The first thing that happens when lobster is brought up is often an excess of drool. It’s highly touted as a tasty delicacy, a delicious dish, and one that most of the time, comes from Maine. Which is why lobstermen in that state say efforts to ramp up marketing the crustaceans is a pointless, expensive exercise.

The Maine Lobster Council wants to more than double the surcharge fees included in lobster licenses, which are currently $167, in an effort to boost the council’s annual budget to $3 million. That’s ten times what it is now. A bill before the state legislature will determine that budget’s fate.

Some lobstermen says it’s pointless to plug lobsters as being from Maine.

“You’ve never heard anyone go into a restaurant and say, ‘I want a New Hampshire lobster, I want a Canadian lobster, give me one of them Massachusetts fellas’,” one lobsterman explains to Marketplace.

He’s of the mind that more marketing would just line the pockets of restaurants and dealers, while Maine lobstermen are getting less for their catches lately.

But another lobsterman is all for it, if he can get a better price for his lobsters.

“You know, I’m looking at this through my own eyes as a business owner, that its minimal effect and it could have huge payoff,” he says. “Five years down the road we may be looking at a huge spike in our price.”

If the bill passes, Maine lobstermen will shell out about 1% of the gross value of their catch on paying for lobster promotion. While I love a good lobster, advertising isn’t going to magically give me enough money to eat them as often as I do say, a chicken sandwich.

Maine lobster could get a marketing boost [Marketplace]

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