Collins tours cannery in Prospect Harbor, speaks with workers

PROSPECT HARBOR – Even though she was a year late, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins made good Friday on a promise to visit this coastal town and home to the last remaining sardine cannery in a state that once thrived on the industry.

Collins was invited last year when Stinson Seafood Co. announced its merger with Bumble Bee Seafood, LLC, of San Diego and celebrated nearly $12 million in renovations.

The senator couldn’t make it in 2005, but she finally got a chance to tour the plant Friday morning and observe the canning process first hand.

“That was so fascinating,” the awestruck senator said when the tour finished. “I can’t believe how fast they pack those cans.”

Collins stopped briefly on the tour to talk with several employees, including 73-year-old Lela Anderson, who has worked at the cannery for more than 50 years but keeps up with workers half her age.

“I got the sense that if she stopped, even to talk to me for a minute, it would throw off the whole line,” the senator joked.

In 1900, there were 75 active canneries along Maine’s coast, but now Stinson is the only one left.

Roger Webber, the plant’s production manager, explained that with today’s technology, his cannery has the capability to produce as much as 75 plants did a century ago.

Yet, while Stinson has a vibrant work force of about 150 employees, including Anderson, the plant has faced concerns lately about the effect of mercury on seafood consumption as well as concerns over declining fish supplies.

As a result of those concerns and the continued lack of popularity of sardines, the plant has seen a gradual decline in production, a trend that could put employees in jeopardy.

“We would hate to see this plant go, it’s such a part of the community,” Al West, director of fish acquisitions for Stinson, told the senator.

Collins didn’t have a lot of time to meet with employees before heading up the coast to Machias to speak at a school, but the company’s representatives made sure their concerns were heard.

“With the mercury issue, negative press has had a tremendous impact and consumption is going down, not just for sardines, but other types of seafood,” said Michael McGowan, vice president for resourcing and government affairs for Bumble Bee.

McGowan, who flew from San Diego to tour the cannery and meet with Collins, said it isn’t the amount of mercury showing up in seafood, but the public perception that is creating the problem.

“We’re trying to be more proactive about educating the public and we’re working with the [federal Food and Drug Administration] to make things a little less confusing for customers,” he said, urging Collins to use her congressional clout to lean on the FDA.

In addition to mercury concerns, Stinson also is facing supply issues. The Gulf of Maine traditionally doesn’t yield enough herring, the main fish used at the plant, and that forces the company to buy from fishermen as far south as New Jersey and to import supplies from Canada.