Slow lobster season in Maine, but price is steady

— It’s been PORTLAND, MAINE a slow lobster season so far in Maine, but the lack of crustaceans isn’t translating into high prices for consumers, and fishermen are still hopeful for a bump in catch this summer.

The harvest in America’s biggest lobstering state is usually in full swing by July, but fishermen say they haven’t caught much this month. The season tends to pick up after many lobsters shed their shells and reach legal size, and that hasn’t happened yet, fishermen said.

The slow season hasn’t caused prices to budge: Consumers are paying about the same for live lobsters as at this time last year, when the crustacean catch was more plentiful earlier in the season. Wholesale prices are also slightly behind where they were a year ago. Lobsters are still readily available to consumers, and numerous factors impact the prices they pay, including international demand and the size of the harvest elsewhere.

The season so far is similar to the lobster hauls veteran fishermen saw in the 1980s and ’90s, when the boom in catch typically came later, said Steve Train, a lobsterman based in Long Island, Maine.

“We’ve got a whole generation where they’re used to making money by now. And those of us who have seen it don’t like it,” Train said. “Anything is possible, but it’s hard to make up six weeks of income.”

One reason for the slow start could be the long, cold spring. Warm weather tends to bring an early shed and thus higher catches, but that has not been the case this year.

This year’s slow start also means an expected bait shortage hasn’t caused much worry. Federal regulators are reducing the amount of herring that fishermen are allowed to catch. That could make it more difficult — and more expensive — for fishermen to load traps.