Vance Bunker’s Sari Ann, a wooden lobster boat built by Peter Kass in the foreground. In the background and the lead is Scott Dugas’ Sand Dollar III, Yarmouth, Maine. They were racing in the All Peter Kass Boat Race at Stonington, Maine July 15, 2012. The turnout of boats at races this year has been good in spite of the bottom falling out of the boat price for lobster. The cataclysmic plunge in market prices is being attributed to a wide range of interlocking events in the northeast lobster fishery. ©Photo by Sam Murfitt
Lobster Glut
Facts, Figures and Future in a 30-Year Low
by Sandra Dinsmore
Everyone connected to the lobster business watched, horrified as catches soared higher and higher and boat prices plummeted ever lower. Gluts have been part of the shedder season for a lot of reasons. Fishermen and dealers think causes include years and years of V-notching females, open ocean farming (all that bait on the bottom), lack of natural predators, which a veteran dealer called a huge factor, and poor quality perhaps resulting from too many lobsters for the habitat to support.
