FROM THE CROWE’S NEST

Long Term Security

The September fresh lobster bait shortage in Maine has flicked on all the lights in the lobster fishery arena. In recent years, declining lobster prices, whale safe ground lines, fuel prices, more regs and fees, effort, have dogged the industry.

Things were unimproved by the continuous re-play of the "Pigs Gone Wild", Wall Street story on the evening news. Back to back with hurricane Ike ripping up the Texas coast, as Wall Street limos were backing up to the treasury to be packed with taxpayers money, and Wall Street's president advises the American people to dig deep into their pockets for the people of his state.

The fresh bait shortage is neither all a supply nor all a management issue. Redistribution of the total allowable catch (TAC) could have left more of the bait available for the fall. But there has been political wrangling between the states of Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, over this distribution.

The industrial herring trawlers want a quota system (ITQ) that would be good for their heavily capitalized fleet. It would also give them control over the herring resource an markets, which is bad for the lobster fishery. How much this tightening of fresh bait is the result of supplies, and how much corporate and tri-state fish politics may not yet be clear.

What is apparent however, is the growing demands on the herring resource in the Gulf of Maine. The trawler fleet deals in international markets for frozen herring. The aquaculture industry is now building momentum behind the scenes. When that corporate aquaculture structure gets dropped into Maine waters, that’s when herring supplies will hit the fan.

The reduced TAC has a greater impact when Canadian bait supplies disappear to the tune of 30.000 metric tons. The TAC is also set in a process that is politics, science, business, and management wrangling.

Lowering the TAC was a long arduous process, raising it will likely be similar. The lobster industry uses the bulk of the TAC. As the primary consumer, the lobster industry needs to know fresh bait will be there. Protecting the supply today and next year is only the beginning. Steps need to be taken to protect access to herring and the redevelopment of other bait resources for the long term security of Maine lobstermen.