Industry and conservation goals are complementary for the most valuable fishery in the United States under climate-driven life history changes

Abstract

Crustaceans, which are highly susceptible to the effects of climate change, are critical for food security worldwide. Yet, management rarely evaluates the performance of alternative regulatory strategies under climate-driven life history change. This limits the development of climate-ready management plans, undermining fisheries sustainability. We compared the performance of alternative minimum legal size (MLS) regulations under shifts in growth and maturity for American lobster in the Gulf of Maine, the most valuable single-species commercial fishery in the United States. Across the life history change scenarios examined, increasing MLS improved status indicators, while decreasing MLS eroded status indicators for spawning stock biomass, legal abundance, landings, and exploitation rate. Our results demonstrate that protecting the lobster stock by increasing MLS improves fishery output, highlighting that conservation and industry goals can be complementary. This study exemplifies the utility of MLS as a conservation measure for crustacean fisheries under climate change.