The Undermining Nature of Oversize Lobster Processing

by Laurie Schreiber

A new emergency law that allows Maine processors to process oversize or undersize lobsters that were not landed in Maine, as long as the processed product is not sold in Maine, was criticized by members of the Zone B Lobster Council at their most recent meeting in September.

“I think you’ll find a huge fight in Maine over anything to do with oversize lobster. In my opinion, you’ve opened up a can of worms,” said the council’s chairman, Jon Carter.

Maine Lobstermen’s Association vice president, Jim Dow, said the MLA supports the expansion of the processing end of the business in Maine, but not the processing of product that does not meet Maine’s size limits.

“Why do we want to make it easier for them to process Canadian product when the whole idea of bringing processors to the state is to help the state?” Dow said. “Also, we’re all about sustainability and conservation, yet we’re going to allow them to sell oversize tails from the state of Maine? It’s bad for marketing and for sustainability.”

The discussion arose in response to the Department of Marine Resources’ (DMR) current rule-making process, which would establish the permits, restrictions, shipment labeling and records requirements for a processor to process oversize lobster. The comment period for the rule ended October 11.

According to information provided by the rule-making notice, “Since the collapse in the boat price of lobster in the fall of 2008, Maine’s lobster fishery has struggled to find new ways of doing business that will better support a profitable industry. Last legislative session, the legislature took an important first step in granting new authorities to Maine’s lobster processors. Specifically, processors are now able to deal in products previously only available to their Canadian counterparts, such as claw meat in the shell.

“Prior to the passage of last year’s bill, there had been some concern that relaxing Maine’s ‘mutilation’ laws could create an incentive for illegal lobsters to be taken and processed.
Through meetings between processors and Marine Patrol, protocols were established to ensure that this new flexibility did not jeopardize Maine’s conservation laws. Under last year’s changes, processors were not allowed to process lobsters that were legally taken in other jurisdictions, but which would be considered ‘oversize’ in Maine. The recently enacted law (Public Law, Chapter 247) grants the additional flexibility to Maine processors to process lobsters above Maine’s maximum size with certain requirements and restrictions.

Previously, dealers with a lobster permit were allowed to import, handle and transport lobsters that do not meet minimum or maximum length requirements, but not to process them.

At the Legislature’s hearing last May on the original bill—LD 1547, “An Act to Allow Certain Wholesale Lobster Seafood Dealers to Process Imported Lobsters”—the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello (District 15), said that sometimes, normal shipments to Maine processors from other lobster-catching areas such as Canada and Massachusetts, include lobsters that do not meet Maine’s minimum and maximum size requirements.

DMR acting commissioner Patrick Keliher, testifying on behalf of the DMR, said the bill would grant flexibility to Maine processors to process these lobsters—which are mainly oversize—rather than cull, store and ship them out of state. He said that processing the oversize lobsters and then selling them out of state would allow processors to make money from the product, rather than spend money on labor to cull them.

Proper recording-keeping and chain-of-custody protocols would prevent the measure from becoming a loophole for Maine lobster fishermen to harvest oversized lobsters, Keliher said at the time.

But in at the Zone B Council’s September meeting, Carter said the Maine lobster industry is renowned for its conservationism – and should not be undermined.

“We’ve been protecting female lobsters and we have the oversize measure, and the reason we have the oversize measure is so that the big lobsters will egg out, and that’s what saved our industry,” Carter said. “I like to use the saying, We were conservation before conservation was cool. It’s been 75, 80 years that we’ve been protecting females. We’ve had oversize laws. And then to go along and say, ‘Oh, it’s okay for the processors in the state to start processing something that we consider illegal,’ in my mind, is wrong.