Saving Seafood

Maine lobster industry partnering with state prisons to address workforce woes

December 21, 2018 — There is ample opportunity to be had in Maine’s USD 1 billion (EUR 876 million) lobster industry for those who are eager and interested in the work.

That was the overarching message shared with a group of inmates at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, Maine, U.S.A. on 7 December, during a kickoff session for a new training program aimed at readying incarcerated Mainers with the skills, knowledge, and abilities to potentially land a job in the lobster industry upon release from prison.

Established through a collaboration between the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association and the Maine Department of Corrections, the certificate-earning program is comprised of a series of workshops focused on supply chain dynamics, lobster handling, packaging and shipping, and warehouse and plant safety.

Around 45-55 offenders were in attendance during the initial information session hosted in Windham earlier this month, which saw local lobster businesses such as Cozy Harbor Seafood, Ready Seafood, and Inland Seafood conduct presentations on the career paths and possibilities available within the industry.

Representatives from the companies, alongside Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association Executive Director Annie Tselikis, spoke to the attending prisoners about the troubles they’ve been facing beyond bars trying to build their workforces. Low unemployment rates and changes to the H2B visa program have presented challenges for hiring as far as lobster companies are concerned in today’s booming economy, explained Tselikis.

“It is hard for us to quantify how many jobs need to be filled right now. There are positions posted that go unfilled, forcing companies to attempt to fill by personal connections,” Tselikis said.

“There are a wide variety of positions that are required and that we need in order to be successful in our business, and we’re looking to you guys as trying to help us as we’re continuing to grow our industry,” she added, addressing a room of over 40 offenders during the second of two informational sessions held at the medium-security prison facility on 7 December. “There is great opportunity for expansion within our industry based on demand for this product that we’re experiencing in the marketplace.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Gulf of Maine lobster population past its peak, study says, and a big drop is due

January 23, 2018 — The Gulf of Maine lobster population will shrink 40 to 62 percent over the next 30 years because of rising ocean temperatures, according to a study published Monday.

As the water temperature rises – the northwest Atlantic ocean is warming at three times the global average rate – the number of lobster eggs that survive their first year of life will decrease, and the number of small-bodied lobster predators that eat those that remain will increase. Those effects will cause the lobster population to fall through 2050, according to a study by researchers at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the University of Maine and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration.

Looking ahead 30 years, the researchers predict a lobster population “rewind” to the harvests documented in the early 2000s. In 2002, 6,800 license holders landed 63 million pounds of lobster valued at $210.9 million. By comparison, 5,660 license holders harvested 131 million pounds valued at $533.1 million in 2016.

“In our model, the Gulf of Maine started to cross over the optimal water temperature for lobster sometime in 2010, and the lobster population peaked three or four years ago,” said Andrew Pershing, GMRI’s chief scientific officer and one of the authors of the study. “We’ve seen this huge increase in landings, a huge economic boom, but we are coming off of that peak now, returning to a more traditional fishery.”

Industry leaders have been girding themselves for a decline in landings ever since the recent boom began. While not everybody believes the decline will happen that fast or fall so much, most lobstermen admit the impact that warming water has had on their fishery, said Dave Cousens, the president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. It drove up landings by pushing lobsters into the Gulf of Maine, and over time it will drive lobsters out to colder offshore waters or the Canadian Maritimes, he said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald