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Boston Globe
14-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
'Everybody's just restless:' Maine's iconic lobster fishery braces for trade wars, upheaval
As President Trump wages an unprecedented protectionist campaign to impose or tease steep tariffs on nearly every trading partner, an industry that thrives on the free flow of global trade — and disposable cash in Americans' wallets — could suffer disproportionately. 'I'm extremely worried,' said Dave Cousens, a former president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association who has fished for lobster off midcoast Maine for 50 years. 'I think there's going to be a lot of people who don't survive.' Advertisement The anxiety begins on the north side of the Gulf of Maine, in Canada, which Trump has antagonized through tariffs and saber-rattling taunts of '51st State.' Canada is a lynchpin of the industry's supply chain, with lobsters caught by Maine boats crossing the international border up to four times for processing. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Then there's the fact that Maine's fishery is sustained by tens of millions of dollars of lobster purchased every year by China, the European Union, and other places that are facing fresh US tariffs and mulling retaliatory tariffs in turn. With fears of a trade war-fueled recession or economic downturn looming, the domestic market may prove no buffer. The quintessential luxury purchase, lobster would likely rank among the first splurges for Americans to cut out when tightening their belts. Advertisement The pain is already hitting, said Cousens. The price for spring season hard-shell lobster, which is shipped live across the world, is dropping to a point where many lobstermen are struggling or failing to break even. With Chinese and Canadian markets closing off to Maine lobster, and a souring economic mood domestically, 'no one wants to buy lobster right now,' he said. Looming over the current situation is the confounding uncertainty of what's to come. Trade deals with dozens of countries are reportedly in the works, yet their timelines are unclear. Some tariffs are on, then off again, such as the truce Trump just struck with China on Monday, leaving markets to fluctuate according to the president's whims. As the peak of Maine's lobster season inches closer, the industry and its advocates are frustrated by their inability to plan for what comes next. 'Everybody's just restless,' said George Edwards, a Maine native and official with the International Association of Machinists, which represents the workers of the Maine Lobstering Union Local 207. 'We're not sure what the tariffs are going to do. Every day it changes.' That restlessness radiates outward to, for example, Brooks Trap Mill, a family business that has been making and selling lobster traps and supplies in Maine for 70 years. 'As far as tariffs go, we just don't know what to expect,' said chief executive, Mark Brooks. 'It really makes it tough to plan for the future.' In Washington, where Maine's congressional delegation has long advocated for the lobster fishery, lawmakers are riding the same roller coaster. 'It's just a nightmare. It really is,' said US Representative Chellie Pingree, the Democrat from Maine's 1st District, which spans the coastline from Kittery to Camden. 'There's a lot of fragility in the market.' Advertisement White House spokesman Kush Desai said a 'top priority of President Trump's America First agenda is making sure that US seafood producers, including Maine's lobstermen, can compete fairly in global markets.' He added the administration is cutting regulations and 'pushing back against unfair trade practices" to 'level the playing field for American businesses and workers.' In addition to the 5,600 independent lobstermen who make up the heart of the fishery, as many as 35,000 total jobs are supported by the lobster business in Maine, according to a Colby College analysis. Overall, lobster fuels more than $1 billion in economic activity in the state every year, according to the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative. Recent years have seen emerging challenges for the fishery. During the Biden administration, lobstermen fought against federal regulation meant to protect endangered right whales because they worried it would be ruinous. They succeeded, but looking ahead, there's the threat of rapidly warming seas, which has pushed lobsters north in the Gulf of Maine and could drive them further still into Canada — which would decimate the Maine fishery as it has in Connecticut. Trade-related disruptions aren't new, either. In his first term, Trump put tariffs on a variety of Chinese imports, resulting in retaliatory measures from Beijing. The impact for the US lobster industry was stark. The year before the tariffs hit, the United States exported $183 million worth of lobster to China; the year after, that haul was nearly halved, to $93 million. Trump's initial proposed 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports sparked panic in Maine, because of how much this integrated supply chain straddles the border. Much of Maine's lobster catch is processed at Canadian facilities and then sent back across the Gulf of Maine, so a 25 percent tariff, levied more than once, would have been ruinous. In 2024, Maine exported $250 million in seafood to Canada, by far its biggest buyer. Advertisement Trump has mostly