PORTLAND, Maine — While Maine was spared the widespread destruction wrought by Sandy, the superstorm has been devastating to the state’s seafood industry.
Peter McAleney, owner of New Meadows Lobster Co. in Portland, says distributors and restaurants in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and even Pennsylvania aren’t buying.
He tells The Portland Press Herald he lost a big order from Pennsylvania because a customer decided he wouldn’t sell much lobster to thousands of people who don’t have electricity.
Chris Fream, senior sales executive with North Atlantic Seafood in Portland, says the “wheels are falling off” the industry.
He says many restaurants don’t have power and those that do aren’t buying seafood because there’s little demand.
While fishermen and distributors are suffering, the good news is that consumers will see lower prices.
Bring on the Sword fish steaks.
I’ll contribute a bag of mesquite charcoal and a few lemons to that. Put some big new potatoes in the oven and I’m on my way.
Eat fish. It’s “brain food.”
and full of mercury
State of Maine has many warnings about eating our local fishes.
Ho hum. Another week, another “woe is me” story from the poor seafood industry.
Maybe they’d do better if they weren’t so gormless.
insensitive remark to make…
How about you go to work with one of those “woe is me”, fishermen, for a couple of weeks. Who knows, perhaps you could help them become less “gormless”.
Many industries face changing demand and prices and costs with unpredictable cycles. But it seems that only the seafood folks have a journalist on call for public whining.
I have a job, it has its ups and downs, good years and not so good.
I don’t whine about it.
I figure out how to manage the ups and downs.
And I love the way you imply that other people don’t work as hard as these whiners.
Sorry if you took my comment as many do not work hard at their jobs, many do. I have often heard people comment on the jobs of others,without really knowing what is involved in doing that job. I do not believe in demeaning anyone’s job. When I do, I wonder, what if they saw what is actually involved in doing a particular job, how or would their view change. I believe unless one is a politician, press coverage is often minimal, unless the press sees some advantage for them to cover a particular story.
So people are suffering and starving in Sandy’s aftermath while Bloomberg diverts police to cover the marathon, allowing looting to run rampant, and all the seafood folks up here can do is fret about their bottom line…
the ‘progressives’ are pulling this country down into a rathole…
Huh?
You had me until the last sentence.
or riding the latest taxpayer supported extravagence…AMTRAK to Brunswick, epicenter of the LIB/DEM empire.
Four lane interstate highways paid for by the taxpayers were once considered “extravagence” (sic) when most people didn’t own cars.
The Downeaster will be a boon for Freeport, Beans and Maine workers this Christmas.
YessAH
Free money, thanks Obama
Sorry – that would be George W. Bush and the GOP and the Tea Party that are pulling this country down the rat-hole.
and they created the Fiscal Cliff – not progressives.
please try to keep up.
yes
Progressives just love to spend, our money. I for one and disgusted that my taxes pay for the Entitled Teen pregnancies. They need a better education. Time the liberals saw reality.
bear, maine is a poor state, yet in child well being it has been at the top and ranks near the top. it’s a priority you can’t improve.
How blind can you be. The only storm that comes close to the destruction of Sandy, did far more destruction and killed thousands. It also took decades to recover from.
One thing is for sure. If “market forces” were the only regulating force, this storm would have done a lot more damage.
We wouldn’t be having this conversation if Congress had been doing it’s job of oversight. Bush would not have been able to singlehandedly wreck the economy. We would not still be dealing with cleaning up his messes.
It’s not the progressives that are pulling this country down and the proof of that is every where you look.
shut off faux news, it’s owned by an Aussie troublemaker.
Whatever happened to Yankee Ingenuity? This generation of whiners is getting a lesson and they are so engaged in their shellfish pity parties, Yes, Pun Intended, time for people to use the brains they were born with.
Market those lobsters to other parts of the country. Start new accounts, mail order food catalogs would be a source. Quit the cryin. You could be homeless like those in Sandy’s slap of destruction.
You made a pun? How so?
Selfish pity party. but here is Shellfish pity party…………….
Perhaps they could sell locally at a discount? Everyone wins.
Make the inmates eat lobsters like they used to.
Do any of you commentators go fishing for a living? You are bashing people’s jobs here. I understand about the devastation that Sandy caused and I have many friends and family in NY and NJ that are displaced so I can empathize on that account. This has already been a horrible year for the fishermen here on the coast with extremely low prices and all you people can do is say that we are whinners and “shellfish” (just to quote below). Please show a bit of concern for the fisherman and the industry because it effects ALL Mainers in some sort of fashion in the end.
