PORTLAND, Maine — August 10, 2012 — Tensions between lobstermen in Maine and Canada are boiling over in a dispute caused not by too few lobsters, but by too many.
A huge and potentially record-breaking haul of crustaceans in Maine and Canada this year has caused a market glut and a crash in wholesale prices. Fearing for their livelihood, Canadian fishermen in the past few days have angrily blocked truckloads of Maine lobsters from being delivered to processing plants in Canada that turn out lobster products for U.S. supermarkets and restaurants.
Unless something is done to prop up the price of lobster, "we'll go down the hole," warned Eugene Robichaud, a fisherman in Richibucto, New Brunswick.
The blockades have brought Canada's lobster-processing industry to a near-standstill, put thousands of employees out of work, sent shockwaves through Maine's lobster industry and led to calls for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to intervene.
Portland lobsterman Greg Griffin said he has been getting a paltry $2.35 a pound for his catch, a dollar less than a year ago, and he fears the blockade could drag prices down even more.
"At what point is going out and bringing in lobster no longer viable?" he asked.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.