PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s lobster industry, struggling this summer under a glut of product, will receive some help from the cruise ships that dock in Portland and Bar Harbor.
Celebrity Cruises pledged Wednesday morning to buy approximately 3,800 pounds of Maine lobster when its cruise ship, Celebrity Summit, visits Portland and Bar Harbor in September and October, according to Willy Ritch, spokesman for Rep. Chellie Pingree. The Celebrity Summit carries more than 2,000 passengers.
At least one other cruise ship company is talking to local distributors about the prospect of buying fresh lobster when their ships make port, according to Ritch.
On Aug. 13, Rep. Pingree sent a letter to the CEO of every company that owns a cruise ship visiting Maine this year, asking them to consider buying fresh Maine lobster for their passengers while they are in port. “Maine lobstermen are in the middle of a record-breaking season,” she wrote. “Not only does the ample supply guarantee a good value for your company, but purchasing locally sourced seafood would set a great example for other companies like yours in strengthening Maine’s economy and coastal communities.”
In her letter, Rep. Pingree directed cruise ship companies interested in taking her up on the offer to contact Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council, who would facilitate a connection with lobster distributors who could provide the cruise ships with the lobster.
Somers told the Bangor Daily News he has fielded a few inquiries from companies, and said he expects other companies will make pledges similar to Celebrity’s.
The cruise ship industry traditionally has been a big buyer of lobster, but usually it’s bought frozen from processors and in bulk, Somers said. Cruise ships pledging to buy fresh, local lobster is a rarity driven by the attraction of this summer’s low prices, he said. “It’s not very common for them to buy local goods of any sort,” he said. “It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s about locking in bulk prices.”
Because of the significant logistical challenges cruise ships face in stocking everything needed for a cruise, Somers said the larger ships that carry more than 4,000 passengers are less likely to have the flexibility to buy local lobster when they visit Maine.
Even a few thousand pounds of lobster sold is “significant” to an individual distributor, Somers said. Maine lobstermen are expected to harvest between 12 million and 13 million pounds of lobster in August alone, Somers said. “It’s hard for people even in the industry to get a handle on that volume of lobster,” he said.
Rep. Pingree’s letter was a response to a glut of lobster in Maine, which has driven the boat price of lobster — the price lobstermen get for their catch from distributors — down to between $2 and $2.50 a pound, its lowest level in decades. It has put strain on the lobster industry, and caused lobstermen in Connecticut and New Brunswick to complain that Maine lobstermen were undercutting them.
Pingree isn’t shy about using her position to make things happen. “This could be a big untapped market for wholesalers in the area,” Pingree said in a statement. “And sometimes in a situation like this you just have to get the attention of the head of these big corporations to get them to notice what we have to offer here in Maine.”
According to Pingree, Portland can expect 59 cruise ship visits this summer and fall — carrying more than 69,000 passengers. In September and October, Bar Harbor has 32 cruise ship visits scheduled, according to the town’s schedule.
In an effort independent of Pingree’s, a team of individuals in Bar Harbor earlier this month were able to convince Holland America Line to pledge to buy 2,000 pounds of fresh lobster the next time its ship, the Maasdam, calls at that port, which it did over the course of two stops on Aug. 17 and 19, according to Amy Powers, director of Cruise Maine. Powers couldn’t say whether the Maasdam, which carries more than 1,200 passengers and is scheduled to dock in Bar Harbor seven more times through the end of October, will buy more on its next visit.
So I get a lobster and a cruise?
I have a can of tuna and a canoe.
bath salts and a kayak.
Coffee brandy and a pedal boat.
Yes a great uptapped market for wholesalers but what about the actual fishermen? Doesn’t do much of anything for them, they’ll still get their ridiculously low per pound rate. It would be nice if some of that would trickle down to the men and women that work their butts off catching those lobsters.
So are the fishermen upset that the cruise ship is buying lobsters? Or will demand drive the price up?
What this will do is create less demand. instead of going to the shore to buy lobster from a restaurant which keeps money in the local economy. They will have the shore side lobster dinner on board a cruise ship. This equals less money 4 the local economy and ultimately the fisherman themselves.
Absolutely right, first thing I thought . Restaurant, cooks,servers, everyone loses, except the cruise ship. Pingree’s patting herself on the back for killing the local economy!
jeepers. Always something to sob about around here. Good god. You are unbelievable. Take off the freaking mud colored glasses.
i have talked to many hundreds of cruise passengers. i think meals are typically included with cruises. the passengers in portland are reluctant to eat off the ship for that reason. so if they’re gonna eat on the ship the majority of the time anyway, it may as well be a maine product they’re stuffing into their portholes.
I’ve never been on a cruise, but I’m surprised to learn that meals aren’t always served on cruises. I bet the restaurants in Portland are plenty busy.
Cruises are pretty much non-stop food. I don’t know of any cruise line that doesn’t include many food choices included in the ticket. They have options to pay more in different restaurants on board, but the included food is good and plentiful.
one of the ships fuel tanks will be converted for melted butter storage.
I was mighty surprised to see the Bean truck at the Lobster Festival. Thinking I was overreacting to the whole Bean and other festival issues, I ate one. The flavor was terrible. Contrast that with a lobster from the Keag Store.
The people I most often hear want to purchase a lobster to take with them are those who arrive on the train. If there were lobsters available there to purchase, I’d bet they’d fly, and that would be after the passengers had had their meals in Rockland.
As to the problem with people not buying lobster at restaurants – that’s not a problem. One goes to a restaurant for the total experience, not only to eat a lobster.
Too, if that lobster cooker was utilized to offer cooked lobsters during the season – wouldn’t that be good?
Must have been a Lima Bean.
Or we could set some catch limits with the lobster fishermen for a while. This ‘glut’ is also known as over-fishing. There should never be a ‘glut’ when it comes to catching and killing wild animals. This whole mess is a clear indication that there are too many guys out there trying to make a buck off of lobster fishing. Time to clamp down.
OMG you keep saying this, and it’s such an untrue statement. Why don’t you sit down and talk to some local fisherman before you make these inaccurate assumptions!!
Actually lobster is not overfished. At this point they have outgrown the habitat and depend on the fishermen to feed them in the traps until they are large enough to keep legally. If you take the bait the fishermen are feeding lobster out of the picture lobsters would starve in a matter of months.When you change the way a species feeds, (take away competition for food), you let the weakest of the species remain to breed into the population. We will have to wait to see what happens next…..
oh and you end up with too many lobsters for the market.
I know this is great and i don’t want to be too much of a downer…but 3,800 pounds isn’t going to put a dent in the lobster issue
some wholesalers will cash in on this, lobstermen wouldn’t see a dime. Ideally the cruise company would purchase right off the boat. but i guess its always good to find more markets for lobster.