June 28, 2018 — “We made no money this spring,” said Bass Harbor fisherman Justin Sprague.
The cost of operations for lobstering continues to increase while the boat price of lobster has hardly budged. The cost of herring, the preferred bait for most Maine lobsterman, has gone up especially sharply.
“We don’t have any margin at this point,” Sprague said. “It’s frustrating, to say the least.”
Bruce Colbeth manages the C.H. Rich lobster wharf in Bass Harbor.
“By the time these guys pay for fuel, bait and stern men, there ain’t too much left for them,” he said. “I remember six years ago you could sell (herring) bait for $26 a bushel. Now it’s doubled.”
Herring bait is sold in trays. Fisherman Chris Goodwin said he paid almost $80 per tray for herring bait the last time he stocked up.
A ton of bait can be divided into about 13 trays, Cody Gatcomb of C.H. Rich explained. A tray of fish bait is equivalent to 1.5 bushels, Colbeth said. He saw a recent 3-cent per pound increase at his operation.
That adds up fast.
At the moment, not considered prime season, C.H. Rich Co. is selling between 350 and 400 trays of herring bait a week, Colbeth said. Once the season begins in July, they can expect to sell up to 800 trays of bait each week.
Some fishermen have reserved barrels of herring bait for the upcoming season in preparation for a possible shortage, Gatcomb said.