Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
bloomberg.com
Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
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Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#2I 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. what their website shows ($22.95). But that's just a local price in a market that in general seems to see prices racing upwards due to the influx of cash in the area.
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#3I'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 commons and collectively make rules governing it. Kelly argues that this ownership of the lobstering commons, in a cooperative-like structure, leads to greater sustainability.
Large corporate boats can operate only in designated areas. Instead of permitting limitless liberty to absentee owners for the seeking of wealth -- by hired hands indifferent to local custom -- Maine set spinning a new governing pattern…. That the right to make a living comes before the right to make a killing. That fairness for the many is more important than maximizing for the few. That sustaining the prosperity of larger living systems, both human and wild, is the root condition for the flourishing of all. (page 138)
I'd highly recommend the book, which introduces the dichotomy of "generative" organizations (which by design seek to produce social value in addition to profit) vs. "extractive" organizations (which maximize financial value above all else).
I'm surprised this article skips over this topic entirely.
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#4Is the herring they use as bait the same fish I buy in cans or jars in the supermarket? I'd rather eat that than lobster most days.
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#5I 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.…
>I for one will do my part to help pick up the slack in demand.
Likewise. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#6Copy the Danes: Mass-approve Chinese visitor visas, and lonsters will go extinct before you can say "Please take our lobsters"
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#7I 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.…
>has there been much change in retail/restaurant lobster prices?
No. Anecdotally, and also supported by data there was an article at some point about it. The worst part is a lot of restaurants use rock lobster instead of Maine lobster
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#8I'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…
Well it is Bloomberg, after all. That doesn't fit their narrative, or support the established biases of their audience.
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#9I 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 price" is at least as much about reducing pricing transparency.)
So, the short answer is that lower lobster pricing doesn't seem to have led to widespread lower pricing in most places.
Re: Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
#10I'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.