March 9, 2026 — New numbers released Friday show Maine’s fishing industry continues to reel in big money, topping half a billion dollars now for a 14th straight year.
Lobster is still king, topping all fisheries, with nearly 79 million pounds hauled in last year.
However, 2025 was Maine’s lowest lobster catch in 17 years. Local lobstermen say it’s not because there are fewer lobsters in the sea, just fewer fishermen to catch them.
March 6, 2026 — Maine’s commercial fishermen earned more than $619 million in 2025, marking the 14th consecutive year the state’s fisheries have surpassed $500 million in value, according to preliminary data released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR).
Harvesters earned $619,053,489 last year, driven largely by the state’s lobster industry.
“Once again, Maine fishermen and sea farmers in 2025 delivered premium products sought by consumers around the world who value nutritious, sustainably harvested seafood,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement.
Lobster remained Maine’s most valuable fishery by far. Harvesters landed 78.8 million pounds of American lobster in 2025, with a total value of $461.4 million. The average boat price was $5.85 per pound, the third-highest on record.
Still, officials say inflation and other pressures affected the industry. DMR Commissioner Carl Wilson said that when adjusted for inflation, the overall value of the lobster fishery was closer to what harvesters earned in 2008.
March 2, 2026 — In this edition of Marketplace’s Economic Pulse, we take a look at Maine’s lobster industry, where fisheries play a central role in the state’s economy. In 2024, Maine’s commercial fisheries brought in roughly $700 million in value, with lobster making up the largest share of that total.
Marketplace’s David Brancaccio spoke with Sonny Beal, a lobsterman and member of the board of directors at the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, about the state of the industry. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
David Brancaccio: I guess it’s like actors who never say the name of the Scottish Shakespeare play, because bad things will then happen. What is it that lobster folks stay away from the precise number of how their catch was?
Sonny Beal: We’re usually pretty secretive on what we catch, because if somebody finds out that you’re doing good, they might move in on your territory and stuff. So we try to keep it kind of hush-hush.
Brancaccio: Yeah. And as it refers to your business, what’s the vibe?
Beal: The catch was down a little bit this season. It was down about 30% statewide. We can’t have record years every year, so, you know, we kind of just take it for what it is. The price is down a little bit from last year, but last year was a record price. So we’re still chugging along. And we have good years and bad years, and we take it as it goes.
February 10, 2026 — Fishing is a major part of Maine’s economy, with commercial fisheries generating about $709 million in 2024, according to state data. But what happens when a warming climate begins to collide with business?
Scientists consider the Gulf of Maine to be one of the fastest-warming ocean regions in the world — and changing conditions have already reshaped parts of the industry.
In Maine, warming waters have contributed to long-term declines in northern shrimp populations. Shrimp fisheries in the Gulf of Maine have been closed for more than a decade, after regulators imposed a moratorium on shrimping — a ban that has now been extended until 2028.
And it’s not just shrimp.
Graham Sherwood, a senior scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, says warming waters could begin to affect Maine’s billion-dollar lobster industry, even as the fishery remains strong today.
Marketplace’s Sabri Ben-Achour spoke with Sherwood. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
February 9, 2026 — President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Friday reopening a huge swath of protected sea in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing.
Trump said the move would reestablish fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the New England coast, a nearly 5,000-square-mile preserve east of Cape Cod that was created by former President Barack Obama. Trump rolled back protections in the area in 2020 and President Joe Biden later restored them.
Commercial fishing groups have long sought the reopening of the protected area and voiced support on Friday.
“We deserve to be rewarded, not penalized,” said John Williams, president and owner of the New Bedford, Massachusetts-based Atlantic Red Crab Company. “We’re demonstrating that we can fish sustainably and continue to harvest on a sustainable level in perpetuity.”
January 21, 2026 — A congressional funding bill contains $30 million for research and monitoring related to the North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species closely tied to the regulation of the lobster industry in Maine and other New England states.
The money is designated for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which oversees state-regulated fisheries.
North Atlantic right whales are one of the world’s most at-risk species, approaching extinction. Threats include entanglement in fishing gear, vessel strikes and climate change.
The money is part of the fiscal year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill that passed the U.S. Senate last week, previously approved by the House of Representatives and now heading to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
“This funding will support Maine’s lobster industry by improving the incomplete and imprecise science and research upon which the federal government relies,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the appropriations committee.
January 21, 2026 — The Maine Sea Grant Program at the University of Maine has received $2 million in funding.
$1.4 million of the funding comes from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), awarded to support research and outreach activities of the NOAA Sea Grant-funded American Lobster Initiative. Another $600,000 has been provided in second-year support for four 2025-26 American lobster research awards.
