The economy is in disarray with no known date when it might return to something like normal. The Maine seafood industry has been hit hard. Individuals, groups and fishermen’s associations have taken a proactive position. They are organized to take advantage of funds available to fishermen to help them keep their businesses and infrastructure alive. ©Joel Woods photo.
Maine’s Seafood Industry
in Crisis
by Laurie Schreiber
Maine’s seafood industry has been scrambling to find new market outlets since the pandemic shut down traditional buyers like restaurants and cruise ships.
“The news isn’t great for the lobster industry,” Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) Executive Director Patrice McCarron wrote in the MLA’s April newsletter. “Markets for seafood are shrinking rapidly, and it appears that we have a long road ahead. Like everyone else in the seafood industry, lobstermen have been hard hit by the closures of restaurants, casinos, cruise ships and pretty much any social gathering you can think of.”
More than 80% of seafood is consumed through restaurants and food service.
“While the timeline for the coronavirus and its corresponding economic disaster are unknown, we must prepare for long-term impacts,” she said.
On March 21, Governor Janet Mills issued a letter citing the “substantial toll” the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on Maine’s independent fishermen, aquaculturists, wholesale dealers, and seafood processors. She asked the Trump Administration to direct financial assistance, subsidies, and operating loans or loan deferment, among other possible measures.
“The markets for their products are collapsing both globally and locally,” wrote Mills. “The men and women who ply our waters harvesting lobster, groundfish, herring, shellfish, countless other species, and farming aquacultured products are the very backbone of our rural coastal economy.”
