2009 Lobster Numbers

DMR has released its preliminary numbers for 2009 lobster landings, and it turns out it was a record year - for reported landings at least.
Maine lobstermen brought ashore nearly 75.6 million pounds of lobster last year, or about 5.7 million pounds more than the nearly 69.9 million pounds harvested in Maine in 2008.
But it was not a record year for the value. Last years' gross revenue for harvesters is estimated to be $221,661,390, or about $23 million less than the value of the 2008 harvest, which is estimated to be $244, 851,977.
Divide the total value by the total volume, and you get a pretty telling figure. The average statewide boat price last year - what fishermen get for their catch - was $2.93 per pound, the lowest it has been since 1998. In 2008, it was $3.50, and for four years before that, it stayed above $4 per pound. (For more info, check out the official DMR stats here.)
Of course, expenses for fishermen have not returned to 1998 levels, and probably the best example of that is fuel. Most fishermen run their boats with diesel, the cost of which in 1998 ranged from $1.15 to $0.97 per gallon. Last year, diesel prices ranged from ranged from $2 to $2.80 per gallon, at least twice as much as they did 12 years ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Not all fishermen fish the same way, or rely on lobster as their sole source of income, so not all lobstermen caught more in 2009 than they did in 2008. For those that did, the higher landings volume helped take some of the bite out of the lower prices, but likely not a whole lot. For those that might have caught less lobster last year than in 2008, the lower price will sting that much more.
The previous high for recorded landings was in 2006, when 75.3 million pounds of lobster were brought ashore. But dealers weren't required to report landings to the state until 2004, so stats from prior to that year are not believed to represent the actual amount that fishermen brought ashore in Maine. DMR scientists think the year with the highest landings volume was in 2002, when they estimate that 88 million pound of lobster was caught in Maine.
As for total value, the best year for Maine fishermen was 2005. That year, they caught 68.7 million pounds of lobster worth nearly $318 million dollars. The resulting annual average statewide boat price of $4.63 per pound that year also stands as record.
For Downeast fishermen, 2009 represents a record year for them as a group in terms of landings. Hancock County surpassed Knox County as the highest producing lobster county in Maine, catching 22.4 million pounds. That's 3.1 million pounds more than what they caught in 2008. Knox County's 2009 total of nearly 20.3 million pounds is only 80,000 pounds more than it was the previous year, and it is not as high as it was in 2004, '05 or '06, according to DMR's historical county breakdown.
Washington County's volume for 2009 was 12.7 million pounds, or more than 1.7 million pounds more than the nearly 11 million pounds they caught in 2008. The volume totals for Hancock and Washington counties are the highest they have ever been. That's a good sign for the health of the resource. Now if the price can just pick back up, even just a little bit, it will be good sign for fishermen and the coastal communities they live in, too.
If you want to see the stats released by DMR earlier today, you can check them out for yourself here.