walked back those tariffs and may focus on renegotiating the trade deal among the United States, Canada, and Mexico he brokered in his first term. But even without tariffs in place, many Canadians are boycotting US goods to protest Trump's talk of annexation and cancelling trips to states they used to frequently visit, such as Maine. With respect to trade with Canada, the lobster industry is hardly out of the woods, given how frequently Trump changes his mind, said Eric Miller, a Washington consultant who advises American and Canadian businesses. Trump 'may well decide to take a different tack on' trade with Canada, he said. The situation with China, the largest single buyer of Maine lobster outside Canada, has been even more turbulent. Trump's massive escalation in April set the proposed US tariff on Chinese imports at a staggering 145 percent, with China retaliating with an 84 percent levy. On Monday, the two sides announced a 90-day pause, with Chinese tariffs on US goods landing at 10 percent, for now. 'If we were to have substantial tariffs with China during our busy season, it would be a nightmare,' warned Pingree. 'It would make Maine lobsters kind of un-saleable.' Maine lobstermen might get lucky if those tariffs remained consistent, while China's existing high tariffs on Canadian lobster might benefit the US position. Still, American producers will likely look to other markets, such as the European Union, but the dynamic across the Atlantic is tense, too, with aggressive moves so far on both sides. Advertisement 'If you have a situation where the trade war with Europe reaches catastrophic proportions again, that will be really, really challenging for the industry,' Miller said. An added challenge is how tariffs could increase overhead for lobstermen. A typical lobster operation might need to replace a few hundred traps per season, at a cost of roughly $150 each. Brooks Trap Mill assembles its traps in the United States but sources some of its steel from abroad, which is now subject to a universal 25 percent tariff. Any price increases could substantially eat into already thin margins for lobstermen and trap makers alike. The impact of this upheaval could be uneven within the fishery, said Nick Battista, chief policy officer at the Island Institute, which advocates for Maine's coastal industries and environment. Some lobstermen are going to be 'relatively well situated to handle bumps and downturns in the fishery,' he said. 'There's also a number of people who invested in boats and fishing businesses, who are significantly leveraged in terms of debt they've taken on . . . that's where we'll start seeing challenges, cracks, in the industry in the coming years.' While financial markets have rebounded since the thaw in US-China trade tensions, analysts and industry leaders still fear a recession is imminent — and even just the prospect of one could cool discretionary spending. That's bad news for the lobstermen, said Miller. 'Where that translates is, people focus on core consumption and less on buying lobster rolls,' he said. 'That's just the reality of it.' Advertisement Worried tougher times are ahead, Cousens, the midcoast lobsterman, wondered why the administration was pursuing these policies at all. 'It's stupid, self-inflicted [expletive] if you ask me,' he said. 'There's no need for it.' Sam Brodey can be reached at
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Judge pauses Maine lobster defamation suit pending appeal
Apr. 15—A federal judge on Tuesday paused proceedings in a defamation lawsuit Maine lobstering groups brought against a California aquarium, staying the case until broad questions about how to interpret Maine libel law are answered by an appeals court. U.S. District Judge John Woodcock had ruled in February that the suit — brought by the Maine Lobstermen's Association, the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association and a handful of lobstering businesses — could proceed after nearly two years in legal limbo. The groups sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation "for making false and defamatory statements about Maine lobster fishing practices and for misleading consumers and commercial lobster buyers about the integrity of the Maine lobster harvest" after the aquarium's Seafood Watch program downgraded its rating for Maine lobster. The aquarium claimed that the lobster industry threatens the North Atlantic right whale, and that U.S. and Canadian regulations failed to adequately protect the critically endangered species. But in a new ruling Tuesday, Woodcock placed a stay on the case while the 1st U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Boston takes up questions regarding the proper interpretation of group libel issues and whether the aquarium's decision to place Maine lobster on a list of foods to avoid constitutes a protected scientific opinion. Woodcock also granted an interlocutory appeal, a relatively rare legal device used in situations where questions arise that are unrelated to the merits of the case itself, including "a controlling question of law" with substantial grounds for a difference in opinion that could "materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation," according to federal law. The interlocutory appeal is focused on two points the aquarium raised in February. First, whether an exception to the group libel law should be granted in this case. The court in February ruled that the case could be