But we have been told by conservatives that Sandy was “hype” that “fizzled” and of no concern.
I guess they were wrong.
yup
Which conservatives are you talking about? Source?
If you read the comment sections of this newspaper before the storm – you would have heard it all.
Oh yeah – the flaming gas bag on EIB (Rush Limbaugh) said it was the weakest hurricane ever.
Idgits
Yessah
flaming gas bag seems too kind………….
“……………………………………the good news is that consumers will see lower prices.”
I wonder when, was in Bangor this morning ………………………… Lobster (fish truck) $7.00 lb. ……………… sorry, I don’t think so…………………………..
We sell seafood direct from the fisherman to the public. Everyone wins! We make money, we pay the fishermen a better price, and the consumer is thrilled to get good fresh seafood with a story behind it. Check us out waaaaaaay downeast in Pembroke! Sheehan’s Seafood on Twitter and Facebook. It works!!!
I get what you’re saying but forgive my ignorance, I was under the assumption there is a lobSTAFIA at the docks and processors and the shell fisherman were locked in to being gaffed.
Isn’t there enough partisanship in politics? Do Mainers really have to attack their fellow citizens over their job choices? The bottom line is shrinking for EVERY small business owner in this state and across the country. LAY OFF THE FISHING INDUSTRY, IT’S DISGUSTING AND SHALLOW TO ATTACK ONE OF MAINE’S LARGEST INDUSTRIES!!!!
This may prove to be the best business test for the Maine Shellfishermen. No one is attacking their fellow citizens,. let’s be positive and create new and profitable means of sales for the Maine shellfish. If people have ideas that will market the fishermens product, then bring it on. Create a Maine package deal of shellfish, and Maine products and get it out on the internet. This can and should be done.
LL BEAN could be a starting place in their catalog. Just thinking. Together, We CAN.
That might be tough, I believe a L.L. bean grand daughter is presently in the lobster business.
Thanks for the info.
Maine’s shellfish industry has done all those things. They have expanded markets beyond local demand. It has been effective at increasing demand and maintaining prices, but it also makes it more vulnerable to the larger economic picture.
This is another reason why people need to understand the larger economic picture and support intelligent economic policy. You can’t starve people and expect them to buy lobster. All over Maine businesses are waiting for customers. You can cut their taxes to zero and eliminate all regulations, but if Mainer’s cannot earn disposable income they cannot buy.
Apparently some Mainer’s do have to attack their fellow Mainer’s. Some people deal with suffering by trying to put it off onto someone else and that is what feeds it. We only have to look to the cheerleader of these attacks, Governor Lepage to see where a lot of it comes from. The governor’s job is to keep the focus on the results of failed economic policy, not the cause. Create disorder and suffering and then use that disorder to convince people to accept more of it. It is classic “starve the beast”
I remember the paper mills strikes in the 80’s when many Mainer’s were attacking paper mill workers for earning $26/hour and blaming the loss of that industry on them. All the while giving the people at the top a pass to continue to mine the value of the industry at the expense of workers.
It is all a product of the republican driven quest to destroy all opposition to their quest for power.
Ridiculous comment . Totally wrong thought on the topic. Gov. LePage is a decent person and your attack is a cheap shot. The article has Zero to do about him. You merely display a lack of sensitivity to the Maine fishermen, the Gov. and to Republicans. Why don’t you turn your negatives to creating a positive solution for the fishermen to market their catch.
Don’t worry. All these restaurants that had walk-in freezers full of rotting seafood will have to buy more to restock. The sky isn’t falling.
C’est la vie.
Dealing with lobsters is an expensive endeavor. Remember, they must be kept alive until they are cooked (unlike fish). Lobsters don’t live forever once they are pulled from the ocean (or those expensive to maintain and run salt water holding tanks). Shipping them air express overnight to other parts of the country isn’t cheap either. If locals consumed more, it may help the industry.
C’est la vie.
Could be another hit for the Maine lobstermen. Ug.
I WILL say, that the suffering of those south of here is far worse. But the local fishing families being broke this winter isn’t a good thing for anyone.
they should have named the storm “the boston red sox” then it never would have hit anything.