After summer glut, Maine mulls helping lobster biz

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Lawmakers are looking to boost Maine’s troubled lobster industry with proposals that would pump more money into marketing the state’s signature seafood and offer tax breaks to encourage more lobster processing. The moves follow last year’s chaotic fishing season that saw a lobster glut, a crash in wholesale prices and tensions boil over.

One bill calls for sharply increasing surcharges on lobster fishing, wholesale seafood and other lobster-related licenses, with the aim of eventually raising about $3 million a year in promotional funding. This year’s marketing budget is about $380,000.

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