Kuntz and his wife, Gina Leduc, who live in Freeport, are running one of the first community supported lobster programs in Maine. Buoyed by the success of the Ready brothers’ Catch a Piece of Maine operation (which allows customers to own a lobster trap and whatever it catches for a year) and the Midcoast Fishermen’s Cooperative (which sells weekly shares in the groundfish and shrimp catch to customers in the Port Clyde area), Kuntz and Leduc decided to start selling shares in their harvest.
“It’s good for the industry, it’s good for the fisherman and it’s good for the consumer,” Kuntz says of fishermen and lobstermen marketing directly to customers. Having the money up front helps Kuntz pay for things like bait and gas, which currently cost him close to $400 before he even leaves the dock.
This new marketing route is borrowing a page from farmers, who are increasingly bypassing distributors and supermarkets and selling straight to consumers through farmers’ markets, farm stands and CSA shares. The program run by Kuntz and Leduc is similar to a farm CSA, with weekly deliveries in Portland and Bath. Before the lobstering season starts, individuals and families pay $306 to be guaranteed three pounds of lobster a week for 12 weeks or $153 for one and a half pounds a week. Special arrangements can be made to have more lobsters one week and fewer on another week.
According to Jennifer Plummer, who’s the community supported fisheries coordinator for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, buying direct from a fisherman means “the money stays in the community much longer than what would happen if you spend it at a big box store.”
The organization Plummer works for is spearheading efforts to grow the fledgling community supported fisheries movement in Maine and working on finding grant funding to help more fishermen market directly to customers.
“It works best when there’s someone other than the fisherman responsible for deliveries and marketing,” Plummer says, explaining that the grant money would be used to provide a stipend to family members, such as Leduc, who handle these duties. “It’s a hard role for a fishermen to play when they’re out on the water for 18 hours a day.”
It’s a role made even more difficult when that lobsterman is hauling his traps by hand.
— Avery Yale Kamila