Economic Impact

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — August 2, 2012 — The Northeast commercial groundfishery — centered in Gloucester and New Bedford, and drawing boats from ports between Maine and North Carolina — is facing an economic abyss in 2013, based on the first hard but unofficial calculations of catch limit cuts that loom beginning next May 1.

According to preliminary numbers from the New England Fishery Management Council’s executive committee, the total allowable catch of Gulf of Maine cod — linchpin stock of the inshore fleet — is projected to face a 72 percent cut from the current year, while the catch limit for the Georges Bank cod, the core target of the larger offshore trip boats, is projected to be trimmed by 70 percent.

All of the cuts would be from the allowable catch from the current fishing year, which began this past May 1 and runs through next April 30. The Gulf of Maine cod catch limit was already cut by 22 percent under interim limits put in place following a dire but controversial cod assessment announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2011.

In addition, the allowable catch for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder is projected to be cut by 51 percent for 2013, allowable landings of Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine yellowtail could be down by 45 percent, and the catch limits for American plaice — what shoppers and mongers call “sole” — are projected as being cut by 69 percent, according to the council figures obtained by the Times.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.

 

 

CAMDEN, Maine — August 1, 2012 — The combination of natural and market forces affecting Maine’s 2012 lobster season is not a fluke, lobster industry officials told fishermen on Wednesday.

So if the price lobstermen are getting for their catch is going to go back up for any sustained period of time, something needs to be done beyond what Mother Nature might bring to the table.

Officials with Maine Department of Marine Resources hosted a meeting Wednesday at the local high school to discuss with fishermen and other industry officials what might be done. Industry officials agreed that the glut of soft-shell lobsters landed this spring and summer, and the resulting price of below $2 per pound that most fishermen are getting, will not keep any of them in business over the long term.

Maine’s lobster industry employs about 5,000 licensed commercial fishermen — not including stern men, dealers, processors and others who make a living from lobster — who brought ashore an estimated 104.8 million pounds of lobster in 2011, the highest annual landings figure ever. The total amount of money fishermen earned directly from that statewide catch is $334 million, according to DMR statistics.

About 50 people, including fishermen, dealers, DMR officials and others, gathered Wednesday morning to discuss why soft-shell lobsters seem to be so prevalent in the Gulf of Maine so far this year.

Carl Wilson, lobster biologist with DMR, said that water temperature appears to have contributed to the timing of this year’s early molt, when lobsters shed their smaller shells in favor of larger ones that take time to harden. Wilson said last winter was mild and that coastal water temperatures were higher this spring and have stayed that way.

“The shed is going to happen,” Wilson said. “When depends on how cold the water is and how quickly it warms up in the spring.”

 

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News.

 

 

August 2, 2012 — The fishermen say plant owners are paying rock-bottom prices because of a glut of lobster in Maine and that means there will be no market for their catches when the season opens on the Northumberland Strait next week.

About 200 lobster fishermen blocked a load of U.S. lobster at a processing plant in Shediac.

Six RCMP officers and 10 members of the emergency tactical team have been called in to help at Shediac Bay Processors.

The fishermen have given the plant owner Gilles Maillet an ultimatum — quit processing American lobster or they'll shut down the plant, according to the CBC's Marc Genuist.

The fishermen say plant owners are paying rock-bottom prices because of a glut of lobster in Maine and that means there will be no market for their catches when the season opens on the Northumberland Strait next week.

U.S. lobster is currently selling for about $2 per pound — due in part to an earlier than usual harvest this year.

In Maine, there have been significant catches of shedder lobsters, which have a soft shell and generally don't command the prices that the hard-shell lobsters do.

"I'm bending the shell, there's nothing to it, it's garbage is what it is. It's garbage," said Scott Johnson, who fishes in St. Louis Cape.

It puts a lot of lobster on the market and means inexpensive Maine lobster can be shipped to the Maritimes for processing.

It's a price New Brunswick fishermen say they cannot match.

"My livelihood is on the line; everybody's livelihood is on the line," said Johnson. "Look at everybody here, look at them all. They're not happy."

"It's the American lobsters that are coming here, it's no good. It's wrong. They should be processing ours first," Johnson said.

Johnson says he starts fishing next week, but nobody is lining up to buy his catch.

"It's a betrayal, for the Acadian fisherman and the province of New Brunswick," said fisherman Maurice Martin.

Leonard Garnett, who drives a truck, says he sympathises.

"The economy is so bad that there's no market for them," Garnett said. "The market is full of people who don't have (any)money, the ones that do have money are not spending any money."

