HALLOWELL -- The phrase "and do it fast" does not appear among a handful of recommendations listed in a draft of a letter that a lobster industry task force plans to forward to the governor, but the idea came up repeatedly Wednesday during the task force's final meeting.

Two of the recommendations -- creating a new, larger marketing research and operations entity and developing a marketing campaign to pursue during the intensive fishing season this fall -- need to be acted upon quickly, people at the meeting said Wednesday.

Having drafted its recommendations, the Governor's Task Force on the Economic Sustainability of Maine's Lobster Industry plans to finish the wording of the letter electronically, send it to the governor, then hand off its recommendations to a transition team that would start pursuing them.

David Cousens, president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, said there is an urgent need to have some sort of marketing campaign in place by this fall's busy lobster fishing season. Lobstermen cannot weather declining catches and prices and increasing regulations and costs for much longer, he said.

"If we don't do it this year, all this will have been for naught," Cousens said. "This is when we need it. People have had two years of no earnings."

John Norton of Cozy Harbor Seafood said, however, that a full marketing campaign would have to be developed within the next three weeks in order to have retailers roll it out in September after Maine's summer tourist season ends. Pursuing a smaller pilot marketing program that then could be fully developed in 2010 is more realistic, he said.

"That puts a lot of time pressure on anyone who is looking to do a significant movement piece," Norton said. "A pilot program would be more forgiving on a time basis."

Gov. John Baldacci created the task force last fall after the global economic crisis caused lobster prices to plummet -- a problem from which the industry has yet to recover. After several years of average annual prices of more than $4 per pound, prices last year fell to close to $2 per pound.

No improvement

"Prices still show no sign of recovery," task force members note in the draft letter, which is dated July 1.

With the creation of the task force, Baldacci hopes to have industry and marketing officials develop a plan for how the industry can expand its market and become more efficient. That plan is broken down into the recommendations the task force makes in the letter.

Central to the plan is the creation of a new marketing research and operations entity that receives funding from public and private sources. Legislation that would create the entity and detail how it is to be organized has to be drafted this summer so it can go to the Legislature when it reconvenes in the fall, task force members said.

Marine Resources Commissioner George Lapointe, a task force member, said after the meeting that the goal is to have the entity be funded at approximately 3 percent of what the industry is worth. The value of lobster caught in Maine in 2008 is approximately $250 million, he said, so 3 percent of that would be $7.5 million, far more than the $400,000 in annual funding that the Maine Lobster Promotion Council gets now.

"I think we need between $7 million and $10 million each year," Lapointe said.

Some of the funding would come from public sources, he said, but some of it also would come from private sources such as donors and possibly grants. The sources the funding would come from likely would change from year to year, he said.

Lapointe said the state has about $300,000 now to put toward implementing the task force recommendations. The money would be split between an in-state marketing campaign; a marketing campaign out of state, possibly in New York; and a study on how fishermen can boost their profitability, he said.

Funding falls short

Task force members noted that, because of different political realities and funding procedures between the two countries, Maine's lobster industry likely will not be able to secure funding levels similar to the $65 million the Canadian government recently approved for eastern Canada's lobster industry.

Developing an investment strategy for fostering innovation and making Maine lobster a higher-profile brand are other recommendations listed in the draft letter.

Patrice McCarron, executive director of Maine Lobstermen's Association and co-chairwoman of the task force, stressed at the meeting that simply investing in new processing facilities in Maine does not seem to be an answer to boosting the industry, even though half of Maine's annual catch is estimated to go to Canada each year to be processed and labeled as "product of Canada."

McCarron said that the processors in Maine are not operating at full capacity, so building more likely would have an immediate effect of depressing prices even more. Instead, industry officials should concentrate on increasing demand for Maine-branded lobster by creating distinct, new Maine-processed lobster products.

There should be state support of innovative efforts to help the existing processors in Maine boost their capacity before additional processing facilities are built in the state, she said.

"Increasing processing is not a silver bullet," McCarron said. "It could be counter-productive."

The task force also stressed that Maine lobster fishing practices need to be promoted to educate consumers about voluntary conservation steps that fishermen have adopted over several decades.

Having the fishery certified by an outside assessing agency as sustainable could help with marketing Maine lobster, but the task force stopped short of endorsing an ongoing effort by some industry leaders to have the fishery certified as sustainable by the London-based Marine Stewardship Council. In a report by Moseley Group, a consulting firm hired to assist the task force, the consultant indicated that Marine Stewardship Council certification might not be the best way to go.

"I think it's premature to say it's a great thing to do or not," said Dane Somers, task force member and executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council.

John Hathaway, owner of Shucks Maine Lobster processor in Richmond, told the task force that Marine Stewardship Council certification is a market-driven concept that appeals to consumers and deserves consideration. He said he thought it made sense for the task force to stay neutral on the issue of Marine Stewardship Council certification while the assessment was still under way.

"I appreciate your comments today on MSC," Hathaway told the panel. "We think that's misguided (for Moseley to dismiss MSC certification as an option)."