We're more or less set in our ways and we don't like to be dictated to. They have created local legislative bodies that are making crucial regulatory decisions long made by bureaucrats in Washington. Some of their friends can scarcely believe it's happening. It's a very new thing for them. But it is happening nevertheless.
Lobster fishing is big business in Maine.
So the health of the industry is central to Maine's economy. In the past few years, things have been going well. After a declining catch in the 1970s and '80s that seemed to suggest trouble, the lobsters are plentiful again in the ocean waters off Eastport, Kittery and Casco Bay. The fishermen are making decent money. But that's precisely the problem.