Jim Acheson, an anthropologist and a Sea Grant researcher at the University of Maine, knows that the state's success with lobster is not just an accident of nature. Acheson is the author of a landmark study of the industry, The Lobster Gangs of Maine, published in 1988. Today, he conducts research on fisheries management with UMaine economist Jim Wilson. Both are affiliated with UMaine's School of Marine Sciences . Acheson and Wilson helped to set up Maine's lobster management zones and, with Sea Grant funding, they are now gathering lessons learned world wide about fisheries managed cooperatively by governments and fishermen.
Maine has one of the first co-management laws in the world.
This cooperative relationship departs from business as usual in which rules are set and enforced by government. This new arrangement has grown from a tradition of active political involvement by the lobster industry. For example, industry efforts to get the legislature to set size limitations go back to the late 1800s. Later, the v-notch law, a succcessful program that protects large broodstock lobsters, was passed in 1948. For many years, these rules were unique to Maine.