Two plants in Cap-Pelé were closed this morning — Cape Bald Packers and Shediac Lobster Shop, and RCMP have followed the fishermen from plant to plant, helping negotiate from closures.

 

Read the full story on CBC News

 

 

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — July 30, 2012 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is planning an extensive survey of commercial fishing boat owners and their crews in 15 ports from Maine to North Carolina.

"We're trying to look at the impact of regulations on fishing communities," said Tammy Murphy, an economist with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole who is responsible for implementing the data collection.

"We need to look at that in a more direct way than we have before."

The survey is driven by the need for economic data on the total costs of operating commercial fishing businesses, she said.

The surveys have been in development by a team of economists and anthropologists for a year, according to Murphy.

In the first phase of a year-long project, a cost survey will be mailed to approximately 1,700 boat owners between Aug. 1 and Aug. 9.

The survey is voluntary and seeks to analyze the operational costs among different sized vessels in different fisheries, she said.

 

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.

 

 

July 27, 2012 (SEAFOOD.COM NEWS) — Legal Sea Foods has succeeded recently in getting tongues wagging with its humorous – some say over-the-top – ad campaigns. And its latest effort is sure to get consumers talking as it features everything from paid obituaries to interactive gumball machines.

The new campaign, created by Legal's long-time advertising agency, DeVito/Verdi, kicks off later this week and runs well into the fall, with TV, print, radio, out-of-home and digital elements.

PRINT

The new campaign begins with a simple print ad that offers its own take on the Christian fish symbol often found on car bumpers. The ad depicts the familiar "sign of the fish," but with the word "Legal" written in the space created by the two intersecting curved lines. The copy reads: "It's a religious experience."

This will be followed up with a second round of ads that won't appear in the obvious places. These print ads take the form of a paid obituary of a fictitious person. In each, it is reported that the individual would have lived longer had he or she gone to Legal Sea Foods to eat more fish. One ad says that if the 92-year-old banker had heeded this advice he would have been able to tell his daughter where he had hidden the family fortune. And if the 88-year-old grandmother had eaten more seafood she might have lived long enough to answer the call when the sweepstakes company arrived at her doorstep.

TELEVISION

And in a series of television commercials, the bonding and solitary nature of fishing is celebrated, but what is also revealed are the misfortunes that can also occur when spending hours alone with someone. The spots carry the line: "It takes a long time to catch a fish. Spend a little time with us."

One spot shows a boy and his grandfather fishing off a pier, but the four hours they've spent together are certainly their last. Another spot focuses on a man taking his wife fishing for the first time. Five hours later the constant chatter is too much for the man and his wife is apparently thrown overboard. A third spot has two fishing buddies alone on a lake at sunrise. One notices that the boat is taking on water. Six hours later, the boat is gone and the familiar garble of water is heard. The TV spots are set to begin airing in November.

RADIO

In the continuing series of cheeky spots from Legal's president and CEO Roger Berkowitz, eight new radio commercials present his unabashed take on the appropriate response to those who fail to appreciate the need for eating fresh fish. In these spots, boyfriends are told where they fit in the past-lovers' ranking; mothers-in-law are encouraged to walk off a pier; and wives are told that the dress doesn't make them look fat, it's the fat that makes them look fat.

DIGITAL

And to encourage more diners to check in with Legal Sea Foods on Foursquare, DeVito/Verdi's digital team has created a gumball machine that dispenses a free gumball once you have checked in via Foursquare at the Kendall Square restaurant.

"This is one of the more complete campaigns we've undertaken in terms of media being utilized," said Roger Berkowitz, president and CEO of Legal Sea Foods. "Once again, these are smart, funny ads that no doubt may make some waves with some people, but they certainly grab your attention and help communicate the freshness of our fish and the beauty of eating at Legal Sea Foods."

 

Seafood News is a subscription website.  This article is reproduced with permission. 

 

 

July 26, 2012 — The current record low lobster prices in the U.S. Northeast won’t be much of a benefit to value-added lobster processors — in the near term.

The poor quality of lobster this year is a factor, in addition to the lack of distribution needed to quickly ramp up and sell finished lobster products.

“The majority of the lobster processors are in Canada — there are very few in Maine. The lobsters are such a poor quality right now and they are not strong enough to make it there,” said Scout Wuerthner, a sales representative at Inland Lobster, a large lobster processor in Portland, Maine.

However, in the long run, the low prices will give processors more access to lobster and allow them to start new value-added product lines, added Wuerthner.

Realizing the trend toward value-added lobster products, Portsmouth Lobster Co. in Portsmouth, N.H., already began moving away from the live lobster market last year. 

“We transitioned prior to everything tanking. Now we have three kinds of lobster raviolis and three chowders,” said David Hickman with Portsmouth Lobster. 

However, the small company is working to build distribution in order to capitalize on this year’s abundant lobster supply.

“There is just so much out there. The fear is that there is no place for it to go. Our focus is to find new places of distribution and new areas of the country — and developing more interesting products — instead of worrying about the prices,” said Hickman.

Hickman believes Portsmouth Lobster will see a greater impact on its business next year than this year. “The big impact will be if the big guys take advantage of the low prices. It doesn’t pay for us to put stuff in a freezer — we are a small company,” said Hickman.

 

Read the full story on Seafood Source

 

 

July 23, 2012 — In May, Scarborough-based Hannaford Supermarkets announced a sweeping sustainability policy for all seafood products it sells, the culmination of more than three years of research and prep work. The policy applies to more than 2,500 products, including fresh seafood, and frozen, packaged and canned items in which the main ingredient is seafood.

To craft this policy, Hannaford worked with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland. Jen Levin, GMRI's sustainable seafood program manager, says GMRI acted as a consultant to help Hannaford flesh out the details of its policy and determine the criteria on which products should be evaluated. .  She lauds Hannaford for its willingness to work with suppliers if they don't yet meet criteria, and its efforts to work with suppliers that demonstrate improvement.

She said other retailers will also write off an entire species if their supplier doesn't meet criteria. Whole Foods, for example, has stopped selling Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, Bluefin tuna and other species deemed especially vulnerable, according to its website, with plans to halt sales of other species in the next year.

As of March 31, the company now traces each product through the supply chain to its source and gathers information to ensure the fishery or farm is meeting certain criteria. Hannaford's 150 suppliers are required to demonstrate that they are harvesting seafood from fisheries governed by science-based management plans.

According to the company, dozens of suppliers have altered their harvesting practices, launched improvement projects and/or beefed up their documentation processes in order to comply with the policy. But, if a supplier can't prove a product's sustainability, it's removed from the shelves. More than 50 products, including mackerel, clam, tuna and crabmeat items, have been replaced with sustainable options.

Citing a United Nations statistic that 80% of the world's wild fisheries are overfished or stressed, George Parmenter, sustainability manager for Hannaford, says the company was focused not only on environmental sustainability, but business sustainability. "There were definitely issues that we couldn't ignore," he says. "As a seller of seafood, we wanted to stay in business and be able to sell seafood long into the future."

"The suppliers are responsible for understanding where their products are harvested and getting information about the source fishery, so we do fact-checking and help verify" the information is accurate, Levin says.

A year into the process, around March 2011, Hannaford was able to share the policy with its suppliers, giving them ample time to provide the needed information or improve their processes. Parmenter says the majority were willing to participate, and that many already had internal procedures to verify the sustainability of their products.

But verifying a product's source is not always easy, despite suppliers' eagerness to qualify. Parmenter says some suppliers are importing seafood from other countries and might not know the specific fishery or farm. And documentation provided might be in Chinese or Spanish, adds Levin. She credits GMRI's diverse set of researchers, who either hail from or have worked in foreign countries, for the organization's ability to take on the challenge.

Parmenter says customer response has been positive, and that consumers are asking questions and interested in knowing the source of their seafood. He said the policy hasn't resulted in a price increase, either for Hannaford or the customer. 

 

Read the full article on Maine Biz

 

 

July 18, 2012 — With lobstermen complaining about their earnings, markups by dealers and retailers are getting more attention.

By the time that lobster gets to your plate, several people have already taken a nibble.

Lobstermen, wholesale dealers and retailers all get a cut of the final price as the state's iconic seafood moves from a trap at the bottom of the Gulf of Maine to the dock and then into a retailer's lobster tank.

With lobstermen complaining that what they're being paid doesn't even cover their costs, these markups are getting attention

Retail prices over the past few weeks have generally reflected a regional glut of soft-shell lobsters — the cheapest kind because they tend to have less meat than hard-shell lobsters. Calls to several Greater Portland lobster retailers revealed a range of prices, from $3.99 a pound at Fishermen's Net in Portland to $8.98 a pound at Walmart in Scarborough.

But lobstermen say they're getting as little as $2 a pound dockside, although Robert Bayer, the head of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute, said it's probably more like $2.50 to $2.75 a pound.

Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council, said moving lobster from the ocean to the dinner table is pretty straightforward locally. The lobstermen sell to a wholesale dealer, who sometimes sells to a second dealer, who sells to a retailer.

People in the industry are reluctant to talk about anything other than retail prices. Wholesale dealers say they get a pretty standard cut that doesn't change as retail prices rise and fall. Retailers say they only charge what the market will bear.

