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Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

bloomberg.com

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Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#11

Post by kirykl »

ghaff wrote: post #9
shostack wrote: post #2

I for one will do my part to help pick up the slack in demand. While the wholesale price has fluctuated, has there been much change in retail/restaurant lobster prices? I certainly don't see restaurants near me lowering the price of a lobster roll. If anything, looks like Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City increased theirs judging by what Google shows in their menu listing for a "Maine Lobster Roll" ($18.75) vs.…

Current pricing is often reflected to at least a certain degree in authentic lobster shacks on the Maine coast. However, in general, lobster is still priced in many places as this premium good. (I'm looking at you Legal Seafood with your $26 lobster rolls.) And, even worse, it's still common to hide the pricing behind "market price." (It's fair that lobster pricing does fluctuate more than other proteins but "market…

Market price in this case is retail. Its the price that will move the inventory of lobsters for the most money, before they die of starvation or kill/eat each other in the tank.

Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#12

Post by mikeyouse »

scrollbar wrote: post #3

I'm in the middle of reading Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution by Marjorie Kelly, which talks extensively about Maine lobster fishery rights. Along the sensitive areas of the coast, only owner-operated boats are allowed to fish, and these people must all have certified lobster fishing licenses. Their licensure also gives them voting rights around regulations for lobstering- in a sense, they own the…

The article mentions it prominently.. including references to an earlier book about the same subject;

> As University of Maine anthropologist James M. Acheson put it in his 2003 book "Capturing the Commons: Devising Institutions to Manage the Maine Lobster Industry:

> While scientists do not agree on the reason for these high catches, there is a growing consensus that they are due, in some measure, to the long history of effective regulations that the lobster industry has played a key role in developing.

The author of your suggested book heavily references Acheson in making her case: http://www.marjoriekelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Kell...

Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#13

Post by ghaff »

kirykl wrote: post #11
ghaff wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current pricing is often reflected to at least a certain degree in authentic lobster shacks on the Maine coast. However, in general, lobster is still priced in many places as this premium good. (I'm looking at you Legal Seafood with your $26 lobster rolls.) And, even worse, it's still common to hide the pricing behind "market price." (It's fair that lobster pricing does fluctuate more than other proteins but "market…

Market price in this case is retail. Its the price that will move the inventory of lobsters for the most money, before they die of starvation or kill/eat each other in the tank.

Of course lobster pounds and the like have a market price that's usually posted on a chalk board or whiteboard.

What I was referring to was regular restaurants that routinely don't list a price for dishes that use lobster on their menu and instead just say "market price." Which, in my experience, is more or less a synonym for "expensive."

I'd note that, in addition to lobster pounds, it's far more common for coastal Maine restaurants to have the price for lobster in their menu like they do for every other dish.

Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#14

Post by dflock »

valuearb wrote: post #10
scrollbar wrote: post #3

I'm in the middle of reading Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution by Marjorie Kelly, which talks extensively about Maine lobster fishery rights. Along the sensitive areas of the coast, only owner-operated boats are allowed to fish, and these people must all have certified lobster fishing licenses. Their licensure also gives them voting rights around regulations for lobstering- in a sense, they own the…

This is great, I hope we apply it to the rest of the ocean life that we farm.

The problem is that mostly we don't farm ocean life - we just hunt it, on an industrial scale.

Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#16

Post by Finnucane »

dflock wrote: post #14
valuearb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is great, I hope we apply it to the rest of the ocean life that we farm.

The problem is that mostly we don't farm ocean life - we just hunt it, on an industrial scale.

More than half of the seafood consumed globally is farmed:

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/aquaculture/faqs/faq_aq_101.html

Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#17

Post by tyingq »

shostack wrote: post #2

I for one will do my part to help pick up the slack in demand. While the wholesale price has fluctuated, has there been much change in retail/restaurant lobster prices? I certainly don't see restaurants near me lowering the price of a lobster roll. If anything, looks like Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City increased theirs judging by what Google shows in their menu listing for a "Maine Lobster Roll" ($18.75) vs.…

Some of the New England area McDonalds sell Lobster rolls: https://newengland.com/today/travel/new-england/places-to-ea...

No idea if they are any good, but they are $8.

Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#18

Post by jredwards »

scrollbar wrote: post #3

I'm in the middle of reading Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution by Marjorie Kelly, which talks extensively about Maine lobster fishery rights. Along the sensitive areas of the coast, only owner-operated boats are allowed to fish, and these people must all have certified lobster fishing licenses. Their licensure also gives them voting rights around regulations for lobstering- in a sense, they own the…

> the right to make a living comes before the right to make a killing

That's a hell of a sentence. Clever use of two idioms which are probably unrelated in origin but share imagery.

Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters

#20

Post by clashmoore »

shostack wrote: post #2

I for one will do my part to help pick up the slack in demand. While the wholesale price has fluctuated, has there been much change in retail/restaurant lobster prices? I certainly don't see restaurants near me lowering the price of a lobster roll. If anything, looks like Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City increased theirs judging by what Google shows in their menu listing for a "Maine Lobster Roll" ($18.75) vs.…

Anecdotally, I am in the North East and I do recall a year (probably 2012ish) where every local restaurant had exploded with lobster specials. Not necessarily whole lobsters for sale, but their meat used as a choice of protein along side chicken, beef, etc. The price at that time dropped to like $9 per pound in the super markets.

Since that year, I haven't seen the same offerings where this Bloomberg article would suggest that the amount of harvested lobsters has gone up.

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