For the first time in 24 years of building lobster boats, Wayne Beal doesn’t have any job orders. In Maine lobster fishing if the main occupation of the people but as the catch is dwindling the lobster boat builders are braving tough times. As the lobster catch down and fishermen feeling an economic squeeze, boat sales have hit the skids. The lobster fishermen are facing uncertainties so Beal believes he’s better off doing that than sitting around and hoping for more boat orders to come in.
Beal told that there is not a lot of guys making the move to take on a new boat. And the economy is on its face, too. It is fact that in Down East Maine, lobster boat building has a long tradition as a provider of jobs and money in a region that is short on both. With regulations limiting the number of fishermen and traps and requiring expensive rope to protect North American right whales, lobstermen are in no mood to take on more debt.
Even the market of the used boats is not much better. According to a fishermen many boat owners are now want to sell their wharfs and there’s no shortage of classified ads for used boats in commercial fishing publications. Last year Maine’s lobster catch was valued at $243 million; in the peak year of 2005, it was worth $317 million. But the lobster industry is far bigger than that. Boat builders alone contribute tens of millions more dollars to the economy.
