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Lobster Could Be Back on the Plate
By Aaron Porter
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Would you be
willing to pay extra each year for the new lobster license
plate?
Click here to vote! |
The proposed
new lobster specialty license plate would help fund lobster
research. It could be on the road as soon as 2003 if the
current Legislature approves it.
GRAPHICS COURTESY OF ARIEL CREATIVE |
ELLSWORTH—There
was a time in the not-so-distant past when nearly every automobile
on the state’s highways sported a red lobster in the middle of its
license plate. While there was some lighthearted debate about the
wisdom of representing the state’s favorite crustacean in a fully
cooked condition, the issue faded with the replacement of the old
lobster plates with the current chickadee-on-a-pine-bough motif in
2000.
But anyone who
thought the lobster had disappeared from the bumpers of Maine
drivers forever could be wrong.
The little red
bug may resurface. This time, he’s bringing with him the rocks,
bays, boats and bait sheds that define the lobster fishery.
As a specialty
plate, the decor will come at a price.
The Legislature’s
Joint Standing Committee on Transportation met early this month to
consider LD 2009, an act to amend the laws concerning specialty
license plates. If enacted, the bill would create a Maine lobster
specialty plate and a board to administer the funds from the
effort.
Sponsored by Rep.
Deborah McNeil, R-Rockland, the bill calls for the board to be
made up of representatives of local and statewide lobstermen’s
associations, lobster dealers, lobster pound owners, lobster
processors, the lobster promotion council, the Department of
Marine Resources and an international lobster institute. That
board will determine how the research dollars earned by the plate
program are spent.
Sue Barber,
executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council, is
excited at the prospect of a lobster plate.
The council has
been a prime mover behind the effort, but in spite of that the
approval process hasn’t been a smooth ride. Barber said a similar
application to the legislature last year was turned down because
of state police concerns with possible duplication of plate
numbers as another specialty sequence came into existence.
There was
additional concern that the proposed split in fees for the new
plate wouldn’t adequately reimburse the Department of
Transportation for the expense of administering the new plate
program.
Barber said those
issues have been remedied now, and there was no opposition from
committee members during the latest work session.
McNeil said the
problem of repeated numbers has been eliminated by starting a new
six-character numbering system for all of the state’s license
plates.
Barber said the
fee issue was solved by splitting the $20 special license fee
evenly between the proposed lobster fund and the state’s highway
fund for the first year of a new lobster plate. She added that for
each subsequent year, the highway fund will receive $5 for
administration and the lobster fund will get $15.
Barber said the
plates will help fund needed research as well as promoting lobster
and Maine wherever they travel.
Just how much
money the plates could bring in is open to speculation, but Barber
said $100,000 for the first year is attainable. Based on the 7,000
licensed lobstermen and 500 lobster wholesalers in the state, many
of whom have multiple vehicles, 10,000 plates sold isn’t out of
the question.
“I think people
will chip in where their heart is,” said McNeil, who has a son in
the industry.
“Some people
might want to have it just because it’s pretty,” Barber said.
“It’s not the old
scorpion lobster,” said McNeil, referring derisively to the red
lobster that used to adorn the state’s standard license plate.
The new lobster
plate is multicolored and features a red lobster in an environment
of spruce-clad islands, a lobster boat and bait shed. Barber said
Ariel Creative of Rockport donated the design.
The Maine
Lobster Promotion Council will spend the money required to pay for
production of the first 2,000 plates. Those funds will be
reimbursed to the council when the plates are sold, McNeil said.
If the proposed
bill passes the legislature, lobster plates will be back on the
highways in 2003. |
