KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — The dozens of traps that Ron Francoeur pulled from frigid waters Thursday held only about 30 lobsters, but maybe it did not matter. Last year’s statewide lobster haul - some 93 million pounds, up from 81 million in 2009 - was the largest on record. And Francoeur allowed that he had shared in the bounty.
“I had a very good year,” he said.
Francoeur, who has been f ishing since the 1980s, would not elaborate; lobstermen are famously secretive about where they fish and what price they get for their catch. But the numbers that the Maine Department of Marine Resources released this month suggested that Francoeur’s traps and untold others saw extraordinary action last year.
Unusually warm water played a role, said Carl Wilson, the state’s chief lobster biologist. Lobsters molted earlier in the year, which meant that many were big enough to legally catch by early July, a month sooner than usual.
“The planets were aligned for an early molt and really good fishing through the summer and fall,” Wilson said.
The other, more significant factor - a lobster population boom that has been building for at least 15 years - is harder to explain, he said. The decline of predators, like cod, and the state’s strict conservation rules for lobster are among the most commonly cited reasons.
“For every one that comes to market,” said Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Council, “about three go back into the water for conservation. Can you even get your mind around how many we’re talking about?”
Despite the big supply, prices went up too, a promising turn of events after the global financial crisis forced drastic price declines in 2009.Lobster sold off the boat for as little as $2 a pound that summer, forcing many fishermen, including Francoeur, out of the business temporarily. In 2010, the average price rose to $3.31 a pound, according to the state.
That was well below the high of $4.63 a pound in 2006, but it was enough to keep men like Francoeur, who had to supplement his income with a trucking job in 2009, on the water.
The 2009 crisis might have had a silver lining, Somers said. The low prices led to new markets - chain restaurants such as Ruby Tuesday and Panera Bread added lobster to their menus - and forced innovation. The lobster council is heavily promoting lobster in China, where, to the vexation of some in Maine, they call it Boston lobster, Somers said. And a handful of new companies are producing packaged lobster convenience foods, such as lobster macaroni and cheese, with the goal of selling them in grocery stores nationwide.
One such company is Calendar Islands Maine Lobsters in Portland, which will introduce its lobster mac and cheese and lobster pizza at the International Boston Seafood Show next month.
“We’re trying to put lobster into markets where it hasn’t been,” said John Jordan, the company president.
Francoeur would not reveal where he planted his 800 traps last year but said the farther out people fished, the better they did. Thursday was his last day on the water until April.
In the meantime, he said, he will hit the ski slopes and repair his gear. He is not assuming that his luck will extend through 2011. “You never know,” he said. “It could be the worst we’ve had in years.”
Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/27/2011