Maine fishermen hauled in 110.8 million pounds of lobsters in 2017 with a value of more than $400 million. While still incredibly large, this volume represented a 16 percent decline and $100 million loss compared to previous years of record-setting landings.
Since the late 1980s Maine’s lobster landings have multiplied six fold, while the area of highest landings has shifted Down East to Hancock and Washington counties. The U.S. lobster fishery is now the nation’s most valuable single-species fishery. But last year’s decline was the largest in more than 50 years, leading the industry and scientists to wonder whether the boom has come to an end.
The patterns are consistent with forecasts based on juvenile lobster population surveys founded and overseen by Richard Wahle in the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences.
In 1989, Wahle initiated data collection for the American Lobster Settlement Index, a program that monitors the number of baby lobsters that “settle” to the sea floor every year. Counts are made at some 100 sites from Rhode Island to Atlantic Canada.
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Image via University of Maine.