PORTLAND, Maine — By all rights, lobsterman Steve Train should be the envy of commercial fishermen around the world.
Lobster populations in Maine are booming like never before. Tourists readily pay $15 or more for lobster rolls, those delectable morsels of seafood on a bun. And environmentalists have praised the harvest as a rare example of sustainability in a sea of overfishing.
Enter market forces. Last year’s record haul of 126 million pounds, double that of just a decade ago, led some to wonder whether lobster might go the way of cheap, everyday foods like the chicken nugget or TV dinner. Prices paid to lobstermen at the dock plummeted and have not recovered. They are barely enough, says Train, to cover fuel and bait.
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