January 14, 2013 — With 2012's wholesale prices being the lowest in years, lobstermen look to the state for solutions.
Last year was a rough year for lobstering and the industry has a lot to say about it.
As part of a month-long series of meetings across the state's coastal towns, the Division of Marine Resources hosted a standing-room-only crowd on Monday to hear ideas and feedback on a range of issues from marketing to potential changes in the licensing system to how to handle market crashes.
In 2012, the industry caught a record 123 million pounds of lobster in Maine's waters, up 18 percent from a year ago. The value of the catch, however, fell to $331 million, down $3.7 million.
The year was marked by a glut in the market, the lowest wholesale price in a generation and protests against Canadian processors who imported lower-priced Maine lobster.
"We don't know if it will happen again. Do we need to do something? I hear up and down the coast that we need to do something but we don't know what," said Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher.
Keliher said the feedback has varied in different parts of the state. In Yarmouth, for example, there was minimal support for the idea of limiting fishing to three days a week during times of market gluts. Fewer lobsters were caught in southern Maine last year than along the midcoast.
Read the full story in the Portland Press Herald