YORK, Maine — February 3, 2013 — Area lobstermen are fearful that last summer's low prices could return again this year.
More than 50 area lobstermen filled the meeting room of York Public Library on Thursday night to hear what Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher could do to help them with lobster prices during a glut as was experienced last June.
Warmer than usual water temperatures last spring drove lobsters into shallow waters to shed their hard shells at least a month ahead of schedule, making for large catches of soft-shell lobsters and low prices. Usually on the Fourth of July when tourists arrive in Maine looking for a lobster dinner, restaurants and dealers are hungry for supply. Not this past summer.
"Around the 14th, 15th of June, dealers started calling," Keliher said. "Product was backing up on their docks."
Keliher was forced to issue a warning to lobstermen who talked of wanting to impose a de facto shutdown of the industry to drive prices back up, and who had expressed a willingness to coerce other fishermen to comply with threats of trap molestation and cut gear.
There were no cut lines, Keliher later said. The problem, and glut, was worse in northern waters than in southern Maine, he said.
Lobstermen who spoke Thursday expressed frustration over the price difference last summer between what they were getting for lobster and what tourists were paying in restaurants. While many diners got a bargain, Keliher agreed he saw signs in front of restaurants along the same main street in Freeport advertising lobster dinners for anywhere between $14.99 and $34.
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