criteria for the construction of a set of target 

 groups rather than singling out one specific 

 target group. 



Constrained by time and resources avail- 

 able for this project, the study addressed it- 

 self only to selected dimensions of socioeco- 

 nomic impacts of limited entry into the Maine 

 lobster fishery. It is to be clearly understood 

 that some of the findings of this study, be- 

 cause of its very limited scope, are essentially 

 for illustrative purposes rather than for use 

 as supportive materials for or against any 

 implicit management strategy that may be 

 suggested by the format of the target groups. 



OBJECTIVES 



The major objective of the study is to present 

 an evaluation of the socioeconomic impacts 

 of limited entry into the Maine lobster fishery. 

 A complete evaluation may include but not 

 be limited to the income and employment 

 effect on the displaced fishermen, income 

 effect on the surviving fishermen, income and 

 fiscal effect on the local and regional economy, 

 effect on other fisheries and so on. However, 

 for reasons stated above, the limited objectives 

 of this study are: 



1. To make an appraisal of the employability 

 and alternative income earning possibilities 

 of displaced labor. 



2. To derive some measures of social impact 

 in terms of (a) income effects and (b) income 

 maintenance burden associated with dis- 

 placement because of limited entry. 



RESEARCH DESIGN 



The study was designed as a small-scale 

 pilot effort, concentrating on three typical 

 communities rather than encompassing the 

 entire Maine lobster fishery. These communi- 

 ties are Phippsburg, Beals, and Corea. The 

 selection was made in consultation with the 

 Maine Department of Sea and Shore Fisheries 

 and the National Marine Fisheries Service. 

 The existence of some contrasts in the struc- 

 ture of the local economy and the relative 

 importance of the lobster fishery in their econ- 

 omy weighed heavily in the selection process. 

 Corea represents a highly specialized, isolated 



economy where lobstering is the predominant 

 economic activity. Beals is also highly special- 

 ized but less isolated than Corea. Phippsburg's 

 economy is more diversified and in close prox- 

 imity to sources of alternative job opportuni- 

 ties. Each of the areas has one feature in 

 common: the lobster fishery is a major eco- 

 nomic activity. 



It is difficult to say how representative these 

 three communities are of the entire lobster 

 fishery. Sufficient information is not readily 

 available to identify the economic character- 

 istics of the population of lobster fishermen 

 in Maine and relate them to those of the 

 sample fishermen in these communities. 



For the purpose of the study the following 

 hypotheses were formulated for investigation: 



1. Limited entry could eventually exclude 

 a certain fraction of the lobster harvesting 

 labor force that will be otherwise unemploy- 

 able. (Alternative hypothesis: a significant 

 fraction of labor displaced because of limited 

 entry will be employable, given the conditions 

 in the local labor market, the type of skill 

 possessed, the potential for adapting skills 

 to job market requirements, the availability 

 of retraining opportunities, motivation for 

 training, and mobility and so on). 



2. Displacement of labor because of limited 

 entry may adversely affect the local economy 

 because of loss of income from lobstering not 

 being compensated for by income from alterna- 

 tive jobs and from additional lobstering by 

 surviving fishermen, and because of loss of 

 income from lobstering on the part of those 

 who are not in the labor force. 



To generate the information needed for this 

 investigation, a stratified random sample of 

 131 fishermen was selected. The size of the 

 sample depended essentially on the estimated 

 cost per interview and the budgetary con- 

 straint. The allocation to each stratum was 

 strictly according to proportion of fishermen 

 in each community to the total number of 

 fishermen of all three communities. The survey 

 data were supplemented by information on 

 the local labor market obtained through the 

 cooperation of the regional offices of the 

 Maine Employment Security Commission. 



For the survey, a structured questionnaire 

 was developed and pretested. Using the modi- 

 fied questionnaire and personal interviews, 



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