PORTLAND, Maine — It’s been 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 of the valuable bottom dwellers 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.
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