Women in Fisheries: Laura Hughes

By Melissa Waterman

Laura Hughes is a bundle of energy and, after eight years as general manager of the South Bristol Fisherman’s Co-op, that energy shows no signs of flagging.

On a warm May day, she shows a visitor around the co-op’s property on South Bristol harbor. Every inch of space is in use.

The members’ trucks are parked tightly at the top of a steep hill. To the east is the refrigerated bait storage shed; below that a small shop, restaurant and office space. To the west is a freezer for hard bait, a flowing seawater tank for live lobster sales, and a lot of stored traps. A long float stretches along the co-op’s dock, complete with two buying stations and hoists. Hughes points out where the January 2024 storms lifted the planks on the co-op’s wharf and damaged pilings. It’s a lot for one person to manage. From Hughes’ point of view, it’s all good.

“I worked in accounting and finance, but I wanted to work outside,” she explains.

Her father was in the Navy so Hughes lived all over the world growing up before coming to Maine as a young woman. “I always did a couple of different jobs wherever I worked,” she said. “I did accounting at Bigelow [Laboratory in Boothbay] but I also did other stuff there. I worked at the Crescent Beach Inn and I floated in many other jobs there as well. It’s the same here. There are many jobs because there are many things going on.”

Before coming to the South Bristol Fisherman’s Co-op, Hughes did accounting for Douglas Carter of Boothbay Harbor for more than 35 years, both at the Boothbay Region Lobstermen’s Co-op, which Carter started in 1971, and later at his Sea Pier seafood company on Carter’s Wharf.

The South Bristol Co-op has approximately 45 members. In addition to Hughes, there’s a dock manager to keep up with maintenance and equipment issues, an office worker, three dock workers and additional summer employees who work in the retail shop, restaurant, and on the docks as landings pick up.

For Hughes the big issues facing the co-op each year are availability and price of bait, the lobster price at the dock, and keeping the co-op’s overhead down.

“Bait is a big deal,” she said. As an example, the co-op just took a big delivery of fresh alewives earlier in the week, a bait eagerly sought by lobstermen setting out early summer traps. Hughes had thought she would be able to get the amount she needed from one source then found out the seller couldn’t provide it. She had to quickly search the coast to find the right quantity and at a price the co-op could handle.

“Availability of bait is key. And price” she said laughing.

Last year Maine lobstermen landed fewer lobsters than in previous years, which typically means that the price per pound would rise. It didn’t. At the same time the price for diesel, bait, and traps all went up, as did the cost to the co-op for needed equipment, such as pumps, pilings and hoses. Then there’s the cost to keep employees through the lean winter months.

“The staff’s wages have all gone up a lot since Covid. The maintenance costs for the property are up, plus we need to get a new truck. The price for everything has gone up except for the price for the product lobstermen sell. It’s insane,” Hughes said.

The restaurant and retail seafood businesses are other co-op ventures Hughes must manage. “We sell lobster rolls, lobster dinners and other food during the summer months,” Hughes said. A small porch off the office building gives diners a view of the co-op’s floats and the South Bristol harbor. Customers have been coming to get a lobster roll or a meal for years as a summer tradition, Hughes said. “It’s a great group of people. Some call me in the winter just to find out how things are going and what the weather’s like,” she said.

Hughes started selling fresh fish during the first year of Covid, when so many fish markets shut their doors. During the summer customers come to see what fishermen have brought in, from halibut in the early summer to tuna later in August, as well as live lobsters, oysters, clams and mussels.

“I love working in this environment,” Hughes exclaimed as two young dock workers said hello. “I am dedicated to this job. You work for the fishermen so they can fish in the future so you try to sell their lobster for the highest value and do it at the lowest cost.”

As for being a woman working in what is largely a man’s profession, Hughes doesn’t seem to give it a thought. “Sometimes I realize that I have to watch myself about how I come across. I don’t want to seem too much of a hard ass,” she said with a grin.