New Brunswick Processors Face Major Business Loss As Maine Tries To Claw Back Its Supply

There's a move afoot to process Maine lobsters Down East, a slow changing of the tide that threatens New Brunswick's processors who rely on the American crustaceans for a major portion of their work.

For years, many of New Brunswick's lobster processors have depended on a steady stream of lobsters from Maine, where fishing runs year-round and peaks during the fall, which is a shoulder season for lobstermen on the province's eastern coast and the Bay of Fundy.

The cheaper American crawlers allows some New Brunswick processors more than double the length of time they can stay in operation, keeping a substantial number of workers employed for months longer than if the plants were reliant solely on the Maritime catch.

The relationship has been reciprocal, with Maine harvesters depending on Atlantic Canadian processors to take most of what they can't sell on the Boston market.

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