HALLOWELL, Maine — Maine lobster fishermen last year caught more than 100 million pounds of lobster for the first time, indicating the state’s signature seafood is robust as other fishery resources continue to flounder, the state’s top fisheries official said Tuesday.
But even with a whopper of a harvest, Maine lobstermen continue to struggle with lower prices that began with the global economic meltdown in 2008, Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher told The Associated Press.
“Based on the sheer number of juvenile lobsters we’re seeing on the bottom, whether we’ll continue at 100 million it’s hard to say, but I think we’ll continue to show strong landings for the next several years,” he said.
While the numbers are preliminary, 100 million pounds is impressive even in a state where lobster is king. The previous record harvest of 94.7 million pounds, worth more than $313 million, was set in 2010.
David Cousens, a South Thomaston lobsterman and the longtime president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, remembers when the annual catch of Maine lobsters was around 20 million pounds in the 1980s. He never imagined the day when the catch would top 100 million pounds.
“Unreal,” he said.
While the lobster catch has fallen in southern New England in recent years, it has gone the other direction in Maine — topping 80 million pounds for the first time in 2009 and 90 million pounds last year.
The catch has been particularly strong in the waters off the eastern half of Maine’s long ragged coast and is holding its own in the waters in the western half of the state, said Carl Wilson, a lobster biologist with the Department of Marine Resources.
Lobster also has become more important to Maine’s overall fishing industry in recent years as groundfish, scallops, urchins and other fishing sectors have fallen off. Lobster now accounts for about 70 percent of the value of the state’s total seafood harvest.
Although the lobster harvest was strong last year, lobstermen have been hurt by low prices they’ve been getting for their catch. The official numbers for the volume and value of the 2011 lobster harvest weren’t available Tuesday and are expected to be released by the end of February.
While struggling with low prices for their catch, lobstermen are dealing with high prices for diesel fuel, bait, rope and other equipment, Cousens said.
“Our expenses are through the roof, and the price of lobster is $1.50 a pound cheaper than it was in 2006,” he said.
The lobster resource has benefited from conservation measures, warmer waters off Maine and a decline in predators, such as codfish, Cousens said. But if the catch falls sharply in the years ahead, it’ll devastate the industry.
“If we all drop back to the historical catches we’d all be bankrupt,” he said. “Even if we went back to 50 million pounds, we’d be out of business. We’d be economically extinct.”
Lobster is often viewed as a luxury food that’s bought for celebrations, said Matt McAleney of New Meadows Lobster, a lobster dealer in Portland. With the sour global economy, demand has been sluggish the past few years, he said.
“Lobstermen need all they can catch to make a living, and I think that’s unfortunate,” he said.
Great news for the fishermen from Kittery to Eastport. “Crackin” that 100,000,000 pound figure puts money in hard working Maine familie’s pockets. After a few years of tough sleddin nobody deserves a great year more than our Lobster fishermen.
This is great for Maine! OBAMA finally did something for the American people. I mean throwing all those parties, taking all these vacations. He had to feed his guests and entourage like Royals.
Hmmm, wonder how much the average lobsterman makes each year?
Are you posting from the Occupy Bangor camp on the public library wireless connection?
No, why?
Not Enuff!
Don’t know if I’m ‘average’ or not but I can tell you that 43% of what I made went to bait, fuel and sternman with another 13% going to other expenses and I had a good year, nothing major broke and needed repairs or replacment.
The rising costs and the lower price still pose a challenge, but I think the continually increasing size of the haul lends some credence to the management practices (permit/tag limits, etc., that have generated so much controversy in past years.
Good on and for our lobstermen, and hoping the economics of it all improve for them.
I have not been doing my fair share of lobster consumption. I am going to have eat more with some buttered baked potatoes on the side.
more pounds, and not much money,they say, I think i,my about to cry ???
They have a strong lobby and they are well subsidized some of which we probably don’t even know about. In 2007 there were $26,000,000 in sales tax subsides to Maine lobster-men and they cry, yet they have a monopoly. Why are we subsidizing these people?
According to that figure you threw out, we as fishermen spent over 1 billion dollars in expenses.
That’s the point, we’re spending more than we can make to try to stay in business. There’s fishermen that have mighty big bank loans that i’d love to see some of you guys that like to whine about us pay.
Dear Glenn:
You did not address the FACT that lobster men have a monopoly. Plus who told you, you just HAD to become a lobster man. So quit whining about your bills, we all have bills to pay.
PS if you were spending more than you make that means you declare a loss on your income taxes so you get another break, hmmmmm. So I guess the question would be why would someone stay in a business they were losing money at? I believe the answer is that you in fact are NOT losing money, you just hide it better than most. Got any write offs on your business, like a new truck etc.?????????? Business expenses my a**.
So many whiners complaining and hating the lobstermen for their prosperity……
Envy rears it’s ugly head.
JohnR is very bitter about something. He’s charging that all the lobstermen are hiding their earnings. Probably failed at fishing or was fired because he couldn’t do the work on a fishing boat.
I hope he gets the help he needs.
Not at all Robert I just know how business works (has two sets of books, one for the tax man and the other well come on down to my new swimming pool books).
How do 6,000 Individual harvesters qualify as a “monopoly”?
Collecting secret subsidies, too?
What’s a matter, John? They refused to show you the secret handshake, down at the dock?!?
“Based on the sheer number of juvenile lobsters we’re seeing on the bottom, whether we’ll continue at 100 million it’s hard to say, but I think we’ll continue to show strong landings for the next several years,” he said.”
Wouldn’t an excessing number of juvies suggest the trend will tapper? Or are you saying that the amount of juvies are few and the 100 million pound halls will continue? What does “the sheer number of juvenile lobsters” mean?
Anyway I got lucky and devoured a tail last summer. Delicious!
Ummm, I think someone needs to teach lobstermen about the law of “Supply and Demand”…if the “Supply” is too high (you catch 100 million lbs) then the Demand will be too low (not 100 million people want to eat lobster) then the price will go down since there’s always someone out there that caught too many lobsters and will settle for less money.
That my friends is the Law of Supply and Demand. Remember a couple years ago when the weather was lousy and the price of fuel was high and many lobstermen decided not to go out as much? There were less lobsters for people to eat (supply was low) and people were willing to pay more for them (demand was high). Those lobstermen made more money for the lobsters they brought in.
Blaming the current economic condition for the low price of lobster, when you’re hauling in record lbs, doesn’t follow the Law of Supply and Demand. Of course, the real issue is how to keep the supply low enough to drive the price high enough that the lobstermen are happy…that’s difficult since you have to convince your lobster friends to throw back more “keeper” lobsters…
When the day comes that the lobster industry is bust because of these huge hauls (and that day is coming), then the price will skyrocket, course there won’t be any lobsters to catch so the lobstermen will still be screwed.