April 10, 2023 — Many of Maine’s commercial marine fisheries have experienced notable highs in the past decade with lobsters, softshell clams and baby eels all hitting record annual harvest values.
But when it comes to 2022, the statewide fisheries harvest total stands out for a different reason: a record low.
At 197 million pounds for all commercially harvested marine species, 2022 was the first time since 1975 that Maine’s reported annual seafood harvest has fallen short of 200 million pounds. In fact, the cumulative volume of Maine’s commercial fisheries dropped by more than 120 million pounds between 2012 and 2022, state data show.
Patrick Keliher, head of the state’s Department of Marine Resources, said there are myriad reasons why fishery landings have declined — some regulatory, others environmental.
Some fisheries are well below their former harvest totals. Northern shrimp have migrated north out of the Gulf of Maine because of climate change, urchins were significantly overfished in the 1990s and the harvest of baby eels has been restricted to offset habitat loss. Softshell clams, which reached a record high harvest value in 2021, had their lowest-ever documented total harvest by volume in 2022.