Lobstering isn't as fun as it sometimes looks to summer tourists. Take a few moments and learn more about the current plight of Maine fishermen - these are our friends and neighbors in Georgetown - same story.
TRAPPED: Maine lobster towns try to weather a global economic storm | Portland Press Herald: "The cold November winds have Mike Floyd wondering if it's time to surrender to the stock-market plunges, bank collapses and credit freezes.
Someday soon, Floyd knows, the costs of steaming from home on Long Island and hauling his lobster traps will exceed the income he and his helper can earn selling their catch in a market scuttled by the global economic crisis.
'What it's going to come down to is how long we're going to keep doing this at this price,' he said.
There are still lobsters to catch, but lobstermen up and down the Maine coast have been hauling their traps back to shore as much as two months earlier than usual. Many in southern and midcoast Maine are now fishing for other jobs to pay the bills, while those in more isolated parts of the state are simply hunkering down for a long, lean winter.
The plunge of prices since early October has lobstering families and communities closing ranks and buying time. And what worries lobstermen even more than the approaching winter, they said, is the chance that the market won't recover by next spring or summer."
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