As the weather warms and tourists flood coastal communities from one end of the Gulf of Maine to the other, many are in search of lobster, the area’s signature seafood. The infamous plastic bibs, placemats with instructions for cracking the shell of the tasty crustacean, and signs proclaiming the “World’s Best Lobster Roll” proliferate, jostling for attention with lobster kitsch of all kinds – from the ubiquitous plastic lobster to lobster buoy key chains, lobster trap coffee tables, and a seemingly endless array of lobster-themed apparel.
But the cheery pastiche of all things lobster belies the uncertainty that continues to stalk the Gulf’s most valuable fishery.
Unlike many other fisheries, here in the Gulf of Maine and throughout the world, abundance is not the source of the worry in the lobster industry. In fact, abundance of lobsters throughout the Gulf of Maine may be at an all time high. The problem here is the market. The recession hit the industry hard as prices dropped, bringing fishermen close to the margin of profitability.
Groups large and small are fighting to ensure that the lobster industry continues to thrive. Recognizing that lobster is Canada’s “most valuable fishery and leading seafood export,” lobster fishermen, dealers, processors and representatives of state and federal agencies have joined together to form the Lobster Council of Canada. In January, the Council hired an executive director and opened an office in Halifax the first step in advocating for the fishery’s interests.
The Canadian government has been quick to demonstrate its support for the industry. In June of last year, Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced in a press release that it had “made a $65 million investment to help fishers in the Atlantic lobster industry adapt to the extraordinary market conditions created by the global recession.”
The majority of the money will be spent promoting the development of conservation and sustainability measures by the government-designated Lobster Fishing Areas (LFAs). The remainder of the funds, about $15 million, has been expended helping fishermen who were severely disadvantaged by the decline in the lobster market.
“I am grateful that we have been able to provide some short-term support to those lobster fishers most severely impacted over the past year,” said the Honorable Gail Shea, federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in a statement. “Looking at the long term, the major focus of our investment is the development of a self-reliant and economically viable lobster sector. It is encouraging to note that we have healthy and sustainable lobster stocks throughout Canada’s eastern shores that we can build on for the future.”
Last year, on the U.S. side of the Gulf, John Baldacci, Governor of the state of Maine, convened a Task Force on the Economic Sustainability of Maine’s Lobster Industry. The Task Force developed a series of recommendations for restructuring the industry’s approach to marketing including improved cooperation among segments of the industry, targeting audiences most likely to increase their consumption of lobster, and coordination across the industry on a marketing message.
On a smaller scale, Penobscot East Resource Center, a nonprofit based in Stonington, Maine, works with local fishermen on several initiatives in pursuit of their mission of “securing a future for the fishing communities of Downeast Maine.” These include a lobster hatchery program that tested the strategies for reintroducing larval lobsters in coves that had been fished out and supporting the Stonington Lobster Working Group, formed to increase boat prices for local fishermen.
Another issue for the lobster industry is a growing concern regarding the dependence of fishermen, particularly in Maine’s coastal fisheries. Beginning in the late 1980s, fishermen in Maine began shifting from groundfishing to lobstering as the population of lobsters expanded and as groundfish began to decline. The fishing industry along the entire coast of Maine, but particularly to the east of Penobscot Bay, is now precariously dependent on lobster for its income.
Historically, fishermen along the coast pursued a diversified fishery, trapping lobsters in the summer and fall, chasing shrimp in the winter, and fishing for groundfish in between. This process did not require big investments in vessels and gear and allowed them to fish near home.
Dependence on one species flies in the face of such an approach. Fishermen must now pursue lobsters year round and are vulnerable to any downturns in the fishery whether natural or human-caused. Today, the 2,000 fishermen operating in eastern Maine are entirely dependent on the lobster fishery. A downturn in lobster could jeopardize the state’s entire fishing industry and compromise the viability of coastal fishing communities.
According to Robin Alden, Executive Director of the Penobscot East Resource Center, “We’ve got an economy here that’s terrifyingly dependent on lobster.” Her organization is committed to taking some of the pressure off of the lobster fishery by rebuilding local groundfish stocks and “re-starting the once highly productive groundfish fishery in eastern Maine.”
“Everything’s connected,” said Gouldsboro fisherman John Renwick. “And we’re a whole house of cards right now, and I’m one of the lucky ones because if they have a catastrophic year in the lobsters, I can still dig worms. But how many others can? So they don’t have something to fall back on to pull themselves out. They’re gonna lose everything.”
The lobster fishery further south is a scary reminder of what can happen in a fishery. Lobster fishermen in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey are facing a possible closure of their fishing grounds. In a surprising development, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Lobster Technical Committee recommended in May that the Commission consider a five-year moratorium on the harvest of lobsters in the Southern New England area.
While lobsters can be found as far south as the mid-Atlantic, abundance south of Cape Cod is lower than in the Gulf of Maine where colder waters are more to the lobsters liking. Landings to the south have been in decline for some time and the industry has suffered from shell disease and die-offs.
Pat White, a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, says that closure of the southern New England area would have “huge ramifications” for the lobster industry in the Gulf of Maine. According to White, “lobster isn’t the king of seafood any more, it’s a commodity, more like tunafish than caviar. It is going to be very difficult to climb out of the hole of $2/lb lobster. Now that dealers and consumers have tasted cheaper lobster it is going to be very difficult to increase price. Closing southern New England would increase demand on landings to the north – but only at a low price.”
Changes in the market have put a strain on historical patterns of harvest, distribution and processing in the Gulf’s lobster fishery. American and Canadian fishermen pursue lobsters within the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, by far the largest source of landings in the range of the species. Management on the two sides of the Gulf has some similarities and some differences. Both the American and Canadian industries rely on effort controls to limit the harvest: a limited number of licenses are issued, the technology used to harvest lobsters is controlled, and prohibitions on taking small and egg bearing lobsters are enforced.
The major difference in approach relates to the fishing season. On the U.S. side of the Hague Line, fishermen are free to fish throughout the year – and many do. In Canadian waters, the lobster season is limited to several weeks or months, with the open season staggered, depending on the fishing area, to correspond to the time of year when hard shell lobsters predominate.
Both countries ship hard-shell lobsters to consumers all over the world. Americans also catch many soft-shell lobsters which have a short shelf life and are not suitable for long distance shipping. During tourist season, a large portion of the catch is sold into New England’s tourism-based restaurant trade. When that market drops in the fall, Canadian processors provide a ready market for lobsters caught in the US, which has limited processing capacity. The symbiosis between the two countries evolved over time – but the recent narrowing of the profit margin within the lobster industry has put pressure on each link in the supply chain and may make this informal arrangement less viable.
Experts say it is a sad irony that the lobster industry in the Gulf of Maine may be suffering from too much of a good thing: fishermen, scientists and managers have worked together to maintain landings only to run into a downturn in the global market for the region’s iconic seafood. But they also say it’s not time to count this group out yet. If they can find ways to ensure sustainable harvests they may well be able to identify and implement a winning strategy for getting their product, fairly priced and moving again in the marketplace.
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DFO’s support for the lobster industry
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/back-fiche/2009/hq-ac30-eng.htm
Lobster Council of Canada
http://www.lobstercouncilcanada.ca/
Penobscot East Resource Center
http://www.penobscoteast.org/
Governor’s Task Force on the Economic Sustainability of Maine’s Lobster Industry
http://www.maine.gov/dmr/council/eslobster/index.htm
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
http://www.asmfc.org/
