Word: lobstermen
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Before it became an expensive delicacy, lobster was dismissed as poor people's food. This summer the crustacean is once again food for the poor. A surplus of the seafood has lowered the price that Maine lobstermen earn for their catch to as little as $1.50 per lb., at least $1 less than usual. Angry about the going rate, fishermen have given away more than a ton of lobsters to local charities. Prices are falling because demand has failed to keep up with an overabundant catch. The slumping economy has hurt tourism in New England, and families have been avoiding...
...Lobstermen in Kennebunkport, Me., are boiling mad about special arrangements for one of the neighbors. They learned last week that the U.S. Coast Guard will enforce a 500-yd. "security zone" in the waters around George Bush's summer home on Walker's Point, site of some of Maine's best lobstering. Whenever the President is in residence, Coast Guard cutters will stop and search lobster boats seeking to enter the zone. Even more frustrating to the 40 or so lobstermen affected: the cutters' propellers tend to get snarled in the traplines, resulting in dozens of lost traps...
During his campaign for the White House, Bush promised that if his visits affected the lobstermen's livelihood, "I would not come here." But at a meeting with the aggrieved group last week, Coast Guard Captain R.W. ("Bud") Breault offered little hope that the rules would be relaxed. Some lobstermen, claiming that steering clear of the zone could cost them as much as $700 a week in lost catches, vow to continue placing traps in the restricted area...
...Lobstermen sometimes tune in to hear Geller's unslick rendering of a commercial for Nichols Candies, a local retailer. Despite all appearances to the contrary, WVCA is a commercial operation or, rather, a listener-supported commercial operation. "I average three to six minutes of advertising a day," says Geller. "The rate is from $32 down." Most of his operating costs are covered by $10 and $20 contributions, which he acknowledges individually on the air ("My thanks today to Beverly, to Topsfield, to Rockport . . . And now let's get back to the music"). Fishermen flipping the dial pause to marvel...
...keep going until you hit Montauk Point, the eastern tip of the island, windswept home of fishermen and lobstermen and a charming stone lighthouse that somehow never managed to keep scores of Atlantic clippers away from the homicidal rocks off the coast. Montauk is also the home of Perry Duryea, who wants very much to be governor of the state, and who may well get his wish quite soon...