Maine’s lobster catch, value grew last year

ROCKPORT, Maine - Maine lobstermen brought more than 119 million pounds (54 million kilograms) of the state’s signature seafood ashore last year, an increase that helped to propel the total value of Maine’s seafood to the second-highest value on record, state officials said.

The value of the 2018 lobster catch was more than $484 million, and the total value for all Maine seafood was more than $637 million, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

The state is by far the biggest lobster producer in the United States, and the industry is in the midst of a multiyear boom. However, the catch and its value have fluctuated wildly in recent years.

The 2017 lobster haul was a little less than 111 million pounds (50 million kilograms) and was valued at nearly $434 million. That was a drop from the previous year.

Preliminary data from 2018 show that trend reversed, for the year at least.

“Some places were up, some places were down,” Kristan Porter, president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said before the figures were released.

The big-money lobster industry is contending with stresses, including Chinese tariffs. American lobster exports suffered in July when China slapped heavy tariffs on numerous U.S. products, including lobsters. U.S. lobster exports to China for 2018 were in line with the previous year, but industry members have cautioned that the exports were off by 30 to 50 per cent from previous years after the tariffs took effect.

Another concern is competition with Canada, where a large seafood industry harvests, processes, sells and exports the same species. Canadian exporters face no Chinese tariff, which is a product of trade hostilities between the U.S. and China under President Donald Trump. Canada’s government has also brokered a trade deal with the European Union that makes the U.S. less competitive in that market.