Maine Lobster Industry Caught in Tariff Headwinds Before US Midterms, Pressure on Senator Collins

For half a century, Maine fisherman Horner has taken his boat out day after day into the cold waters of the North Atlantic, hauling lobsters from the ocean and bringing them ashore. From there they are loaded onto trucks, sent to processing facilities and shipped to restaurants around the world.

Horner has voted for President Donald Trump three times and stands by his vote. He supports the president's rollback of environmental regulations affecting commercial fishing operations like his own.

On another policy, however, he is disappointed: the president's antagonistic approach to Canada, which borders Maine and is deeply entwined with the state's lobster industry. "I never heard anything about all this Canadian animosity in the campaign. I don't know where that came from," Horner told Al Jazeera. "As far as taking on Canada in this huge hostile trade war, I'm totally against it."

Meanwhile, the price of bait has climbed along with the cost of the diesel needed to power his boat. Tensions involving the US, Iran, Russia and Ukraine have helped drive up global diesel prices, which hit record highs in September. Before the US and Israel began their war on Iran, diesel averaged $3.08 per gallon; it has now more than doubled to $6.29.

Maine's lobster fisheries brought in $461 million in 2025, underpinning a seafood economy that depends on the crustacean.

The industry was put on edge when Trump announced sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods, prompting retaliation from Ottawa. In August, Trump imposed tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods while alleging unfair treatment of US products. Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs, but lifted the levies on seafood later that month.

Maine's peak lobster season runs from late summer into early autumn, when catches surge and local processors can struggle to keep up. Much of the catch is sent to Canada for processing into tails, meat and bisque before some of it returns to the US for sale. An estimated 60 percent of Maine's lobster catch is processed in Canada.

"As soon as those tariffs went out, the screaming, literally and figuratively, in Maine and Canada was quite loud," Justin Snyder, who works in the Maine lobster industry and is also a Democratic strategist, told Al Jazeera.

While seafood was ultimately exempted from the US-Canadian trade war, the tariff threat raised fears in the industry and put pressure on Republican Senator Susan Collins, who is in a close midterm election race with Democrat Troy Jackson.

Jackson, the former president of the Maine State Senate, holds a very slight advantage. A recent CNN poll suggested he was leading by four percentage points, and a Marist poll indicated he was leading by two points, which is within the margin of error.

Collins has built a reputation in the Senate for voicing concerns about Trump's policies and rhetoric but supporting his agenda when it comes time to vote. She has voted in line with Trump's position on 92 percent of Senate votes during his second term, which began in January 2025.

Collins has, however, broken with Trump on tariffs on several occasions. In April 2025, she voted to overturn tariffs on Canadian goods. Later that month, she supported a resolution to end Trump's sweeping global tariffs, and in August she pushed back against the White House over tariffs affecting seafood.

Beyond tariffs on Canadian goods and other imports, levies on foreign steel and aluminium have added costs for Maine's lobster industry, which relies on the metals to manufacture the traps used by fishermen.

Jackson has been an outspoken critic of Trump's tariffs, arguing that Collins has not done enough to challenge the president's trade measures.