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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 3
November 2008
In Stonington: Eat a lobster, save a community
STONINGTON, ME – Like so many others along the Maine coast, Stonington is a small town with one major economic engine – the lobster industry. Between boats, dealers, and support services, lobstering far and away provides the most employment and the earnings from those jobs sustain the year-round residents who are at the heart of the community.
When lobster prices collapsed in early October, it didn’t take long for townspeople to size up the dawning crisis for Stonington and its neighbor, Deer Isle, which together make up the island of Deer Isle.
Lobsters at $2 to $2.60 a pound would barely return enough to the boat to cover the cost of leaving the mooring and daily living expenses. But the strong fall run of lobsters is meant to give people sizeable enough profits that they can put away money to survive the winter, when few boats fish. If lobster families come up short, it affects local stores and businesses and, more broadly, banks and financial institutions providing home, boat, and vehicle mortgages.
It wasn’t clear what, if anything, could be done to help since the lack of marketplace demand responsible for the tanking prices resulted from the nation’s economic slowdown and the international credit crisis.
But an idea was quickly hatched on Oct. 10 by Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC), with the support of the town of Stonington.
First, a lobster take-out was planned that would make cooked or live lobster available to the public for $3.50 each. With a good forecast for the weekend ahead, the event was scheduled for Oct. 12 on the town’s commercial pier. Second, an emergency community meeting would be held on Oct. 14.
“There was no time for second thoughts,” said Robin Alden, executive director of Penobscot East. “We had to get in touch with media, figure out cooking arrangements, and spread the word.”
The goal of the take-out was to publicize the low prices and the opportunity they provided to enjoy a lobster meal. At the same time, it was to show that the community was behind its lobster industry, Alden said.
Furthermore, with the worry and uncertainty caused by plummeting prices, the community needed a chance to talk about what was happening and strategize on how to deal with the consequences.
Penobscot East, which is based in Stonington, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to secure a future for the fishing communities from the Penobscot Bay Islands to Canada.
Results
By all accounts, the take-out was successful beyond anyone’s wildest expectation. Setup was in progress when the first people started onto the pier at noontime. The line didn’t let up until after 4 pm, when the last of the cooked lobsters were purchased.
According to Alden, 4,441 pounds of lobsters were sold, which had been bought from a local dealer. The net income from the event was $835.20, which, along with a donation from PERC, was being distributed to local fishermen through gas credits at local gas stations.
“We did what we set out to do,” Alden told community members who gathered in the meeting at the local elementary school auditorium two days later. “It wasn’t a benefit. We wanted to raise awareness of the lobster price situation and what it means to fishermen here. And across the country, people should eat lobster.”
Listing off print media, TV, and Internet coverage, she said, “It was an incredible success.”
“A lot of livelihoods are being hurt,” said Stonington Town Manager Kathleen Billings-Pezaris, who along with Alden facilitated the community meeting. “We’re all facing a tough winter. The selectmen have directed me to find out what the town can do to help.”
In his meeting remarks, Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council, acknowledged what local lobstermen already knew. The credit crisis for Canadian processors was happening at Maine’s peak harvest time.
Last October alone, 12.5 million pounds of lobsters went to Canadian processors, he said. In September, October, and November, 70% of Maine’s production goes to Canada.
The state is caught in a dilemma, Somers said. While Canadian processors are the industry’s best customer, “We have no control over our own destiny.”
The audience, which included lobstermen, a local lobster buyer, and a niche seafood wholesaler, agreed with his assessment. Over the course of the two-hour discussion several ideas were talked about for ways to locally do more to market Stonington lobsters. Ideas included grading, branding, and processing, while always maintaining a high quality label.
The need to maintain a high value product identity for lobster was apparent since the reason the community had come together in the first place was the hard reality that the fleet can’t survive on $2.75 lobsters.
Susan Jones
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