The Maine Lobster Dealers Association

Wharf at Green Head Lobster, Stonington, Maine.

About two years ago a new generation of Maine lobster dealers realized the importance of having an industry organization and of having some representation in Augusta.

As the new dealers’ organization president Timothy Harkins, a wholesaler who owns Rocky Coast Lobster in Arrowsic, explained, “We felt that lobster dealers needed their own industry group in order to monitor activities that affect our businesses at the state and federal level as well as needing greater dealer representation and participation in such industry-related committees in Augusta as the Lobster Advisory Council, the Marketing Collaborative, and the Research, Education, and Development Board, etc.”

After looking into forming a new association, the group decided to take over the still legally existing Maine Import Export Lobster Dealers Association. Harkins said it took them a year to go through the process of legally changing the name to the simpler Maine Lobster Dealers Association (MLDA), to get its legal status changed, to get the organizational documents and bylaws, and to search for and hire an executive director.

Their choice, Annie Tselikis, of Cape Elizabeth, came with an abundance of experience in Maine’s lobster world. She started as an Island Institute Fellow based in Stonington then became a Community Coordinator at the Penobscot East Resource Center, among other things liaising between fishermen and the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and other agencies as well as doing fisheries management outreach to towns in a 150-mile area of coastal Eastern Maine. From Penobscot East she moved to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, where she provided administrative support, meetings and special events planning, and public relations and outreach. She then became an education coordinator for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association in Kennebunk, where she combined lobster-marketing strategy with developing programs to increase fishery profitability.

In addition to Tselikis, hired in June 2014, the new association has four officers: Harkins, vice president: Kerin Resch, of Eastern Traders, in Waldoboro; secretary: Susan Bayley Clough, of Bayley’s Lobster Pound, in Scarborough; and treasurer Randy Townsend, of Island Seafood, in Kittery.

The association’s primary initiative is to fund a study on the economic impact of the lobster industry on the state. Such a study has never been done. Bayley explained, “When the DMR, or any other government organization needs to understand the opinions of or impact on harvesters, that organization knows the key people to call. The dealers need this kind of representation as well, so that information given to regulatory bodies is not just anecdotal.” She added, “It is also helpful to have Annie informing us of any looming issues. Running our businesses is a full-time job and does not leave as much time for research as we would like, so Annie does that work for us and then gives us the information.”

One of the most important things Tselikis does is monitor what’s going on in the lobster industry between the United States and Canada. She’s also in contact with Maine’s congressional delegation and state and federal agencies. But her primary focus for 2016 is getting that economic study off the ground.

Tselikis said, “We’ll be looking at all lobster businesses in Maine from the first point of sale at the wharf through to the consumer or customer level. This will include wharves and co-ops, buyers, retailers, processors, wholesalers, and shippers in order to quantify the number of jobs directly created by the lobster industry, the contribution to the tax base, and revenue generated. We will also investigate the indirect impact to businesses such as fuel and bait distributors, construction contractors, and such professional services as accounting, legal, and banking.”

Asked how the association will fund this study, Harkins replied, “We are trying to access some of the funds from the lobster license plates.” Of the importance of such a study, he said, “People don’t realize that every dollar that enters the state of Maine that pays the harvesters flows through the hands of a dealer. All of the money that’s coming in for the sale of these lobsters flows through a dealer.” He explained, “I think an economic study that shows the number of people we dealers employ, the number of dollars we handle, the facilities and infrastructure that we have, the trucks and tanks and crates, etc. would be eye-opening to the Maine public. And ultimately an economic study like that would benefit even the Department of Marine Resources.”

Harkins then summed up the main reason for forming the new lobster dealers association, saying, “I think we just saw that there was a bit of a vacuum, from an industry standpoint, where the dealers really didn’t have a voice. And in fairness, folks from the state and federal levels had no contact person. There was no organization for them to reach out to. So it’s been an opportunity for us to develop a voice for the Maine lobster dealers.”