Bayer said that each dealer typically adds 50 cents a pound. The retailer's markup is usually an additional 50 cents to $1 a pound, he said, although the prices being charged by some retailers suggest they have been adding more recently.

Given the market glut, those margins are probably less now, Bayer said.

"There's always wiggle room if you've got product you want to move," he said, especially if the product can only last a few days in a tank before it's worthless.

 

Read the full story in the Portland Press Herald

 

 

July 18, 2012 — While crabs are typically plentiful during the preseason, a cold spell followed by hot temperatures and more wind than she has seen in her 30 years in the business have made the crustacean scarce, said Mary Ellen Ball, co-owner of Tom and Terry's Seafood Market.

Spring's crab glut has quickly become summer's crab shortage. And with crab consumption a summer ritual on Delmarva, crustacean connoisseurs could be in for some disappointment.

Despite a spring of plentiful crabs, various takeout seafood shops in the area have been struggling to obtain a full supply for the summer.

"It's flip-flopped from the spring," said Dave Long, manager at Ocean View Seafood.

While crabs are typically plentiful during the preseason, a cold spell followed by hot temperatures and more wind than she has seen in her 30 years in the business have made the crustacean scarce, said Mary Ellen Ball, co-owner of Tom and Terry's Seafood Market.

"It shows you how much nature can turn," she said. "It's Mother Nature."

Combine that with a typical summer increase in demand, and there's one outcome.

"It's the perfect storm for a shortage," she said. "Right now you can barely get crabs because of the weather problem," she said.

What there are plenty of, Long said, are juvenile crabs, but those won't do the trick as they take about a year or two to develop.

And Ball's not seeing enough large and jumbo crabs, she said.

"They're, like, nonexistent," she said.

Brenda Davis, blue crab program manager at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said during a winter dredge survey — the only baywide fishery independent effort to estimate the number of blue crabs living in the Chesapeake Bay — the state recorded the highest recruit abundance in the history of the survey, which was first conducted in 1988.

Of the 764 million crabs recorded this year — an increase from 461 million in last year's study — 587 million of them fell into the recruit category. Recruits are considered to be crabs with a carapace — the distance point to point across the back — of 2.25 inches and smaller.

Davis is hearing from commercial crabbers that in the upper bay, things are slow, but down the bay, crabs are being caught.

"The season is starting slow," she said.

Crabs hit the soft-shell market once they have a carapace of 3.25 inches, while the minimum size for the hard-shell crab market is 5 inches, Davis said. Those two figures each increase by .25 inches after July 15.

 

Read the full story here

 

 

July 18, 2012 — Early shedding led to a glut of soft-shells and a 'situation that hasn't happened in the history of commercial lobstering.' Lobstermen who tied up their boats for a few days, hoping to drive up prices for their catch, apparently went back to sea Tuesday, without signs of much change in prices.

"You've got to tend your traps," said Brian McLain, a lobsterman from New Harbor who is on the Maine Lobstermen's Association board.

Lobstermen said the tie-up wasn't a concerted effort, because that would violate federal anti-trust laws. So there's no way to tell how many sat out for a few days.

Arnold Gamage, a lobsterman in South Bristol, said he kept fishing, as did most others in his area, despite prices of about $2 per pound — near record lows — from lobster dealers.

Gamage said he has had to throw fewer lobsters overboard this year than in the past, because not as many are smaller than legal size, over the legal size or females bearing eggs.

"I'm not even seeing as many soft ones this year as we do in other years," Gamage said. "I never imagined that the problem we would have is too many good lobsters."

The biggest problem for most lobstermen seems to be a glut of soft-shells — lobsters that have recently shed hard shells and started growing into larger, softer ones.

After they shed, lobsters hide from predators until their new shells harden some, then emerge hungry and head for baited traps.

Prime time for soft-shell lobsters typically comes in July. But this year, many lobsters had shed, hidden and emerged by early June.

"You're dealing with an unprecedented situation that hasn't happened in the history of commercial lobstering," said Matt McAleney, a dealer with New Meadows Lobster.

McAleney said prices are low, but "it's never a good price from the fisherman's standpoint."

Retail prices are about $4 a pound and up, he said, though prices are often volatile in the summer.

An unusual combination of factors is making this a good year for catching lobsters and not a particularly good one for selling them, said Robert Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute.

He said Canadian lobstermen fared well during their peak seasons, which are typically fall and winter, producing an abundance of lobsters for Canadian processors.

The processors didn't need as many lobsters from American fishermen to fill orders, Bayer said, and many of the processors shut down for much of the early summer.

 

Read the full story in the Portland Press Herald