PORTLAND, Maine — Officials say Maine’s lobster catch dipped slightly last year as fishermen dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, but the final totals were better than some feared.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) said Wednesday fishermen caught more than 96 million pounds of lobsters in 2020. That total broke a string of nine consecutive years in which harvesters brought at least 100 million pounds of lobsters to docks.
Maine DMR said in a release that Maine fishermen earned over half a billion dollars for the catch in 2020. Valued at $516,796,614, the ex-vessel value of Maine’s commercially harvested marine resources was the ninth highest on record.
Maine's lobster fishery accounted for most of the overall haul, bringing in $405,983,832, which Maine DMR said was only the seventh time in the history of the fishery the landed value has exceeded $400 million.
Members of the industry feared at the outset of the pandemic that it would be difficult to equal previous years’ hauls because of the toll of the virus on the economy and the workforce.
“Maine’s lobster industry faced tremendous uncertainty in 2020,” Maine DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a release. “At this time last year, the industry was facing a pending market collapse due to COVID-19, but industry’s response was remarkable. Dealers developed new markets and harvesters adjusted effort based on market realities, all of which resulted in a good boat price during a year with seemingly insurmountable obstacles."