I, too, was recently in Maine on a vacation, visiting family, though we seemed to have chosen the monsoon season there. And the TV newscastsbemoaned three factors driving down this year's lobster prices --
- The catch is up. For whatever good environmental reasons the supply of lobsters is more plentiful.
- The demand is down. Traffic on the Maine Turnpike was off by nearly 3%. Fewer tourists mean fewer people eager to gobble down those lobsters. When you factor in living costs like winter heating, Maine turns out to be one of the poorest states in the union and tourism is crucila to the Maine economy.
- Soft-shell lobster doesn't transport well. Whatever's caught during the summer needs to be eaten close to the source and quickly.
As I recall from Econ 101 many years ago, farming and fishing and Christmas tree production often illustrate the failure of the market to bring supply and demand into harmony, leading to imploding or exploding price webs as would-be producers misguess demand and either under- or overproduce supply.
I suspect that the combination of drastically reduced income and the rising cost of diesel for the lobster boats are going to drive a lot of those DownEast lobstermen out of business.
