The dockside value of Maine’s statewide annual fishery landings jumped by $74 million in 2024, buoyed by a hike in the price of lobster.
Overall, fishermen and marine harvesters in Maine netted nearly $710 million in income last year, up from $635 million in 2023, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
Maine’s lobster industry, the biggest in the state by both volume and value, made up most of that increase with a $46 million increase in landing value.
However, the amount of lobster caught dropped by 11 million pounds across the state, from 97 million pounds harvested in 2023 to 86 million pounds in 2024.
The volume of lobster is the lowest annual amount harvested by Maine fishermen since 2009, when 81 million pounds of the crustacean were brought ashore in the state.
State officials say lobster and other species have been slowly migrating to colder waters in Canada over the past decade as temperatures in the Gulf of Maine increase. Significant storm damage to working waterfront properties in the state in January 2024, which reduced waterfront access, also contributed to reduced landings, state officials said.
The average price lobstermen earned for their catch jumped by $1.17 per pound, from $4.97 two years ago to $6.14 last year. That average dockside price is the second-highest such price, second to the $6.71 that Maine lobstermen were paid per pound in 2021.
Other Maine fisheries had more modest increases in value, while others saw a decline.
The statewide harvest of oysters, which largely are farmed in Maine, went up $800,000 last year, while the value of sandworms increased by $900,000. Landings of scallops decreased by $900,000 in value, while the state’s high-profile elver fishery saw a $7.3 million decrease, from $19.5 million in 2023 to $12.2 million last year.
As a result, softshell clams were the second-most valuable fishery in Maine in 2024, holding steady from the prior year at roughly $15.4 million worth of landings.