exempted from the state's traditional rules on libel of a broad group, as the plaintiffs were able to demonstrate that they were uniquely impacted by the sweeping declaration on Maine lobster. Before the proceedings can resume, the appeals court must determine whether that exception "applies to defamation claims brought by a plaintiff group consisting of lobstermen who each suffered similar demonstrable economic harms as a consequence of defamatory statements made against the American lobster as a commercial product," Woodcock wrote. Second, the appeals court must determine whether the aquarium's claims about the lobster industry are protected as a matter of differing scientific opinion. In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege that the aquarium's "scientific assertion is factually false and the speaker deliberately ignored and did not disclose the existence of contradictory evidence of which it was aware at the time it made the statements," Woodcock wrote. Depending on its findings, the appeals court could send the case back to the lower court for renewed deliberation, move to dismiss the complaint or otherwise terminate the proceedings. A spokesperson for the aquarium said it "appreciates the District Court's decision" to grant the appeal and stay proceedings. "We seek to protect our ability to share critical information with the public and welcome the opportunity the decision presents," the spokesperson said in a statement emailed Tuesday. Kevin Lipson, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said they would brief the issues before the 1st Circuit "as it's deemed necessary," but he noted that the court could decline to take up the question of group libel applicability. "We're very confident in the trial judge's determination below, and we are confident that we'll prevail in the 1st Circuit," Lispon said on Tuesday. "This is the nature of the judicial process. It is a cumbersome and tiresome thing, but at the end justice will prevail." In a brief filed last month, the New England First Amendment Coalition argued that siding with the plaintiffs would be an "unprecedented application of the group libel rule" and threaten news reporting. Doing so could also create a chilling effect related to scientific and public policy debate, the coalition said. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A Watchdog Group Told People to Not Buy Maine Lobster. Now It's Facing a Lawsuit.
A lawsuit related to Maine's lobster industry is no longer stuck in the claws of the legal system. A federal judge recently ruled that the Maine Lobstermen's Association and others can proceed with their defamation suit against the nonprofit Seafood Watch, The New York Times reported on Monday. The lobstermen's group initially sued the nonprofit, which is run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, almost two years ago, following Seafood Watch's downgrading of Maine lobster from yellow to red in its sustainability ratings. More from Robb Report The Couple Behind N.Y.C.'s Hit Restaurants Dame and Lord's Opens a New Seafood Spot This Beloved N.Y.C. Restaurant Is Reportedly Being Forced Out to Make Room for Prada Chef Michael White Returns to N.Y.C. With a New Modern Italian Restaurant 'This ruling is a crucial step in holding the Monterey Bay Aquarium accountable for misleading statements that have unfairly targeted our industry,' Patrice McCarron, the executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, said in a statement. 'Maine lobstermen have been stewards of the ocean for generations, and we are committed to defending our livelihood against baseless claims.' Back in 2022, Seafood Watch changed the sustainability rating for American lobsters caught off Maine, telling consumers that they should no longer buy the crustaceans, the Times noted. At the time, the nonprofit said that the fishing gear used to catch lobsters was posing a threat to endangered North Atlantic right whales. Around the same time, the Marine Stewardship Council similarly announced that it was no longer considering Maine lobster sustainable because of those fishing-gear issues. However, the fishermen suing Seafood Watch say that the group's rating was based on irrelevant and outdated data, and that the industry has worked to modify its gear, The New York Times wrote. They also say that the rating downgrade led some customers to cancel their contracts and the average price of a pound of lobster to fall 40 percent. 'Reputation and goodwill cannot be adequately replaced through awarding damages and this injury lingers as long as the 'red listing' does,' Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. wrote in his decision. In response to Woodcock Jr.'s ruling, Seafood Watch has filed an appeal, the Times reported. The Monterey Bay Aquarium said in a statement cited by the newspaper that the lawsuit should be dismissed according to a Maine law meant to protect free speech. For now, though, the Maine Lobstermen's Association will proceed with its fight against Seafood Watch, in the hopes that the nonprofit will amend its rating of Maine lobster. As we gear up for the summer season, lobster-roll lovers will likely be watching closely to see how the rest of the case plays out. Best of Robb Report Why a Heritage Turkey Is the Best Thanksgiving Bird—and How to Get One 9 Stellar West Coast Pinot Noirs to Drink Right Now The 10 Best Wines to Pair With Steak, From Cabernet to Malbec Click here to read the full article.
