Tag Archives: Maine Lobstering Union
Maine lobstermen’s union votes to buy Hancock County lobster business
The Maine Lobstering Union voted Saturday to buy a wholesale lobster business near Mount Desert Island to help its fishermen net a bigger share of the profit in the booming, $1.5 billion-a-year industry. At a closed-door meeting in Rockport, members voted 63-1 to buy the wholesale side of the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound, which includes a tank that can hold up to 180,000 pounds of lobster, for $4 million, said Local 207 President Rocky Alley. “We can’t wait to start buying and selling our own lobsters,” Alley said. “Right now, fishermen sell at the dock, and we get what we get, with no control. But there is lots of money made off lobsters after they leave the dock, and some ought to stay with us fishermen.” The vote enables the Maine union to borrow money from a Kansas City bank and to borrow $1.1 million from fellow locals in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers as far south as Maryland to purchase the Lamoine-based wholesale business. continue reading the story here 21:36
Maine lobstermen oppose increase in cost of commercial fishing licenses
A proposal to increase the cost of commercial fishing licenses to fund scientific research in a lean budget year is drawing fire from Maine lobstermen. Julie Eaton, a 30-year lobster boat captain from Deer Isle, told a legislative panel at the State House on Friday that a 30 percent increase in lobster license fees would be too much on top of all the other costs of doing business, ranging from $125 to replace lost traps to $185 for monthly oil changes to bait bills that have doubled in the last year alone. The Maine Department of Marine Resources is seeking to increase lobster license fees about 30 percent, which would generate roughly $600,000 in new revenues. That money would be used to expand state lobster research and protect other department units, like the Maine Marine Patrol, despite budget cuts ordered by Gov. Paul LePage to offset the anticipated effect of a new minimum wage law and state school spending initiative. Continue reading the article here 09:24
Whale Protection Rules: Maine Lobstermen Divided Over Whether to Sue – Wait’ll the Cod Protection Rules Kick In!
Maine lobstermen are considering taking the federal government to court over regulations designed to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The Maine Lobstering Union has filed a notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service over new and existing rules requiring the modification of lobster gear. Read the rest here 18:58
Maine Voices: Dredging of Searsport Harbor would be economic folly – Rocky Allen, Maine Lobstering Union
Sen. Susan Collins has observed: “In parts of Maine, the environment is our economy.” No place epitomizes that principle more than Penobscot Bay. The members of the Maine Lobstering Union unanimously oppose the Searsport dredging project, as proposed, because it simply makes no economic sense for Maine. Read the rest here 11:53
Dredge opponents fear Penobscot River pollution
For the opponents of the Searsport dredge project, mercury contamination is the big worry. Those concerns deepened in February when the Maine Department of Marine Resources closed seven square miles to lobster and crab fishing after unsafe levels of Read more here 08:25
