Evolution

In fisheries management circles, there is growing realization that traditional ways of managing marine resources are not working and that new approaches to management need to be tried. One of the most promising of these new approach-es is co-management, where authority for managing fish stocks is shared between the industry and government agen-cies. This paper discusses the implementation of the new co-management system, which was initiated in the Maine lobster industry in 1995.- The law has clearly been successful; it has been framed in a way to allow lobster fish-ermen to be able to generate rules to constrain their own exploitative effort. At the same time, a number of problems have come to the fore, not the least of which was the fact that passage of one regulatory measure caused problems for certain groups of fishermen who demanded remedial legis-lation. Thus, the co-management effort in Maine has moved ahead by solving a sequence of problems. But the fact that these problems are being solved places Maine in the fore-front of jurisdictions experimenting with new ways to man-age fisheries. Those interested in fisheries management may want to recall the state’s motto “Dirigo”—“I lead.