While scanning the news on my ipad earlier (July 26, 2016 at 4:30), I noticed a headline that could not be ignored: The Secret to Maine’s Thriving Lobsters. I was hoping to be educated by abc NEWS, which published the article, I was sadly underwhelmed. Let’s ignore the absurd headline, surely the lobsters aren’t thriving; they are being captured and eaten in record numbers. What is thriving is the lobster industry.
The second paragraph is so bad that it must be quoted in full and then dissected.
“Lobster is Maine’s No. 1 export. There are more than 6,000 lobstermen along the state’s 228-mile coast. Maine has over 2 million people and almost double that number in lobster traps.”
Most websites indicate that lobster is Maine’s highest value export. But some indicate that paper products are, especially when pulp and processed paper are aggregated. The International Trade Administration, a part of the United States Chamber of Commerce, reports that paper is the highest grossing export. http://www.trade.gov/mas/ian/statereports/states/me.pdf. I’ll call that one a push.
According to the Portland Press Herald, although there are “almost” 6,000 lobstermen registered in Maine, only 4,300 of whom actually fish. http://www.pressherald.com/2011/08/14/so-you-want-to-be-a-lobsterman_2011-08-14/. I take issue with abc NEWS and the Portland Press Herald using the term “lobstermen.” In Maine, the people who catch lobster are called fishermen, they fish for lobster, they work in the lobster fishery. I consider this a factual fail.
The article says that Maine’s coast is 228 miles long – and it may be, as the crow flies. There are two ways to measure a coastline, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The first is the general coastline, which measures only the general outlines of the seacoast. The second, more widely used measure calculates the mileage of all islands, bays, and rivers and creeks that are considered tidewater. https://coast.noaa.gov/data/docs/states/shorelines.pdf. This is another push.
The statement that Maine has over 2 million people is patently ridiculous. The US Census reports Maine’s population as well under 1.4 million on July 1, 2015. http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/23. I have never seen a source that lists Maine’s population as anywhere near 2 million. That number was apparently pulled from thin air. Epic factual fail, not within the realm of possibility.
As for the number of traps, that is trickier. Each lobster fisherman is entitled to have 800 traps. If the 4,300 active fishermen each have 800, that totals 3,440,000 traps, which is double the actual population of Maine, but not double the bizarre 2 million suggested by abc NEWS. If all of the fishermen not actively fishing have 800 traps as well, then the total is 4,800,000, which is well over triple the number of people actually in Maine. I’m feeling charitable, so I’ll call this a push.
The scorecard reads zero wins for abcNews, two losses, and three ties. Not very impressive for a national news network. And we haven’t even gotten to the worst part: they appear to have almost no idea why Maine’s lobster fishery is thriving. They mention the temperature of the water as being “in the sweet spot,” which by most accounts it is. But they didn’t mention the active efforts taken by the industry to help ensure that they have plenty of lobster to harvest. I’ll address that in my next post.