The lobster fishery in the US state of Maine was a "reasonable success" with challenges related to dock prices, warming waters and lobster abundance, reports the Maine Lobster Community Alliance in Landings, its monthly newsletter,

The state isn't expected to release its final landings figures until late February or early March, but the catch was down, based on the harvesters' accounts. 

When the price dropped to about $4.00 per pound it discouraged some guys from going fishing, said Willis Spear, a lobster harvester in Portland, Maine. 

"I'd say there was 30% fewer fishing," he added.

Catches varied in some areas.

"A lot of guys in my area noticed they would get one good haul each month, and then something would happen, and the lobsters would disappear," York, Maine, lobsterman Jeff White was quoted as saying.

Another lobsterman in the area known as "Downeast," said the price was good but it was a challenge to keep the traps supplied with bait because the crabs would eat it. Lobster traps were coming up full of crabs, which no one wanted to buy, he said.

There was also evidence of large numbers of small lobsters in an area off Great Wass Island, said Beals Island lobsterman Dwight Carver. He saw as many as 40-60 small female lobsters every day he hauled his traps.

“Year to year, things change," Carver said. "Back in the mid-1980s we didn’t have much volume at all. Then there was a 20-year boom and now it's going the other way. The days of 1,000-pound hauls are behind us."

Warming water has also been a trend in the region. The rate of warming for the Gulf of Maine during summer months (1.04 degrees Fahrenheit per decade) is roughly four times faster than the summer warming rate for the world’s oceans (0.27 degrees Fahrenheit per decade).

Sea surface temperatures in the gulf were particularly warm during June in 2024, when temperatures were about 4 degrees Fahrenheit above the long-term average, according to data from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, in Portland.