OFF THE COAST OF MAINE -- As he pulled alongside one of his lobster pots, marked by a red and yellow buoy on Penobscot Bay, Mike Hutchings extracted and measured several of the crustaceans that would contribute to his 130-pound catch that day. It was a decent haul but his assessment of the fishing season
OFF THE COAST OF MAINE — As he pulled alongside one of his lobster pots, marked by a red and yellow buoy on Penobscot Bay, Mike Hutchings extracted and measured several of the crustaceans that would contribute to his 130-pound catch that day. It was a decent haul but his assessment of the fishing season was grim: “The worst it’s ever been.”
The pain is particularly unwelcome for an industry that has spent the past several years caught in the middle of political fights, including President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, looming restrictions to protect an endangered whale species and bait quotas. And then there are the region’s warming waters, spurred by climate change, which have slowly shifted the areas conducive to lobster reproduction away from the coast.
For Hutchings, 66, whose hands are worn from both line and lobster after fishing Maine waters for more than 50 years, the effect of the pandemic boils down to whether he can make enough money to keep his boat profitable. The economic hit to lobstermen seemed a far cry from Trump’s declaration on social media just a few days earlier.
“From 2015 to 2018, American lobster was the most valuable single seafood species harvested in the United States, with Maine accounting for approximately 80% of that value each year,” Trump said in the proclamation, adding that his administration would “mitigate the effects of unfair retaliatory trade practices on this important industry.”
Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs on American lobster nearly crippled exports from wholesalers like Young. Maine lobster exports to China fell by 48.24% in 2019.
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