Original links are included though some may have expired.

The Numbers:

U.S. lobster exports:

	Oct. 2007	Oct. 2008
By weight in tons:	4.6 million	3.5 million
By revenue	$58 million	$43 million

What They Mean:

The king crabs of the Arctic, the Chesapeake's blue crab and northern California's Dungeness, the Australian yabby (a giant crayfish) and the giant prawn all have their advocates. But every New Englander considers the Atlantic lobster the prince of crustaceans. Recent decades -- until very recently, as we note below -- have been remarkably good for the lobster business, with catches rising from 8,000 to 10,000 tons a year in the 1960s to 35,000-40,000 tons in the 1990s and the 21st century. And though landings are up, lobster populations seem to be thriving: though the National Marine and Fisheries Service worries about the health of southern New England fisheries, it gives the northern fishery appropriately laconic Yankee praise: "populations of American lobster in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank are healthy and overfishing is not occurring."

As NMFS suggests, most lobsters are caught in Maine, where about 7,300 registered lobstermen and lobsterwomen trap about 32,000 tons a year in 3 million authorized cages. (Massachusetts accounts for most of the remaining tonnage, with smaller industries operating off Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey.) The lobster-trappers are successful exporters, selling about 8,000 tons a year to Spain, France, and Italy; and smaller but growing totals via air-freight to luxury hotels in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore. But the big market is Canada, which buys more than half of Maine's annual lobster catch. These exports, concentrated in the peak months between August and December, go to 50 processing plants in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island which in turn prepare tails, claws, and shreds for sale in American and European markets.

All well, until this fall. Canada's processors relied on Icelandic banks for credit. After these banks collapsed in the first week of October, processing plants began shutting down as well. Meanwhile, the recession in the United States was turning worried shoppers away from live-lobster sales. The boat price of lobster accordingly dropped by almost half, from $4.50 per pound in 2007 to $2.60. Maine's October catch brought $20 million -- less than half the total for October 2007 -- and the month's export figure was the lowest measured since 2001. Suddenly hundreds of lobster operations are threatened with bankruptcy. Therefore a Christmas fact: New England's lobsters are (1) a renewable resource whose population is growing; (2) caught by people who suddenly need some support; (3) cheap and easily available, and (4) an exceptionally affordable luxury in a harder-than-usual holiday.

Further Reading:

Lobster conservation -- Conservation means more lobsters caught, but also more in the water. Big and small lobsters are released to ensure a healthy breeding stock: a lobster must be released if its carapace is smaller than three inches or larger than five and a quarter. Egg-bearing or "berried" lobsters are also released, with lobstermen cutting a triangular notch out of their tails to keep known egg-laying female lobsters in the water rather than the pot. The lobster page for the National Marine Fisheries Service:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/
species/amer_lobster.htm

The Maine Lobstermen's Association:
http://www.mainelobstermen.org/about.asp?page=1

Lobster-boat pictures from the Rhode Island Lobstermen's Association:
http://www.rilobstermen.com/members.htm

The University of Maine's Lobster Institute has a lobster-science quiz. PPI's Trade Project staff got 93% -- 13 out of 14 questions correct!
http://www.lobster.um.maine.edu/index.php?page=20

Maine government's lobster page: http://www.maine.gov/dmr/rm/lobster/index.htm

Coverage of the lobster industry in hard times:

• From the Portland Press-Herald:
  http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/
  story.php?id=226622&ac=PHnws


• And Working Waterfront:
  http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/
  Lobster-industry-in-crisis-as-prices-collapse/12787/

Which is the crustacean king? The Japanese king crab is largest by wingspan, with legs up to five feet long. Lobsters wins by weight, though. The heaviest recorded crab came in at 44 pounds. The heaviest lobster on record, a Canadian caught off Nova Scotia, was the size of an eight-year-old boy -- four feet long and 48 pounds, or 1.2 meters and 22 kilos. Trevor Corson's The Secret Life of Lobsters speculates that when Europeans arrived in the 16th century, there were more of these giants, but fewer lobsters overall as the Atlantic cod ate most small lobsters. Without the cod, which collapsed under the pressure of industrial fishing in the 1970s and 1980s, fewer young lobsters are eaten and the population has grown. He explains the rising lobster catches of the 1990s as a mix of good management of lobsters with bad management of cod.

A man with a big lobster:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/~jchamplin/
ambrosia/lobster_monster.jpg

And Corson's highly recommended book: http://www.secretlifeoflobsters.com/

Maine's Lobster Promotion Council tells you how to buy, and offers ideas on how to make Southeast Asian-style lobster:
http://www.lobsterfrommaine.com/authentic-maine-lobster.aspx

Correction!

Good at lobster-science, PPI's Trade & Global Markets staff is badly embarrassed over a mistake in last week's fact on the hajj, which suggested the hajj follows Ramadan. As several readers point out, this is true only in the sense that December chronologically "follows" August. The two dates are far apart. Apologies and thanks for the correction.

Special Note

PPI will close for the holidays next week, and the Trade Fact service will accordingly take a break. We wish our readers around the world a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. In this difficult holiday season, some charities for those able and inclined: