CAMDEN, Maine — August 1, 2012 — The combination of natural and market forces affecting Maine’s 2012 lobster season is not a fluke, lobster industry officials told fishermen on Wednesday.
So if the price lobstermen are getting for their catch is going to go back up for any sustained period of time, something needs to be done beyond what Mother Nature might bring to the table.
Officials with Maine Department of Marine Resources hosted a meeting Wednesday at the local high school to discuss with fishermen and other industry officials what might be done. Industry officials agreed that the glut of soft-shell lobsters landed this spring and summer, and the resulting price of below $2 per pound that most fishermen are getting, will not keep any of them in business over the long term.
Maine’s lobster industry employs about 5,000 licensed commercial fishermen — not including stern men, dealers, processors and others who make a living from lobster — who brought ashore an estimated 104.8 million pounds of lobster in 2011, the highest annual landings figure ever. The total amount of money fishermen earned directly from that statewide catch is $334 million, according to DMR statistics.
About 50 people, including fishermen, dealers, DMR officials and others, gathered Wednesday morning to discuss why soft-shell lobsters seem to be so prevalent in the Gulf of Maine so far this year.
Carl Wilson, lobster biologist with DMR, said that water temperature appears to have contributed to the timing of this year’s early molt, when lobsters shed their smaller shells in favor of larger ones that take time to harden. Wilson said last winter was mild and that coastal water temperatures were higher this spring and have stayed that way.
“The shed is going to happen,” Wilson said. “When depends on how cold the water is and how quickly it warms up in the spring.”
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News.