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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 7
March 2010
ME processors back value-added lobster bill
AUGUSTA, ME – New efforts to create a sustainable Maine lobster industry could have processors peddling parts.
Currently, Maine processors can only legally market whole lobsters and tails. But LD 1593, “An Act to Amend Lobster Meat Laws and Expand Economic Opportunity for Maine’s Lobster Industry,” which has been filed as “emergency” legislation, proposes giving processors the opportunity to market in-shell claw knuckles and split tails as well.
“It will allow us to be more competitive in the marketplace by offering a value-added product,” said Emily Lane of Claw Island Foods, a branch of Portland Shellfish Company Inc.
Lane said that most processors outside of Maine, including those in Canada who already offer scored claw-knuckles and split tails, are not hindered by whole lobster/whole tail processing restrictions.
The state-funded “Task Force on the Economic Sustainability of Maine’s Lobster Industry,” formed by Gov. John Baldacci in October 2008, concluded that state processors needed flexibility to be able to develop “distinctively new” products in order to build demand for Maine lobster.
“The impetus for this bill was really the governor’s task force,” said Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Deputy Commissioner David Etnier.
Broad support
Four Maine processors – Portland Shellfish Co. (Claw Island Seafoods), Shucks Maine Lobster, Cozy Harbor Seafood, and Oak Island Seafood – organized to support the bill.
Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, also recently testified at a legislative hearing in favor of the bill.
“The existing laws are a bit archaic and are very clearly putting Maine processors at a disadvantage in the marketplace,” she said. “They are geared toward a live lobster market. Processors have come to play a much bigger role.”
The current processing restrictions were originally instated to prevent fishermen from selling parts of illegal lobsters.
“Mutilation laws are certainly needed on the live side of the market. Once the lobster arrives at the processor, it’s a different game. All of our resource protections, our environmental provisions, remain in place,” said McCarron.
Anything that processors can do to become more competitive in the marketplace will benefit the harvesters, McCarron concluded.
New license
Sponsored by House Speaker Hannah Pingree, the bill would create a new license requiring processors to verify their purchase of whole lobsters and allowing them to then process those whole lobsters into parts.
“Essentially, it is a small step to keep processors viable, which is helpful for the whole industry,” Pingree explained. “The bill actually creates a specific license for these processors, just to ensure the proper tracking, so that lobsters below the legal size aren’t being broken for processing.”
The DMR would organize the requirements behind the new processor license, making sure that the Maine Marine Patrol will have the enforcement tools needed before the law goes into effect.
LD 1593l has been filed as emergency legislation so that, if enacted, it can take effect in the spring of 2010. The bill received an ought to pass vote by the marine resources committee after a Feb. 2 work session, though at press time in mid-February it had not been voted out of committee.
Convenience
According to John Hathaway of Shucks Maine Lobster, a competitive product translates to a convenient product.
“People come to Maine and want a whole lobster dinner on their plate. But, as you get further from Maine, people want lobster as a convenient, value-added product,” he said. “For the consumer, it’s a much better value to buy the part they really want.”
Hathaway compared the need to provide consumers with various forms of lobster to what the produce industry has done with lettuce.
“They used to sell heads of lettuce everywhere and that was all you could get,” he said. “Now you can hardly find a head of lettuce. There are a 100 different kinds of lettuce chopped up in all kinds of ways.”
Lobster parts like split tails and claw-knuckles, could be sold for wedding receptions, in grocery stores, or restaurants.
“We talk to people all the time who are interested in lobster parts. Buyers ask you about the different products you can offer, but once we get beyond the whole tail, the conversation is dead. We aren’t legally able to supply anything else to them,” said Hathaway.
Shucks Maine Lobster already has one national restaurant chain interested in cocktail claws, a product Hathaway will be able to supply when the bill becomes law.
“It’s not a game changer, but it’s a recognition of the fact that times have changed. There is a feeling of trust out there,” said Hathaway. “Everybody wants to maintain a sustainable resource. When we obtain a legal size lobster, we should be able to sell the value-added products that people are asking for.”
Lauren Simmons
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