Processor demand pushes boat price increase
Twelve days before Labor Day lobster catches in certain parts of the coast had dropped off. Processors in the US and Canada needed product. The result: the boat price jumped 10 cents/lb for new shells. At ports where the catch had dropped off earlier, the price had risen earlier; where catches were still strong, the price stayed the same.
The price jumped a quarter on Labor Day, followed by another jump of another quarter on Sept. 11. At some ports the new shell prices started rising days earlier. Old shell prices didn’t change.
These rises over just a few weeks signaled trouble in Maine’s early autumn lobster industry. Wind and rain in the first half of September didn’t help as the catch was off by 10% to 15%…
Lobstermen give early thumbs up to at-sea electronic data collection
KINGSTON, RI – The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation’s (CFRF) Lobster Research Fleet Pilot Project “On-Deck Data Program” is off to a strong start.
A dozen fishing vessels from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island – six in Lobster Conservation Management Area (LCMA) 2 and six in LCMA 3 – began using 10″ Google Nexus Android touch-screen tablets and digital calipers this summer. The idea is for lobstermen to test the practically of recording catch data at sea using the latest computer technology.
Each vessel crew is sampling its catches three times per month. Each sample set consists of 100 lobsters or 20 traps, whichever comes first, for a minimum total of 300 lobsters or 60 traps…
ME Lobster Advisory Council starts work on new marketing collaborative
HALLOWELL, ME – The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Lobster Advisory Council (LAC) met here on Aug. 28 to tackle a full agenda that was topped by a discussion of nominations for the state’s new Lobster Marketing Collaborative.
The meeting also covered the new lobster and crab bait review process, as well as bills passed during the legislative session ending in May.
Before the discussion of nominations got rolling, DMR Commissioner Pat Keliher told the council that he had hired John Sauve to help with the transition to the collaborative from the Maine Lobster Promotion Council, which ceases to exist when the new marketing law goes into effect on Oct. 9…
Read the rest and much, much more in the October issue of Commercial Fisheries News. Read online
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