The structure of the buying side of the industry, Mr. Calkins, is such that whatever I pay, the rest of the industry pays.
We introduced banding back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Prior to that, lobsters were pegged or cut on the claws to immobilize them. We started shipping lobsters to Europe, and in Switzerland, the Swiss actually have a law against mutilation of animals, so they burnt the first shipment of lobsters we sent over because it had pegs in it and they perceived that as mutilation.
We went to the industry in southwest Nova Scotia, as a matter of fact, and tried to encourage the banding of claws. We actually turned our band supply over to a local plug producer, d'Eon, and went to our fishermen and said that we'd pay them 25¢ extra, which at that time was a substantial amount of money, if they'd band both claws of the lobster and that we'd give them the bands free.
The industry used to charge for pegs. The industry's response, to a man, was, “We'll give you the pegs free and we'll pay you 25¢ not to band them.” That has been the history of the industry. That has been the response of the industry to anyone who tries to make a change in the industry to the benefit of the underlying animal.
I try to grade or pay a higher price at the shore. If I pay 25¢ more, everyone else pays 25¢ more, because it's a very pride-driven industry. As a matter of fact, if I pay 25¢ more to have quality selected out, then it's likely that somebody else will pay 50¢ more. They'll pay the money until they don't make any money. They don't care, or they have historically not cared. I know it doesn't make any sense, but let me tell you, come down and participate in this fishery for a while. It's crazy.
We used to pay the fishermen extra. We used to pay two prices. We'd pay them, say, $5 for two-claws and $3 for one-claws. They had a blended price and they didn't want to land the one-claws. We dramatically drove down the supply of the one-claws that were being landed to us. The rest of the industry decided they'd pay $5.50 for one to stop us from doing that--no logic.