F R O M   T H E   C R O W E ’ S   N E S T

And The Prices Are High



Spring. Tough to find something to complain about, with warm sunshine again and prospects for a new year. At the same time, it seems to be spring that brings crowds into the streets to complain more loudly than any other time of year, demanding change. The young open the doors and windows, let the sun in, and crank the music. The plants are doing something quietly similar.

Lobster fishing in Maine is expected to sail through another one of the best years the fishery has had in many years. The predicted early spring, unlike 2012, will be coming into markets buoyed by the development of Asian markets and the continued changes in seafood-eating choices there.

Boat builders are building boats again, a lot of them.

The council is attempting to reach agreement on the management of Atlantic herring. The lobster industry is hoping to get a bait supply out of it—a supply that lasts through the fall. A special workshop in May, to get public comment that could lead to a breakthrough on Atlantic herring management, is encouraging. When it comes to Atlantic herring management, it's been springtime at the council for many years, as a lot of interests tug at disparate ropes for control of a critical resource.

There are differing opinions on the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative's focus on Asian markets. Some think U.S. markets could be big enough to consume all the lobster Maine can catch. U.S. markets would not have the unknowns, risks, and unpredictability of Asian markets. The $5,000 licensing fee processors pay to support the collaborative was a hard pill for them to swallow.

Some exporters were seeing markets in Korea and China going more for low-price new lobster last year, rather than the iconic high-end hard shell—in part a reaction to the economic slowdown there. Other dealers see the markets developing in India as another wave of billion-consumer-strong demand.

Is this mix of opposites so unlike the way things often are? When have circumstances—when it comes to working with everything that natural resources can throw at you—ever been all-perfect or all-disastrous?

Whatever else is or is not going on, it can’t be denied that it is warmer, lighter, and probably better out there than three months ago.

It is springtime and the weather is warming. Lobsters are moving and the prices are high.