Better Lobster Handling for
Better Prices

Fishermen’s Voice Staff

More lobster on the market has pulled the rug from under prices. Catching more lobster has become the means for staying in business. Bigger catches has meant more product to handle in the same amount of time. As a result the quality of the shedder price has gone down with the price. Shrinkage costs lobstermen and buyers money, said Annie Tselikis .

With 80% of the Maine catch being the more fragile soft shell lobster, the shrinkage problem has been amplified.

Who pays for this shrinkage? Markets have not evolved with the supply and while this is a fundamental problem, declining quality through inadequate handling practices is further undermining price.

The problem belongs to everyone in the supply chain.

From the time the hauler drags that lobster up though the water to when the consumer picks it up to cook it, handling effects the value of the product. Each handler in the chain only sees their link, but if all the links are weak the chain cannot hold up the system’s goal. What would be the value of a new truck that was dented and had the engine overheated every time it was moved and was left unsecured on deck during its trip here from Japan?

Current estimates are that shrinkage cost the Maine lobster industry $8 million in 2012 or 2.5% in shrinkage.

Annie Tselikis, at the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), has been looking at the supply chain and working to promote better handling practices. “We have to manage the product we have in Maine”, said Tselikis. “Canada fishes more hard shell in a very different season and management system. But they are working to improve handling to maximize quality”, she said.

Tselkilis said the processors are the lowest common denominator for price. Protecting higher prices begins at the dock. If the lobster is weak at the dock it is not going to make it through the supply chain. Every negative move, from hauling, being tossed in a tote, being too warm on deck, warm water tank temperature, a crate being dropped on a dock, a crate dragged out of the water on one becket, that crate tossed on a warm truck, a long rough ride in a truck to another series stressors all add up to shrinkage or its market value equivalent.

Tselkilis has spent the last year gathering data on lobster health. She has been bringing that information to the industry at wharfs and wherever the industry will listen. Molting is an exhausting process. Lobster dehydrate before the molt and rehydrate to break open the old shell. Juvenile lobsters molt five to seven times a year. All lobster can be harmed by rough handling, but shedders are the most fragile and they are what are primarily fished in Maine.

Better handling begins at the hauler, said Tselkilis. The extra sensitive shedders coming up through the water column are effected by significant changes in altitude and pressure, which causes a build up of lactic acid in their tissue. The effect on them is similar to the bends human divers experience coming to the surface too quickly.

How lobster are handled once on board immediately effects how they recover from this change as well as their chances in the supply chain. Keeping them out of the sun, having cold oxygenated and saline correct water all helps. Equipment to supply some of these conditions can be expensive, but just attention to detail goes a long way. “Doing things that keep the lobster’s shell whole, keeping the animal as unstressed as possible, providing the temperature and oxygen it needs to stay vigorous are the basics”, said Tselkilis.

Tselkilis managed the Trade Adjustment Assistance program for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. Through the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance Tselkilis is conducting a series of at-the-dock workshops to discuss lobster handling practices that promote strong, shippable lobsters.

Coops are now putting notices about these handling practices workshops in the check envelopes lobstermen receive. Anyone interested in arranging to have Tselkilis come to a coop or wharf to demonstrate handling and storage practices can call the MLA office at 207-967-4555. She can also be reached at: annie@mainelobstermen.org.