September 2012 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 11. NEWS FROM THE DOWNEAST LOBSTERMAN ASSOCIATION From the Director –
The Downeast Lobstermen’s Association has been very busy this summer with meetings, communications and making ourselves available as much as possible at our summer functions. I hope that you have had a chance to see some of our activity on our Facebook site. If you have pictures or opinions about the latest news, please feel free to share with us on this site. This is the fastest way to get your news to us and to the rest of our membership.
Our telephone has been very busy since the problem with prices, “glut” and the Canadian problems that surfaced. I have had calls from the Canadians, quietly asking prices (but the accent was a give away). So I politely asked them if this is where they were calling from. The only way that we’re going to get through all of this mess is to be up front and honest about it. After the formalities of establishing who we are, we talked about the fact that we all have families to feed and bills to pay and there must be a better way. Through the advice of our D.E.L.A. Board of Directors, I was asked to contact Governor LePage’s offi ce to ask him for help for our Maine fi shermen – we (the public) needed to see the Governor and hear what he had to say. I contacted Gov. LePage’s offi ce and the response was overwhelming. Commissioner Keliher was in touch along with communications with the Department of Marine Resources. The Commissioner sent out a statement which was followed by a statement from the Governor.
The
communications with our leadership and the Canadian leadership was respectful and handled to the best of everyone’s ability due to the circumstances.
Sometimes, we need to have things “go up in smoke” the way that it did to bring a
strong awareness to all of us that we need to do things differently than in our past and present. We, as fi shermen, have always put most of our focus on just the fi shing side of the product. As the old saying goes, and I’ve read it recently in the blogs that are out there: “leave us alone, we just want to fi sh.” This is true, just like a doctor that goes into the profession as a surgeon, “I didn’t go into this to mostly do paperwork; I just want to take care of the patient.” This is what it is turning into in this day and age---more and more red tape.
One question that I have about this most recent situation with the lobsters and supply and demand: we just had a year’s worth of TAA Training for the fi shermen and wives which I understood it to be a business training course, which resulted in supplemental money if you went through all of the hoops, whistles and training course to tell us how to run a business.
How well did this course “pan” out if we continued to fi sh on such a large amount of lobsters at a rock bottom price with no market for it to be moved to? Did it work? I’m asking because Mike & I did not participate in the course and wondered how many others participated in it and what did we learn from it? “Food for thought.” Traditionally, each generation taught us the family trade and how to survive an economic crunch to the best of our means. This is much the same way that our farming families and communities taught their next generation. I don’t think that our families did such a bad job teaching stewardship to our young people. Society has changed the fl avor of going from our basic needs to all of the wants and electronic gadgets that are out there. My goodness, by the time I fi gured out my fl ip phone, they changed it to
a smart phone, and all you need to do is run your fi nger over the front of it. The same goes for running a boat: my grandfather used a lead line to check the depth of the water. He also needed to use a compass to establish his bearings. My father also taught me the movement of the clouds and direction of the wind. Do you remember “pink sky in the night, sailor’s delight, pink sky in the morning, sailor’s warning?” Fishermen are the best stewards of our industry and I’m sure will continue to take care of our resource and responsibilities. Now, we need to become more involved with our family businesses, due to all of the current changes in today’s society. The amount of money that has been paid out to do these research projects would “help” fund at least one or two processing plants in Maine. I suppose that all of this “research” and grant funding keeps a lot of these people in jobs, right? Kind’ve like a politician’s job – if you keep it going ‘round and ‘round, it will keep that job alive a lot longer. It was discussed at our last DELA meeting----put our money into helping people establish more processing plants, take care of our own industry and put people to work right here in the Maine! The last Lobster Advisory Council approved of the marketing plan that was proposed by John Sauve of the Food and Wellness Group and the L.A.C.
Commercial Fishing News
Subcommittee. He also played a big part in the success of the Maine Blueberry Association. Let’s move forward in the same direction and take care of our own industry and our own individual family businesses. If we don’t make a change, this situation will continue to not change a thing for our future in Maine. The key is marketing and “shipabililty.” We have more meetings concerning the waiting list for our licenses. I have been asked to help with this series of meetings, also. The meetings are sponsored by the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation. If you have a chance to answer the questionnaire that you received in the mail, it will help to establish how we all feel about our licenses and waiting lists. I understand that we get tired of meetings and such, but we do still have a say in our fi shery, which is worth a lot. If you have ever worked for a corporate company, which is the way of society and our future, you will see how important it is to still be an independent business person with a say in the outcome of the proposed legislative bills.
One more thought, this past year, D.E.L.A. has had to say “good bye” to more members than ever before due to their passing away or “crossing the bar.” A few years ago, when I fi rst started attending
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