March 26, 2013 — As legislators work on a plan to provide millions of dollars to market and promote Maine lobster by adding a surcharge to licenses, some lobstermen are balking at paying for an advertising campaign that they say will take money out of their pockets without giving them much in return.
"We are being forced, extorted, in an advertising scheme that we don't benefit from," said Nelson King of East Boothbay, who has been a lobsterman for more than 50 years.
"Advertising directly benefits the dealers' market," he said, so the campaign wouldn't affect prices that lobstermen get for their catch.
Lobstermen already provide about $350,000 a year to the Maine Lobster Advisory Council's budget for promotion of Maine lobster, through a surcharge on traps.
The new proposal would change the method of funding the promotional budget by dramatically increasing surcharges on all licenses. That would allow a huge increase in the council's budget, to $4 million over three years.
In addition, the council would be reorganized and its membership would be increased from nine to 13, with 11 members appointed by the commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald