Maine lobstermen feel the pinch

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- Lobsterman Greg Turner keeps a sandwich-board sign at the end of his driveway that advertises fresh lobster for sale from his garage, an attempt to claw for a few extra dollars by reaching buyers directly.

With prices stuck on low and expected to fall further this summer, he's skirting the traditional sales route by cutting out the dealers who usually sell lobster catches to retailers, restaurants, processors and other buyers.

Prices for lobster plunged last year to levels not seen in 20 years, leading Turner and a growing number of other lobstermen to sell from the backs of pickups, from garages, and even on Craigslist. By going directly to consumers, lobstermen say they can make roughly $1 more per pound than what they get from lobster dealers.

"No one wants to do it," said Turner, a longtime fisherman whose garage is a bare-bones retail operation with cold-water holding tanks, a scale and a cash register. "If the price hadn't gone into the toilet, I wouldn't have done this in the first place."

His wife tends shop when he's on his boat. He takes no charge cards and doesn't cook or ship lobsters. He said he's just a lobsterman trying to make ends meet.

"When I get to the point where I pay for fuel and bait, and my helper and I don't make any money at the end of the week, I have to do something," he said.

For the most part, lobstermen are selling lower than seafood shops and grocery stores.

In the past couple of weeks, lobstermen were selling one-pound lobsters for about $4.25 to $5.25 a pound, roughly $1 a pound more than they could get from lobster dealers. At the same time, Portland-area seafood shops and supermarkets were selling one-pounders for about $4.99 to $6.99 a pound.

Lobster dealers and retailers are taking notice — and they don't like what they see. Not only do the lobstermen's direct sales mean less for them, they say lobstermen are actually making matters worse for themselves.

In a letter to state fishery officials, a group of 13 dealers and retailers said the direct-sales trend is "counterproductive for harvesters, the resource and the state." They say retailers in particular are at a competitive disadvantage because of their overhead costs.