Maine stuck in glut of lobsters

STONINGTON, Maine — Lobsters are flooding the market in Maine.

A combination of warm weather and good conservation techniques has led to what could end up being a record lobster harvest across Maine waters. The glut is particularly noticeable in Stonington, a fishing village on an archipelago by the Atlantic Ocean that has more lobster “landings,” or catches, than anywhere in the state.

But the bounty has come with a downside for fishermen. A relatively warm winter prompted soft-shell lobsters to appear in June, about a month early, and their abundance turned into an overabundance.

That caused a huge backup in the sea-to-table supply chain. And for the fishermen, the law of supply and demand has forced the price down to a 40-year low.

At one lobster cooperative here, the price that fishermen received for lobster last week fell to $1.35 per pound, down from about $3.80, and in some cases $4, at the same time last year.

For some lobstermen, the basement prices barely cover the costs of going out, forcing some to work round the clock so they can make up in volume what they lose in price.

When Tim Eaton, a lobsterman, unloaded his haul at the Greenhead Lobster docks last week, his boat was piled with orangy-black crustaceans glistening in seawater and squirming on top of one another, their claws banded.

Eaton, 47, said this was his biggest haul: 2,028 pounds.

But he was hardly cheering. Greenhead paid him $1.95 a pound, or roughly $4,000, for the day, against which he had the cost of bait, fuel, his crew and payments on his boat. He was working much harder to catch much more, he said, and earning much less.

“I didn’t used to need to come in with a huge haul to make a living,” he said. “Now I do.”

The lobstermen in the area were so frustrated with the low prices that almost all of them recently kept their boats tied up at their moorings for a few days, both to protest the low prices from the dealers and in the hope that they could reduce the glut of lobsters.

But when they returned to work, the price per pound was even lower.

In some cases, the low prices have been passed on to the consumer. Whole live Maine lobsters have been on sale in some New England supermarkets for $3.99 a pound or less, down from about $6. But live lobsters make up only 15 percent of the market; research has found that consumers prefer to eat lobster out, partly because they do not like having to kill the creatures or deal with the mess.

While the Red Lobster chain is offering coupons, savings are harder to find at many restaurants and seafood shacks that dot the Maine coast.

One that did lower one of its prices last week was the Clam Shack in Kennebunkport, a tourist-clogged mecca where a no-frills lobster dinner fell to $9.99 from $11.99; the price last year was $14.99.

“If I can move a few more and give the customer what they want, I’ll do it,” said Steve Kingston, the owner.

But bargains seem to be few and far between right now, the height of tourist season.

“It’s not that much cheaper for the final consumer,” Jonathan Scott, 30, a mechanical engineer from Medford, N.J., said as he bit into a lobster roll on a toasted bun at Red’s Eats, a popular shack in Wiscasset. Inspired by stories he had heard about lower prices, Scott was conducting a self-guided “lobster tour” along the coast.

Diane Petrides, a retired schoolteacher from Michigan who shared an outdoor table with Scott, said expecting cheap lobster in Maine was like expecting cheap cars in Michigan. “They still charge $15 for a $4 lobster,” she said.

The reasons are complex, and it is not clear who is benefiting.

“I don’t see any winners in this this year,” said Robin Alden, a former commissioner of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources and now executive director of the Penobscot East Resource Center, which promotes sustainable fishing. One factor contributing to the problem in Maine has been Canada, where most Maine lobsters are processed for big institutional markets like cruise ships and restaurant chains. Canada had a bountiful season, too, but it came later than usual, and so its plants were busy with Canadian lobsters when the unexpected bumper crop from Maine arrived early.

The lobster industry was caught unaware, unable to deal with the sudden volume, said Hugh Reynolds, the owner of Greenhead Lobster here, which sells to retailers, wholesalers and importers from Europe and Asia.

From a window in his upper-floor office, he could see several boats idling in line, waiting to unload their daily catch.

“It’s like Grand Central out there,” he said.

State officials, industry representatives and lobstermen plan to meet on Wednesday. They will consider expanding the range of lobster-related items, like lobster macaroni and cheese and lobster pot pie.

In a separate effort, some in Stonington are hoping to market lobster from here as a cut above the rest.

“This is a great problem,” Reynolds said. “We just need to capitalize on it. Most people around the world are fished out and over managed. We’ve got one of the most robust fishery resources on the planet Earth. We’re just a victim of our own success.”