ELLSWORTH, Maine — Maine fishermen landed 276.6 million pounds of seafood and bait worth more than $425 million in 2011 thanks, in part, to a record lobster haul, state fisheries officials announced Thursday.
According to preliminary figures, last year’s total catch was 21 million pounds larger than in 2010 and represented the biggest haul since at least 2006. But despite the increase in total pounds, the estimated value of Maine’s 2011 catch declined by roughly $30 million due to a smaller harvest of pen-raised Atlantic salmon, the Department of Marine Resources said.
Once again, the lobster fishery continued to dominate Maine’s commercial fishing industry, especially in terms of the monetary value of the catch.
For the first time in history, the lobster catch broke the 100 million-pound mark in 2011, with the 103.9 million pounds representing nearly 38 percent of the total landings in Maine last year. Financially speaking, those lobsters were worth an estimated $331.4 million to fishermen — or nearly 78 percent of the total “boat price” value of all species caught in Maine in 2011.
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