Stoll quoted in Press Herald piece about lobster shadow markets

University of Maine research professor Joshua Stoll was interviewed for a Portland Press Herald story about North American lobster being traded along indirect and sometimes shadowy routes through Hong Kong and Vietnam to China. Stoll told the paper that the implications could be significant for the state’s lobster industry. He and Swedish researcher Beatrice Crona, who are studying American lobster trade routes to China, presented their initial findings at the recent international lobster conference in Portland. “Trade isn’t good or bad. But we should know who is buying our lobster and understand the risks. We could be in for a surprise,” he said. The largest lobster price decreases the last 25 years were impacted by international events, Stoll said, including the World Trade Center attacks that changed flight and cargo shipping patterns, the 2007-08 global recession, and an early molt in 2012 that led to a glut of lobsters and Canadian lobstermen blocking routes to Canadian processing plants to stem the oversupply.