The Last Lobster: Boom or Bust for Maine’s Greatest Fishery?
Description
While ocean fisheries were crashing around the world, Maine lobstermen recently claimed a bonanza. Just prior to 2017, annual lobster catches exceeded 120 million pounds, six times the level of the 1980s— a quantity unheard of in coastal fisheries. In response to the windfall, captains began fishing harder than ever, while younger captains bet on their future profits and bought bigger boats. Like poker players, they’re all in. Yet fisheries are notoriously fickle. So everyone is wondering: How long can the boom last? Can the Maine Coast, reliant as it is on the seafood industry, survive? In The Last Lobster, Christopher White explores the boom and what it might mean. Of the many possible reasons for the windfall, two stand out: a decline in predators and ocean warming—the marine version of climate change. Lobsters are a coldwater species, their growth stimulated by a little heat but harmed by too much. The same factors that may have stimulated the boom could prove to be its undoing. Ominously, the range of lobsters is moving northward, as it is for many marine species affected by climate change. The lobster hub, once centered near Portland, is now in northeastern Maine, prompting those who make their living from the sea to ask if American lobsters could eventually end up in Canada. To hear from these people, White takes readers aboard the boats of Maine lobstermen and scientists and to Stonington, Maine, the new lobster hub, to meet three captains—Frank Gotwals, his son Jason, and Julie Eaton – who fish for lobster in all four seasons. They brace for whatever is to come.
Reviews
“[Christopher] White, an environmentalist and science writer, provides a guided tour of the plucky subculture of Maine lobstermen, embedding with three Stonington-based lobster captains: Frank Gotwals, his stepson Jason McDonald and Julie Eaton, one of the still-rare female skippers, as they tend their traps, hang out at home, attend local events and otherwise go about their days.
As he describes life in a small lobstering village, White also examines what could be called the Lobster Lotto. Maine lobstermen have landed colossal catches in recent years, six times those of three decades ago. (This isn’t completely good news, since it’s driven down the price of lobster.) Though a definitive explanation for these giant hauls proves elusive, marine biologists point to likely causes: the diminished number of lobster predators and climate change, which has warmed the water. But lobsters are cold-water animals, and while a slight uptick in ocean temperature has spurred their growth, further increases will likely drive them further north. It’s not out of the question that the Maine lobster industry will end up somewhere on the Canadian coast. An industry-shattering bust could be just around the corner.”
“An environmental journalist turns in a somber story of vanishing fisheries and ways of life Down East. Jumping aboard lobster boats and heading to sea, White (“The Melting World: A Journey Across America’s Vanishing Glaciers,” 2013) returns with an affecting report on the way humans have mismanaged marine resources. Economics is all about scarcity—and the scarcer the good in question, the more expensive it is likely to be. But in the case of the lobster, he writes, what looks to be a species in grave danger of disappearing has been overly abundant on the market, so much so that lobstermen had trouble selling their catches—which, in 2014, were six times the size of a normal year’s yield. Well, that’s the tragedy of the commons for you, or, as he puts it, “tragedy of the capitalists,” and, to trust White, it won’t continue for much longer. The supply will eventually dry up. The author examines the parallel story of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, an apex predator on the path to extinction thanks to overfishing. Some temporarily lucky lobstermen are able to extract huge numbers of shellfish from a sea fast warming and acidifying, while others, he writes, “are switching professions or moonlighting as truck drivers, telephone repairmen, and tollbooth attendants.” If there are a few stock characters in the narrative (“We’ll try to catch some lobstah—that’s my idear anyways,” says one veteran captain), there is also an obvious moral lesson: We have only so much influence over climate change at this late hour, but we must adjust our demands if food fisheries are to outlast the first half of the century. There are no shortcuts, for aquaculture doesn’t work for lobsters, and other species are dwindling alongside the crustaceans. “Does anyone ever learn from their neighbor or from the past?” White wonders. His answer is self-evident. A solid demonstration of why those who have a taste for lobster rolls better eat up while they can.”
“In this illuminating volume, White (The Melting World: A Journey Across America’s Vanishing Glaciers) sets out to capture the look and feel of traditional Maine lobster villages. According to White, a climate-affected fluctuation in lobster populations may be endangering the industry and the Maine culture it supports. Early chapters introduce locals such as Frank Gotwals and Julie Eaton. The former is a 60-year-old self-taught boat captain who chose the fishing life “because his ancestors had.” On the water, he is “solitary [and] self-reliant… Sherlock Holmes without a Watson.” The latter, a boat captain and nature photographer who describes herself as “addicted to the water,” is among the few women in a male-dominated business; she says that her marriage to a fellow lobster captain has been saved by having separate boats. White talks at length with lobster boat captains, resource managers, and scientists about what caused the extreme growth of the lobster population (and the subsequent lowering of prices), how long it might last, and the industry’s future. He affectionately observes the sights and sounds on the water, the relationships between the boat captains and their “sternmen” (both male and female), the idiosyncratic techniques they use to decide where to place traps, the norms and customs of the fishery (for example, marking and returning to the water pregnant lobsters, called “eggers”), the fluctuations of bait and lobster prices, and discussions between fishers about global warming, regulations, and whether or not to unionize. White conveys the significance of lobsters to people all over the world in this enjoyable sojourn with the lobster folk.”
“After writing ‘Skipjack: The Story of America’s Last Sailing Oystermen’ (2009), White traveled the Maine coast in pursuit of a quintessential lobster town to use as base for his next project, an in-depth look at the state’s most significant fishery. Settling on Stonington, he took to the water with three different lobster captains to learn how they work and gain an inside look at this boom-or-bust industry. The figures are staggering. Though fishing accounts for only five percent of the Maine economy, it brings in $616.5 million. For the past five years, the lobster harvest has been enormous, exceeding 125 million pounds. Beyond all that, there is also the tourist allure of seaside villages where the lobsters may be long gone, but the aura of lobster fishing remains. White looks at everything from unionization and battles against the price-fixing of middlemen to the warming climate and rising real-estate prices. Lobsters are intrinsically linked to the soul of Maine, and White’s thoughtful chronicle gives both the highly desired marine crustaceans and the people who seek them their due.“