With this new four-year NOAA award, Maine Sea Grant and its regional partners will support collaborative research to address complex challenges facing the American lobster fishery, according to UMaine News, in a news release. The initiative will also synthesize research findings so they are accessible and actionable for fishermen, policymakers and the public, and support place-based technical assistance within the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and Southern New England region.
The American lobster (Homarus americanus) is among the nation’s most valuable fisheries, with approximately 113 million pounds landed in 2024, valued at $715 million. The industry supports thousands of Maine families across the fishing and seafood supply chain and faces growing uncertainty driven by environmental and market change.
“This underscores the need for collaborative research to understand how lobsters are responding to changing conditions and how best to sustain the fishery,” said UMaine, in the release.
January 20, 2026 — The Maine Sea Grant Program at the University of Maine is pleased to announce its receipt of $1.4 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), awarded to support research and outreach activities of the NOAA Sea Grant-funded American Lobster Initiative.
With this new four-year award, Maine Sea Grant and its regional partners will support collaborative research to address complex challenges facing the American lobster fishery. The initiative will also synthesize research findings so they are accessible and actionable for fishermen, policymakers and the public, and support place-based technical assistance within the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and Southern New England region.
The full $2 million in NOAA funding also includes $600,000 in second-year support for four 2025-26 American lobster research awards.
The American lobster (Homarus americanus) is among the nation’s most valuable fisheries, with approximately 113 million pounds landed in 2024, valued at $715 million. The industry supports thousands of Maine families across the fishing and seafood supply chain and faces growing uncertainty driven by environmental and market change. This underscores the need for collaborative research to understand how lobsters are responding to changing conditions and how best to sustain the fishery.
Since 2019, Sea Grant’s NOAA-funded American Lobster Initiative (ALI) has worked to close critical knowledge gaps about this iconic species, strengthening the fishery’s resilience to biological, economic and social impacts of ecosystem change. The program has funded 40 projects to date and supports a national research competition alongside a regionally coordinated extension network to ensure that communities across the region benefit from these investments.
“This new federal investment in lobster research is terrific news for Maine’s fishermen, marine researchers, and coastal communities, and it underscores why I advocated so strongly for the restoration of Maine Sea Grant’s funding last year. The research efforts led by Maine Sea Grant help inform policy makers and support our working waterfronts, strengthening Maine’s blue economy and helping to ensure that our state’s fisheries remain sustainable and competitive for generations to come,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
With the new $1.4 million award, Maine Sea Grant will begin to administer the initiative’s competitive research competition, which was previously administered by the NOAA National Sea Grant Program.
January 16, 2026 — U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, secured significant funding and legislative language to support Maine’s lobster industry in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations bill that passed the Senate today. The bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives last week, now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
“This funding will support Maine’s lobster industry by improving the incomplete and imprecise science and research upon which the federal government relies. The flawed data being used to inform regulations has created unnecessary, burdensome requirements for Maine lobstermen and women,” said Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Appropriations Committee. “As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, I worked hard to ensure this funding was included in the final funding bill.”
Funding and legislative language advanced by Senator Collins includes:
North Atlantic Right Whale: $30 million for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission for Right Whale related research and monitoring.
National Sea Grant Program: $80 million for the National Sea Grant Program. Last year, the Department of Commerce announced that Maine Sea Grant was being defunded. At the urging of Senator Collins, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick directed NOAA to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the work to be performed by Maine Sea Grant to ensure that it focuses on advancing Maine’s coastal economies, working waterfronts, and sustainable fisheries.
American Lobster Research: $2 million for Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank American lobster research through Maine Sea Grant.
Gray Zone: Report language directing NOAA to work with Canadian and state fisheries officials to develop a cooperative fisheries management plan in the Gray Zone.
In addition, Senator Collins secured more than $73 million for Congressionally Directed Spending projects in Maine through the CJS Appropriations bill. Of these projects, $1 million is included to expand the American Lobster Settlement Index collector survey at the University of Maine.
January 14, 2026 — Maine’s lobster fishery brought in more than half a billion dollars in revenue last year, but the long-term health of the fishery remains under pressure as warming waters reshape the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, according to reporting from Northeastern Global News.
As ocean temperatures rise, invasive and southern species are moving into traditional lobster habitat, competing for resources and preying on native lobsters. Understanding how those changes play out on the water may depend heavily on the people who spend the time there: lobstermen themselves.
Jonathan Grabowski, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern University, led a study examining lobstermen’s ecological knowledge in Maine and Massachusetts. Through detailed surveys and in-depth interviews, Grabowski and his team documented how fishermen understand food-web relationships and species interactions across different habitats.