New York Times
04-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Maine Lobster Industry Can Sue Seafood Watchdog for Defamation, Judge Rules
Maine's lobster industry can proceed with a defamation lawsuit that it brought against a seafood watchdog group, which had placed a do-not-buy designation on the crustaceans because of the dangers it said that the industry's fishing nets posed to an endangered whale species. A federal judge last month denied a motion to have the case dismissed, drawing an appeal on Thursday from the group Seafood Watch, a nonprofit run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium that publishes seafood sustainability ratings. It has been nearly two years since the Maine Lobstermen's Association and several other plaintiffs sued the nonprofit after it downgraded the sustainability rating for American lobsters caught off Maine from yellow to red in 2022. The nonprofit advised consumers to avoid those lobsters, saying that endangered North Atlantic right whales were at significant risk of becoming entangled in fishing gear. The fishermen blamed Seafood Watch in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Maine, for damaging the reputation of the billion-dollar industry and prompting some of their customers to cancel contracts. 'Reputation and goodwill cannot be adequately replaced through awarding damages and this injury lingers as long as the 'red listing' does,' Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. wrote in the 137-page order denying the motion to dismiss the case. The fishermen applauded the judge's ruling in a statement, having argued in the lawsuit that the average price per pound of lobster dropped by 40 percent after Seafood Watch changed its sustainability rating. 'This ruling is a crucial step in holding the Monterey Bay Aquarium accountable for misleading statements that have unfairly targeted our industry,' Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, said in a statement. 'Maine lobstermen have been stewards of the ocean for generations, and we are committed to defending our livelihood against baseless claims.' In a statement mentioning that it was appealing the ruling, the Monterey Bay Aquarium said that the lawsuit should be dismissed under a Maine law that was intended to defend against frivolous lawsuits that stymie free speech. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries estimated that there are about 370 North Atlantic right whales remaining, making it one of the world's most endangered whale species. The number of new calves born in recent years has been below average, according to NOAA. The primary threats to the whales, which can weigh up to 140,000 pounds and measure up to 52 feet in length, are vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements. At the time that Seafood Watch placed its do-not-buy designation on Maine lobsters, the nonprofit said that the red rating was based on 'significant risks of entanglement in pot, trap, and gillnet fisheries to the endangered North Atlantic right whale and the lack of timely, effective management necessary to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery of the species.' The fishermen who sued the nonprofit argued that Maine's lobster industry had taken steps to modify gear, and that Seafood Watch's rating was based on outdated and irrelevant data. Three days after the rating was announced, the governor of Maine and its congressional delegation sent a letter to the aquarium asking it to reverse the designation.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Maine lobstermen hauled smallest catch in 15 years
Feb. 28—Maine's commercial fishermen hauled in 86 million pounds of lobster in 2024 — the smallest catch in nearly 15 years, according to preliminary data released by the state Friday morning. But the value of fishery increased by $46.4 million to $528.4 million last year. And lobstermen earned an average $6.14 per pound, up from $4.97. It's the second highest price per pound of lobster in the history of Maine's fishery, runner up to the state's record year in 2021 ($6.71). For the last decade, the so-called dock prices have hovered around $4 per pound. Lobstermen put about 285,000 fewer traps in Maine waters last summer, which could have contributed to lower landings. And lobstermen are grappling with research that shows Maine's lobster population is on the decline. Surveys have indicated the population of young lobsters in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Banks areas declined by 39% in 2020 to 2022 compared to 2016 through 2018. Lobstermen and industry groups, however, believe the federal data is inaccurate and say it was collected over a small and abnormal timeframe that doesn't reflect the reality of population trends. Lobstermen previously said they were fishing less in 2023, and in turn hauling less, because of the rising costs of doing business. Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, said Friday that she chalks last year's drop up to "mother nature." She didn't think lobstermen fished less, like they did in 2023. "(In 2024), the fishery was more reflective of what the older lobstermen witnessed 15 years ago," she said, adding that this kind of fluctuation is normal in the fishery. Because of higher dock prices, Portland lobsterman Tom Werner said he didn't take any financial hits in 2024. He caught less lobster but made the same profit as 2023. "The business is always up and down," he said. Industry-wide, Maine fishermen hauled less fish, but the fisheries raked in $74.3 million more than 2023. Behind lobstering, the softshell clam fishery was the second-most valuable last year, with a 5.71 million pound haul and $15.5 million value. Meanwhile, the elver fishery, which had held the No. 2 spot since 2021, dropped to No. 5, with the catch's value decreasing by $7.31 million to a total of $12.2 million in 2024. Baby eels went for an average of $1,240 per pound last year, a decline of nearly 40% from $2,010 per pound in 2023. The 2024 landings were announced at the annual Maine Fishermen's Forum, which began in Rockport on Thursday. This story will be updated. Copy the Story Link
