Lobster News Lines: Connecting Maine Lobster Connections
Over the course of the past 30 years I’ve been in and out of the Maine Lobster Industry a few times, working on wharfs, buying, trucking, sterning and finally, fishing my own gear. The one thing always puzzling me, is how loosely we’re all connected, never completely sure what’s going on up and down the coast, in Augusta and beyond. On a monthly basis three fine publications: The Fisherman’s Voice, Coastal Fisheries News and the National Fisherman keep us informed, but in between, forget it! Our only source of lobster information comes by way of the VHF, early morning, wharf gossip sessions and the occasional phone call from a friend off to the westard, where the lobster price and catch always seem a heck of a lot better.
So I got to thinking. At last count, there were about 6800 licensed lobstermen fishing Maine waters. Up until the disastrous 2008 season we generated approximately $270/$280 million dollars through our catch and some say the sum total of our efforts by way of end products, marine supplies, tourism, employment, boats, taxes and the like comes in at $1 billion dollars. That’s a chunk of change! Now just imagine if we were a single Maine Lobster Corporation, employing 6800 plus, generating $270 million, with another $700 million dollars in business dependant upon our day-to-day work effort. This would make us one of the largest Companies in the State of Maine, an economic powerhouse. But, We’re Not! What we are, is 6800 self employed, separate businesses, each trying to make ends meet and dependent upon outside buyers, dealers, State Agencies and suppliers dictating to us “how” those “ends” will be met. Our looseness is our weakness.
Holding that thought, I began considering how we, as the Lobster Industry’s workhorses and mainstay, can take a step toward gaining more influence in how those “ends” are going to be decided. And, I figure its Information. Yep! Information is Power. That’s why books were written, newspapers began, a key player in television & radio’s success, and why the internet exploded. Lobstermen need Information to be connected and more importantly, use that information to our advantage. We know our boats, our engines, our bottom, the weather, and the costs of operating, but we come up short on marketing, world business developments affecting price & product, legislation, dealer margins and the fluctuations in the lobster markets up and down the Coast. Part of the problem lies in the vastness of the Coast, three thousand miles of it. Another contributing factor is, we’re just too darned busy during fishing season to stay on top of it all.
So, what’s the solution? I figure it to be, increased communication. We begin communicating with each other outside and off of our buying wharfs, Towns, Districts, Zones and even Countries, sharing information, voicing problems, alerting each other to what’s on the lobster horizon. Good and bad! We need to start thinking together as a Maine Lobster Corporation with 6800 employees. Without our work ethic and effort there wouldn’t be that billion-dollar Lobster Industry! There’s simply too much at stake financially and legislatively in next couple/few years not to formulate a unified voice and be heard.
This Blog is a beginning. Get aboard, hold the curve and speak your “voice”. Thanks.