ROCKPORT, Maine — February 28, 2014 — Thanks to a 20-cent increase in the average price lobstermen received for their catch, the landings value of Maine’s most lucrative commercial fishery jumped by more than $20 million in 2013.
By preliminary estimates, the overall value of Maine’s lobster landings in 2013 was $364.5 million, according to statistics released this week by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. That estimated value is nearly $23 million more than the $341.7 million hauled in by lobstermen in 2012.
The state’s 6,000 or so licensed commercial lobstermen brought ashore nearly 126 million pounds of lobster last year, slightly less than the 127.2 million pounds caught in 2012, according to DMR. The average price lobstermen got for their catch in 2013 was $2.89, up from $2.69 the year before.
Jeff Nichols, spokesman for DMR, said Friday that the 20-cent increase in the average price certainly is helpful, compared to the prior year. But prices of less than $3 per pound are still far below what they were in the mid-2000s, when fishermen averaged more than $4 per pound for four consecutive years. The prices that fishermen pay for bait and diesel fuel remain significantly higher than they were in the late 1990s, when lobstermen could expect to receive around $2.90 per pound.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News