It was neighbors helping neighbors, and enjoying a bargain, on the Stonington Fish Pier on Sunday as hundreds of island residents lined up to buy lobsters for $3.50 per pound. The Penobscot East Resource Center organized the event to help local lobstermen and dealers facing the triple whammy of large inventories, low demand and low prices.

Lobster Sale to Benefit Fishermen Draws Huge Turnout

“We didn’t have any delusions that we’d be able to eat our way out of the 6 million pounds of lobster Stonington catches every year.” — robin alden

How do you do it on an island with 3,000 year-round residents?

How do you organize the sale between Friday and Sunday, and get a crowd?

It’s easy on Deer Isle.

You just put the word out that neighbors need help.

With about 350 registered lobster boats on the island, supporting about 700 families, according to Robin Alden, chairman of Penobscot East Resource Center, fishing is big business on Deer Isle and everybody knows it. And everybody knows that the price of lobster is low, the supplies are high, and people are hurting.

Alden said that a bunch of them were sitting around PERC on Friday morning talking about the problem. She doesn’t know whose idea it was — Bobbi Billings, Annie Tselikis and Jennifer Larabee were there when someone came up with the idea of having a big lobster sale on the Pier. Cooked lobster (or live) would be $3.50 a pound. It wasn’t so much for the money, Alden said, as for the impression of support. Lobsters would be purchased from various local dealers.

The word went out. That afternoon, PERC printed fliers, which were posted at the post offices, grocery stores and anywhere else people congregated. PERC, the Island Democrats, the Opera House and then anyone who heard about it sent out e-mails. Island clergy announced the sale from their pulpits. People telephoned their friends. And what was a kind of wacky idea on Friday afternoon was an event not-to-be missed on Sunday.

On a bright fall day, while they enjoyed the view of Stonington Harbor and the breezy sunshine, 350 Deer Isle and Stonington residents (plus a few from away) stood on the Fish Pier and waited in line. At times the line stretched all the way to the end of the pier and almost reached Main Street. Cars lined both sides of the street, and there were people everywhere.

The crowd stood cheerfully, talking as they waited. There was music, supplied by the band Pieces, who volunteered their services. There were two lines, one for cooked and one for live. The live line was shorter and moved faster, but it was still about a 45-minute wait. Several times the supply of lobster was gone — the lines didn’t move at all. It was gridlock. Nobody complained. Instead, they traded recipes. “Can you freeze lobster? Maybe in milk, like scallops?” There was no definitive answer in the first quarter of the line for live lobsters.

People bought 10, 20 lobsters. One man bought 50.

People got out of the way as Dickie Larrabee Jr. and Sr. and Roger Larrabee drove pickups full of lobster crates to replenish the supply.

Dick Bridges organized the Fish ‘n’ Fritters gang (usually a July 4 phenomenon to raise scholarship money for children of the families of fishermen) to cook on the pier, but Alden said “they couldn’t keep up with the demand, so Tony Bray (owner of the restaurant Fisherman’s Friend) offered to cook there.” Those lobsters were driven to the pier.

Alden points out that aside from showing support to the fishermen, one idea was “to show people they can afford to eat lobster…We’re coupling this with a community meeting (which took place on Tuesday, Oct. 14) — we didn’t have any delusions that we’d be able to eat our way out of the 6 million pounds of lobster Stonington catches every year…There are a lot left.”

Steve Robbins III says that lobster sales reflect the economy, but that Sunday “was a great day to raise awareness of the problem that the island faces.”

Neither Robbins nor Alden mentioned the Department of Marine Resources’ Oct. 10 communiqué in which one suggestion mentioned is a “collective ability to reduce the catch of lobsters” — either voluntary or mandated. Both PERC and the Zone C Lobster Council (which represents the local lobstermen) are in favor of local control of the fishery, and have asserted in the past that the fishermen know the problems firsthand.

There are about 350 registered fishing boats on the island, and Alden estimates that “probably 700 families on the island are directly connected to the fishing industry, which brings in about $25 million a year.”

Sunday’s sales netted about $1,000, which will be put toward helping the fishermen, although Alden wasn’t sure what form that would take.