The cutest fanart of all!

So, that’s why Matt Murphy is a lobsterman. His background is in doing hard work for a tough industry that recognizes the need for sustainability over maximal profit. I think that helps make him a principled man, a good guy who stands up to do the right thing.

Lobstering is still a tough business and the waters of coastal Maine are far from saved, but the fact that there’s still a lobster industry there at all is a success. Other factors beyond the lobstering community’s control (like global warming) make it an ongoing battle with no end in sight.

So while it wasn’t entirely for altruistic or environmental reasons, they got together to save their industry by foregoing short-term profit in favor of long-term sustainability. Strict size limits were imposed, as well as other rules such as throwing back females with eggs.

Some time ago, they recognized that if they kept harvesting at the rate they were going, they’d fish up all of the lobsters in the area. Ecological disasters aside, they’d also destroy their own livelihood.

Matt wants to do what he thinks is right at the expense of any personal gain. It was like a microcosm of the one thing I knew about the lobster industry before doing any research for the story: lobstermen of Downeast Maine were one of the very first harvest industries to self-regulate.

Wiiiiild.

Imagine the audacity to try and scam a person about someone else's stuff.

Too sad and too funny and so disrespectful XD