When it comes to the lobster market, supply is the limit

 Kevin Bennett | BDN

A lobster sits in a tank at McLaughlin's Seafood in Bangor in this December 2012 file photo.

By Bill Trotter, BDN Staff

ELLSWORTH, Maine — Got lobster?

   Open up your fridge right now, and the answer most probably is “no.” According to many involved in Maine’s premiere fishery, that always will be the case for the vast majority of consumers — and that’s the way it should be.

   Lobster will never be as ubiquitous as bacon or burgers, which is why industry officials say the tasty crustacean is expected to retain its reputation as a specialty or luxury food, even if it is starting to turn up in places that don’t have ocean views or white linen tablecloths.
Changes in the lobster market were featured this week in a Wall Street Journal article,“A Lobster in Every Pot,” which pointed out that lobster landings have been on the rise and prices have been decreasing.
   The article indicates that this is why lobster has started to appear on menus at Quiznos and Golden Corral and in frozen food sections of Whole Foods and Walmart.
But don’t expect anytime soon to hear commercial jingles that try to get moms to buy lobster tails instead of hot dogs for their kids. Lobster marketing officials in Maine intend
to keep their sights set higher up the culinary food chain.


  Last year, the state’s lobster marketing entity teamed up with the Champagne industry to place ads in several glossy magazines and on upmarket websites run by media outlets such as the New York Times, GQ, Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal.
  This year, it is launching a campaign with Culinary Institute of America to promote Maine lobster to high-end chefs.
“[Lobster] still commands a premium price and is often a feature item on the menu, even when served as a lobster roll,” Marianne LaCroix, acting director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, said Thursday in an email.
Regardless of how lobster is marketed or sold, there is one big factor that forever will limit its availability: supply.
   Lobster cannot be bred in captivity. Warmer ocean temperatures, decreased predation from cod and ample food (which many believe is courtesy of the poor retention rate of the baited traps lobstermen use) may have helped boost their numbers over the past 25 years, but industry officials readily acknowledge that steadily increasing catch rates cannot last indefinitely.

  In fact, landings declined slightly last year in Maine, where far more lobster is caught than in any other state. The dip, from 127 million pounds in 2012 to slightly under 126 million pounds in 2013, may be a harbinger of things to come.
Despite the lower landings, the value of Maine’s lobster haul in 2013 hit a record value of $364 million, due in large part to an uptick in the average price fishermen are paid for their catch, from $2.69 per pound in 2012 to $2.89 last year — still far below the peak of $4.63 in 2005.Continue