Fishermen uneasy about canneries deal

PROSPECT HARBOR – While the sight of fishing boats along Maine’s coast is nothing new, area fishermen and lobstermen likely will be keeping a close eye on a pair of soon-to-be neighbors in the water.

Stinson Seafood Co., which owns Maine’s last sardine cannery, has partnered with a Massachusetts-based firm to allow two 140-foot trolling vessels to catch herring several miles off the Maine coast.

About half of the haul will be delivered to the cannery in Prospect Harbor, and the rest will be shipped back to Cape Seafoods Inc. in Gloucester, Mass., officials said.

When news of the merger started to circulate last week, some in the area were uneasy.

A Stinson representative, however, said this week that there is no truth to the notion that the boats’ arrival might be a precursor to the cannery’s closing.

“We had an informational meeting late last week with the community because the rumor mill had been churning,” Al West, Stinson’s director of fish acquisitions, said this week. “These boats won’t be threatening any local fishermen, and they likely will help in the long run.”

West said any herring that is not suitable to be processed as sardine turns into excellent, cost-effective lobster bait.

“I would guess about half of what those boats bring here would end up as bait,” he said.

Dana Rice, selectman for the town of Gouldsboro, which includes Prospect Harbor, is also a local fisherman. He said he has no reason not to take Stinson at its word.

“There are some people down here who are apprehensive, but to be fair, [Stinson] is trying to be a good neighbor,” Rice said. “They have bent over backwards so far.”

The partnership between Stinson, which employs about 150 in Hancock County, and Cape Seafoods will bring large boats known as midwater trollers to the Maine coast.

West explained that the Massachusetts company will send four of its trollers out to Georges Bank, the elevated area of the Atlantic Ocean floor between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. There, the boats will fish for herring, and then send two boats to Prospect Harbor and two to Gloucester, Mass.

“The herring resources closer to the [Maine] coast are drying up, and in the summertime there is always a high demand for lobster bait. …. This was a good deal,” West said.

Rice agreed that the partnership has potential, particularly for lobstermen like himself, but that doesn’t mean problems are unavoidable.

“Lobstermen are parochial-type people; they think they own the ocean,” Rice said. “We’ll still have to deal with the traffic when the boats come through.”