While listening to the news, another story pops up about the dilemma of the Maine lobsterman. With high prices for fuel and bait as well as multi hundred thousand dollar boats and reduced access to the water it is easy enough to see the problems they face but now we have a relatively new source of trouble. It seems that the financial collapse in our country is killing the taste for lobster and the price of a landed harvest is collapsing into areas not seen in decades.

I have now been boatless for a year after sailing our 36 foot cutter out of Rockland for 18 years, and we always enjoyed seeing the working boats plying their trade as we coasted by. Mostly friendly but sometimes not, they were just part of the environment but perhaps now their days are numbered. With so many endangered species it seems that the forces of man are responsible for their fate and I cannot help but think that man is again a large factor in the lobster industry decline. Outside forces are usually to blame but in this case the lobstermans own efforts have a large measure of responsibility for their troubles. I'll go out on a limb here and say that I don't think that the lobster are over fished but instead clearly the market is over served.

In the approaches to Vinalhaven and Port Clyde as well as many other areas that we have visited, you could seemingly walk on the water, being held up by the carpet of pot buoys laid out before you.

The lobster certainly appreciate the plentiful food dropped conveniently on the ocean floor for them but the large number of traps seals the fate of the industry. In an effort to increase their incomes and provide growth in their industry, the lobsterman is instead killing the golden goose. It is always difficult to recognize when an industry is on the verge of collapse but the lobstermen need to recognize and act before economics and not species collapse kills their way of life. It is long past time to limit the total number of traps in the water in a meaningful way, providing a steady but reduced supply to the market and to allow individual lobstermen to own their license as some European countries do, thereby allowing them to sell the license or give it away at their time of retirement. If the lobster can again regain the description as a delicacy and not a commodity then the industry will have gone a long way toward survival. It's not too late to act, but once again we will likely see a waiting game played until bankruptcy and market forces simply cut away until only a few survive.

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