October 17, 2015 — As Maine’s 2015 lobster season heads for the homestretch, the iconic New England fishery continues to show surprising signs of strength while it feeds a growing market.

Mainers appear to be pulling large numbers of lobsters from the waters off their shores, continuing a long winning streak.

Marine experts point to a few likely factors behind the boom: careful fishery management; dropping populations of predators, such as cod fish; and warming temperatures in the Gulf of Maine.

Meanwhile, strong demand for lobster is surfacing in an array of places, from China, whose residents have a growing taste for lobster, to McDonald’s Corp. , which offered a fast-food lobster roll sold in New England this summer. Prices for the clawed crustaceans are up from last year, according to market experts and people connected to Maine’s fishing industry.

In 2014, lobstermen harvested about 124.4 million pounds of lobster from the water fetching an average of $3.70 a pound, according to the state’s Department of Marine Resources. The total catch was shy of an all-time record set in 2013, though the average price rose nearly 28%.

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