July 18, 2012 — The U.S. harvest season of soft-shelled lobsters is nearly in full swing. But because of a rare and still largely unexplained set of coincidences, there are simply far too many lobsters lurking on the floor of the Atlantic.
WASHINGTON — It hasn’t attracted as much political attention here in the nation’s capital as the drought-driven corn crisis and the looming soybean crisis driving commodity prices sky-high.
But U.S. politicians are starting to pay attention to the East Coast lobster crisis where, the irony is, prices are being driven through the floor.
The U.S. harvest season of soft-shelled lobsters is nearly in full swing. But because of a rare and still largely unexplained set of coincidences, there are simply far too many lobsters lurking on the floor of the Atlantic.
And that is driving the price dramatically downward in Maine and other major lobster-producing states to as low as US$1.50 per pound wholesale, far less than the Canadian average of $4 to $4.50 per pound seen earlier this year before the Atlantic Canada season ended in late June.
“The American situation is a surprise,” says Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Halifax-based Lobster Council of Canada.
In the admittedly already complex East Coast lobster industry, Canadian lobster processors, which are larger than their American counterparts, traditionally buy soft-shelled lobsters from U.S. fishermen in July, August and September, after the Canadian season has closed.
Because the Canadian harvest of hard-shelled lobsters was unexpectedly larger this year, Canadian processors had no need for U.S. lobsters to process into frozen products and the like.
“Canadian processors had more lobster than they knew what do with,” says Michael Gardner, president of Halifax’s Gardner Pinfold Consulting Inc.
Coupled with the fact that the soft-shelled lobsters molted about six weeks earlier than usual this year, there has been a glut of American lobsters on the market, with no ready buyers.
Even the tourist bump that Maine and other lobster producers get may not materialize this summer because the broader North American economic downturn has kept travellers at home.
And that means the return U.S. lobster fishermen are getting does not even meet the ever-rising cost of fuel.
“It is a perfect storm in terms of timing,” notes Irvine.
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree says the crisis in lobster prices is leading Maine fishermen to stop altogether, which means a further crush to an already fragile economy.
“Wholesale prices for lobsters have hit rock bottom, fuel prices are high, and I’ve heard from lobster fishermen who said some buyers have just stopped buying outright,” Pingree said in a statement.
“A threat to the health of the industry is a threat to the entire Maine economy.”
About 70 per cent of Maine’s seafood fishing and processing industry is linked to lobster.
“The Maine lobster fishery is not only an essential part of our economy, it’s part of the life and culture of coastal Maine communities, and we need to do everything we can to protect it,” Pingree said.
But politicians and fishermen are at a loss about what to do. There is no one to blame and there is no quick fix.
Widely held views among those in the industry are that global warming is largely to blame for an unusually early molting season.
“It is really about climate change,” says Bob Bayer, head of the Maine Lobster Institute. “What is going on is just nature.”
The Maine harvest is about 104 million pounds of lobster a year, while Canadian provinces harvest about 130 million pounds.
A key part of the puzzle is the fundamental difference between U.S. and Canadian lobster harvesting.
In Canada, the 41 lobster fisheries areas are strictly controlled by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. They have seasons, generally ending around the end of June, and the 9,500 Canadian lobster fishermen also face trap limits.
The situation is quite the opposite in the U.S. There is year-round harvesting and few restrictions other than a limit of 800 traps.
“The U.S. has a different kind of fishery,” says Gardner.
So now there is a struggle in Maine, where there are some 4,000 lobster fishermen, and elsewhere among U.S. fishermen about whether the fishery should simply be closed.
So bitter is the debate, and the possible sporadic outbreaks of vandalism, that Maine Department of Marine Resources commissioner Patrick Keliher warned lobster fishermen against strong-arming others not to fish in a bid, presumably, to drive up prices.
“We have heard that fishermen are seeking to impose a defacto shutdown of the fishery and coercing others into complying by threatening to cut off their gear,” he said in a recent statement.
“The state will not tolerate any trap molestation, and any such actions will be met with targeted and swift enforcement or other appropriate action,” he added.
Read the full story in the Chronicle Herald