Maine Lobstermen Suffer: Market Drops, Fuel Rises
Bob Baines on his ship, Thrasher
Bob Baines of Spruce Head, Maine, has seen his lobster catch drop from around 1,000 pounds a day to about 300. Lobstering is a cyclical fishery. But last season, the overall catch was down 12 million pounds.
Nobody knows the reasons behind the drop — but it has come at a bad time. Baines says that in the past five years, his bait costs have more than doubled. And fuel prices are probably at least three times higher over the same period, he said.
"But also traps have gone up significantly — buoys, rope — they're all made of oil products," Baines said. "And our [catch] price is a little bit lower than it was last year."
Higher sales prices for his catch would help, but Baines says he also would like to see lobster dealers sell more. That, however, is not the case.
As Susan Sharon from Maine Public Radio in Portland tells Steve Inskeep, restaurateurs, like Steve DiMillo of DiMillo's Floating Restaurant, aren't selling as much lobster as they used to.
"We put stronger emphasis on other seafoods, on Black Angus steaks and our Italian meals," DiMillo said.
(Susan Sharon for NPR)
"We want to sell a wider variety of foods to appeal to a wider audience. The lobster entrees used to be close to 40 percent of sales of our meals, and now it's in the high 20s."
That's not good for fishermen like Baines. Dave Cousens, longtime president of the Maine Lobsterman's Association, says the key is lowering their overhead.
That can be done, Cousens says, through efficiencies such as spending fewer days on the water, driving boats at slower speeds and being more strategic in using bait. Also, Cousens advocates stopping the catch in July and August when lobster shells are soft — which limits how far they can be safely shipped.
(Susan Sharon for NPR)
A shorter season, Cousens believes, would limit demand, increase supply, raise prices — and quite possibly rescue the lobster trade.
Susan Sharon reports for Maine Public Radio.
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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
You can learn something about our economy by taking a close look at a Maine lobster. That's what we're about to do as part of a MORNING EDITION series called The Money Map. We focus on the economy in different parts of the country, and our latest destination is New England, where Susan Sharon reports from Maine Public Radio in Portland. She's on the line.
How's the fishing?
SUSAN SHARON: That's what I wanted to know, Steve. So I went to the docks in Spruce Head, Maine, where there's a very longtime fisherman's co-op. And I met Bob Baines coming in on his boat, and I sat down with him. He told me his catch is way down. And as you might expect, the high cost of bait and fuel are making it really challenging to make a living.
Mr. BOB BAINES (Fisherman): The simplest way to put it - my catch has dropped in half in the last five years. My bait expenses have more than doubled. And fuel is probably three times, if not more than three times, higher. And our price is a little bit lower right now than it was last year.
INSKEEP: And when Mr. Baines says the price is lower, even though he's spending more to get the lobsters, how much lower is the price that he's getting?
SHARON: Well, he used to average about $5 a pound, and now this summer he's getting less than $4. But more importantly, he says he used to be catching up to 1,000 pounds of lobsters a day. And this summer his best day so far has been 300 pounds a day.
INSKEEP: Oh.
SHARON: So as food and fuel prices go up, people in general have less money to spend on a lobster dinner.
INSKEEP: Well, let me ask about that, because if he's getting less per lobster, are people able to pay less for a lobster dinner?
SHARON: Well, it's kind of a difficult question, because people who come to Maine - vacationers - really have the intent of having a lobster dinner no matter what the cost. But when you talk about traffic to local seafood shacks or restaurants dropping off, then everybody associated with the lobster business has a problem. So I went to check this out.
I went to DiMillo's Floating Restaurant in Portland, Maine. And that's a place where a Maine lobster is part of the restaurant logo. I wanted to see whether people were eating fewer lobsters there, because this is a place with white linen tablecloths and a diverse menu. And the manager, Steve DiMillo, told me something interesting about trying to get his customers through the door.
Mr. STEVE DIMILLO (Restaurant Manager): We put stronger emphasis on our other fresh, local seafoods, our Black Angus steaks and our Italian meals. We want to sell a wider variety of foods to appeal to a wider audience.
INSKEEP: Is he saying the tourist trade is down, and so they're struggling to get any customer they can?
SHARON: He's saying his tourist trade is not down. He's still getting people through the door, but the way he's doing it is attracting them with items on the menu other than lobster, which used to be more of a mainstay on his menu.
INSKEEP: Which is a bad deal for that lobster fisherman that you met. So what's happening to lobster sales in the rest of the country?
SHARON: Well, despite what the Maine lobstermen are reporting - you know, the drop in the price per pound by a dollar over the last year - lobster prices at restaurants and seafood markets don't seem to be reflecting that. Because, you know, as you move inland in this country, everybody's paying more for fuel and transportation costs too. So their costs get passed onto the consumer.
INSKEEP: Hmm. So Susan Sharon of Maine Public Radio, when you talk to lobstermen what are they doing to try to counteract some of these trends that just seem to be killing them?
SHARON: Well, they say they've got to learn to fish smarter, maybe spend fewer days on the water, make fewer trips out to sea, drive their boats slower, and definitely be more strategic and stingy about bait.
But there's also some talk about trying to switch seasons, trying to get out from catching lobsters in July and August, when lobster shells are soft and they can't be transported very far, and switching seasons to the spring or fall when their shells are harder. And a big proponent of this is Dave Cousens, who's the longtime president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association.
Mr. DAVID COUSENS (President, Maine Lobstermen's Association): Right now, we're catching 75 percent of our lobsters when they're not very shippable. They're soft lobsters. They pretty much can't go past New York. What we need to do is we need to catch lobsters when they're a premium product and they're worth $5, $6 a pound and they can go anywhere in the world.
SHARON: And Cousens says if lobstermen could keep the supply of Maine lobsters limited, the prices would stay up. And until then he and many others here in Maine are just hoping that tourists and the general public will develop a special hankering to eat more lobsters.
INSKEEP: Susan, thanks.
SHARON: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: Bon appetit. That's reporter Susan Sharon in Portland, Maine. And that's our latest spot on The Money Map, a series that gives a snapshot of economies around the country.
(Soundbite of song, "Rock Lobster")
INSKEEP: To see how other local economies are faring, just visit our money map on the Web site, where it's an actual map, and look at different spots. We're adding them as we go along. It's at npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
