resulting in more lobsters in the ocean.

It is estimated that 90 percent of lobsters are caught within one year of reaching the current minimum legal size, perpetuating a cycle of small crustaceans that sell for less per pound than the rarer larger lobsters. Fewer traps would help return to a more natural and lucrative size distribution, says Mr. Kite-Powell.

That’s what has happened in Australia. Concerned that too many lobsters were being caught, in the 1960s the government started to limit the number of traps in the fleet and licenses were sold to fishermen already in the fleet.

Newcomers had to buy licenses from fishermen already in the business. A trap license bought for $2,000 in 1984 sold for $35,000 in 2000. This leaves those getting out of the business with a nice retirement nest egg, often upward of $1 million. The system encourages fishermen to leave lots of lobster in the water so that their licenses will be valuable when they want to sell them.

Lobstermen also work shorter days, usually tending fewer than a total of 100 traps, and the lobsters they catch are bigger than those in New England.

“By fishing less, the fishermen leave more lobsters out there to produce more eggs, which will make it easier for them to catch lobsters in the future. It’s a win-win for the fish and fishermen,” Rick McGarvey told The New York Times in 2000. “The lobsters are thriving and the fishermen are spending more time at home with their families.”

Unless Maine lobstermen don’t like spending time with their families, this approach warrants further attention.