There were new donation buckets and QR codes to support the Save Maine Lobstermen campaign among the familiar white tents sheltering lobster servers and vendors across the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland Wednesday.
For the first time in its 76 years, the Maine Lobster Festival partnered with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance to promote a positive image of the flagship workers.
The Maine Lobster Festival was created in 1947 to provide financial support to lobstermen during the summer, according to the festival’s website. The partnership with the Save Maine Lobstermen campaign is an extension of this purpose, according to Shannon Kinney, director of media and marketing for the festival.
Scott Herrick, a lobsterman from Owls Head and a festival volunteer, said he hopes the partnership will bring light to the Maine lobstermen’s conservation efforts.
In 2021, the National Marine Fisheries Service released new guidelines on lobster trap gear in efforts to reduce dangers to right whales. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association sued the federal government under the argument that the guidelines are unachievable and a threat to the industry, and that lobstering already has minimal risk to right whales, according to the Save Maine Lobstermen website.
In June, the U.S. District Court of Appeals in the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and made the National Marine Fisheries Service amend its plans to protect right whales.
“I think it’s really important that we get a good light shone on our industry,” Herrick said. “We get a lot of bad press, as far as right whales go, environmental type stuff. We’re very into conservation. We’re stewards of the sea — we have been for generations and generations.”
Aside from the donation buckets and QR code signs for donating to Save Maine Lobstermen, the festival is selling Save Maine Lobstermen T-shirts with their own merchandise.
The festival is hosting an event on Thursday with speeches by people from the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance, democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and the Rockland mayor, Kinney said.
And this is only the beginning, Kinney said. The festival is looking to partner with the Save Maine Lobstermen campaign in future years.
“We’ve already got the placemats for next year,” Kinney said.