PORTLAND, Maine — The U.S. lobster fishery declined in catches as it grappled with challenges such as a changing ocean environment and new regulations designed to protect rare whales.
The lobster industry, based primarily in Maine, has had an unprecedented decade in terms of the volume and value of lobsters brought to port. But industry members have also said they face existential threats from proposed regulations aimed at protecting the North Atlantic right whale and from climate change affecting where lobsters can be caught.
Maine fishermen’s catch in 2023 fell more than 5% from the previous year, and the total of 93.7 million pounds of lobster caught was the lowest figure since 2009, according to data released Friday by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The figure follows a year of up and down year for lobstermen, said Dave Cousens, a fisherman based on Criehaven Island and former president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
The price of bait and fuel dropped slightly, but the catch volume did not seem to match other recent years, Cousens said. Maine lobster catches have fallen from a high of 132.6 million pounds in 2016, although the 2023 figure was still far more than fishermen produced for most of the 2000s. The 2023 catch was also the second year in a row that the total catch decreased.
Fishermen participating in Maine’s lobster industry are tense about what the future holds as lobsters have steadily shifted north as waters have warmed, Cousens said.
“We have steadily declined from 132 million. We are going downhill again,” Cousens said. “There is no doubt that climate change is having an impact on this.”
Fishermen from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and other northeastern states also harvest lobsters with traps from the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, but in a normal year about 80% come to ports in Maine.
The price of lobsters in the harbor has gone back and forth in recent years, but has remained fairly consistent for consumers. The price at the port rose to over $6.70 per pound in 2021 and fell to less than $4 per pound in 2022. Last year the price was just under $5 per pound, and the total catch was currently worth over $460 million . docks, according to data released Friday. That is the third highest figure in the past four years.
“The award received by Maine lobstermen last year is a reflection of the continued strong demand for this iconic seafood,” said Maine Maritime Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher.
The state’s fishermen have been locked in a lengthy legal battle with the federal government over rules intended to protect the whales, which are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. Fishermen claim the proposed rules are so strict they could put them out of business, but conservationists say they are essential to save the whales, which number fewer than 360 in total. A whale found dead off the coast of Massachusetts this winter showed signs of entanglement in Maine gear.
The ways in which climate change affects the industry is a subject of ongoing scientific research. Southern New England’s lobster industry has collapsed as the ocean has warmed, with waters off Maine recording their second-warmest year on record in 2022.