CANADA’S MAINE LOBSTERS

When people in the rest of the country think of Maine, three things are likely to come immediately to mind – L.L. Bean, Stephen King and lobsters. The first two are in fine shape, but Maine lobsters have a problem: Most of them go to Canada, where they are processed and shipped back to the United States as Canadian lobster meat.

The current issue of The Working Waterfront, the Island Institute’s monthly free newspaper, has a good report on the situation and some thoughts on how to deal with it.

The cliches about Maine lobsters have been around for decades – they’re the product of the pristine waters off the rocky coast, harvested by sturdy, independent-minded lobstermen who brave the ocean’s hazards. What may not be known by out-of-state buyers is that lobstermen voluntarily strive to preserve the resource by refraining from Sunday fishing in the summer months, accepting trap limits, and throwing back big breeding lobsters, egg-bearing females and “shorts” that haven’t yet grown to legal size.

Nor might they know that about seven of eight lobsters served in restaurants in the rest of the country as “Maine lobsters” are actually from Canada, which has an annual catch twice as big as Maine’s.

But, as marketing studies by the Maine Lobster Promotion Council show, the greatest demand by far is for processed lobster meat, in which Canada far outproduces and outsells the Maine industry. Consumers increasingly prefer the convenience of buying lobster meat for seafood chowders and cocktails and for such dishes as lobster spaghetti or linguini.

For the present, about 70 percent of the lobsters harvested in Maine go to Canada. Bruce Fernald, an Islesford lobsterman, says if it weren’t for the Canadian market he’d probably have to throw his catch back into the ocean.

A law that went into effect last April requires that lobsters and lobster meat be labeled as to country of origin. That means that buyers of live lobsters should know whether they were Maine or Canadian lobsters and take their choice. More important, the law means that lobster meat produced in Maine or Canada will be so labeled. The wave of the future thus seems to mean that Maine should increasingly process and sell its own lobster catch rather than letting Canada do that and get the credit and earnings.

One venture pointing toward a favorable future is a modern lobster processing plant being built in a converted former shoe factory in Richmond, in the views of both Jack Cashman, Maine’s commissioner of economic and community and development, and Kristen Millar, executive director of the lobster council.

John Hathaway, a businessman most recently known as host of a lobster-eating contest in Kennebunkport, is the leading figure in the venture, supported by a $400,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Mr. Hathaway and the town of Richmond. It will use water pressure to drive the meat out of the lobster shells to provide 2,000 pounds an hour of fresh raw lobster meat with a refrigerated shelf life of 45 days.

With the few existing Maine processing plants and prospects like this new one, Maine’s famous lobster brand could continue to shine.