June 20, 2017 — Tuesday is Lobster Day at the State House and lobster industry stakeholders are using the event to urge legislators to support a proposal to expand in-state processing of lobsters and lobster parts.
The proposal, contained in an amendment in the state Senate’s recently passed budget, would allow licensed Bay State wholesalers to process unfrozen raw lobsters, as well as allowing the sale of previously frozen raw in-shell tails and the importation of unfrozen shell-on lobster parts and tails.
“Right now, we depend on Canada for so much of our processing facilities,” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, which supports the proposal. “This would allow us to do that processing here in Massachusetts, helping us to create jobs here and create markets for our lobster products.”
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, who championed the amendment in the Senate budget, said the bill would modernize the current law and help accelerate local economic activity for lobstermen, processors, restaurants and food stores. Tarr also represents two of the state’s biggest ports for lobsters: Gloucester and Rockport.
The House version of the budget, Tarr said, currently seeks funds for further study.
“We’re trying to convince the House to go beyond a study and include the actual action of expanding the different types of lobster processing allowed in Massachusetts,” Tarr said.
Currently, the sale of live, cooked and canned lobster is legal in Massachusetts, as is the processing and sale of frozen lobster tails. In 2012, the legislature changed the state law to allow the in-state processing of frozen cooked lobster tails — but no raw tails or other lobster parts.
Massachusetts lobstermen and seafood wholesalers have been required to sell or transport lobsters out of state for the majority of processing, leading to higher industry costs and limiting the creation of medium and high-skilled seafood processing jobs, Tarr said.
The initial rationale, he said, for the more restrictive regulations was to prevent poachers from taking short lobsters and mutilating them for the parts.
“The time between 2012 and now has given the Environmental Police the chance to develop enforcement methods to prevent that from happening,” Tarr said.