MSC ya later?

The New York Times published an interesting article Wednesday by reporter David Jolly about controversy over the Marine Stewardship Council's decision to certify Norwegian firm Aker BioMarine's antarctic krill fishery as environmentally sustainable.
Apparently, some in the environmental science community are criticizing the certification, saying that MSC really doesn't have enough data to make that call. Questions about antarctic krill stocks, which are a major food source for many larger marine species, have led Whole Foods to drop krill oil supplements, regardless of whether they are certified as sustainably harvested by MSC, according to the article.
So what might this mean for Maine's lobster fishery, which is considering the same certification? Some industry officials have said that getting the fishery MSC certified should be a cinch, seeing as how Maine fishermen have long embraced practices such as throwing large lobsters and egg-bearing females back into the water. Moreover, such certification is crucial if the industry wants to expand its market to large national and international retailers such as Wal-Mart, which has said that by next year it plans to sell only MSC certified seafood, supporters say.
Opponents to the idea have said that Maine lobstermen shouldn't rely on a third party that later could decide to revoke such certification over issues such as whether fishing gear is seen as a threat to endangered whales. But whether the lobster industry should certify itself, or pay someone else to say it is sustainable, is part of the controversy over MSC certification that Jolly writes about.
Expanding the market for Maine lobster, to Wal-Mart or China (the possibility of which both the BDN and Associated Press recently reported on) certainly may help the industry, which has been suffering from a decline in demand since the economy tanked in 2008. And getting more people to recognize that Maine lobstermen have been good stewards of their fishery can't hurt. But shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire and then maintain the certification - a cost that has been borne so far by private supporters of the idea - arguably may not be seen as the best investment if MSC certification is going to get a mixed reaction in a fickle and currently frugal marketplace.

Sunset at the bar in Bar Harbor, Saturday May 15, 2010.

Cruise Ships Return

And so it begins. There are 118 cruise ship visits scheduled for Bar Harbor between last Saturday (May 1) and the end of October this year. The Costa Atlantica - pictured above Saturday anchored off Bar Harbor's Grant Park in Frenchman Bay - was the first ship to visit and its expected to be the last one, too, on Oct. 29.
In all, 24 different ships, some of them multiple times and some of them just once, are expected to make stops in Bar Harbor during the 2010 tourist season. The ships range from less than 200 feet long to more than 1,000 feet long, and can carry as few as 49 passengers or more than 3,000. In addition, some of the larger ships carry more than 1,000 crew members. About 175,000 cruise ship passengers are expected in Bar Harbor this year. That's a lot for a town that has a year-round population of only 5,000 people - even if Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park get millions of visitors every summer.
The official list of scheduled cruise ship visits can be seen here.
Not surprisingly, there are mixed feelings about the ships. Some residents don't like them, saying they mar the natural view, their passengers and resulting bus tours congest the town, the ships run over lobster gear in the bay, etc.
Other people love them, saying that the ships bring tourists to town without increasing vehicular traffic or contributing to the town's seasonal parking woes. The ship's passengers also help bring business to local stores, and at times of the year (early spring, late fall) when the stores otherwise might not be able to stay open. And some people just like big boats.
CruiseMaine USA is a marketing group that has done much to promote the cruise ship business in Maine. They point out that, according to a Cruise Lines International Association study, the cruise ship industry contributed $29 million in direct spending and funded more than 500 jobs in Maine in 2008.
Which is why the number of cruise ship visits has been steadily increasing for the past 20 years. If all 118 scheduled visits do indeed occur (some visits usually get canceled due to bad weather) it would exceed Bar Harbor's previous single-year record by about 20 visits. By comparison, Portland, the largest city in Maine, is expected to get about 70 cruise ship visits and 75,000 total cruise ship passengers this year.
The number of such visits cannot increase forever, no matter how many ships might want to come. Bar Harbor wants to keep its small-town charm and has not expressed any interest in further developing its waterfront so it can accommodate more ships. But it has made an effort to get a decent amount of feedback from local residents and business owners, so if there seems to be a feeling that Bar Harbor has reached its limit, undoubtedly town officials will hear about it. Tune in later this year to find out what the reviews for the 2010 cruise ship season are.