Summer price drop for live lobsters may come early this year

PORTLAND, Maine --Live lobster prices still are high across the U.S., but the annual summer price drop may come a little earlier this year.

Each summer, lobsters become more abundant on the market as they reach legal trapping size and catches increase. Prices tend to drop after the annual surge, which usually happens in early July.

Scientists with the Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute have predicted this year's lobster season will start two or three weeks early because of warm ocean temperatures.

Prices for lobsters have been somewhat high for most of the last two years. The consumer price is in the range of $8 to $12 per pound at most retail outlets in Maine, the country's biggest lobster producer. That's a couple dollars more than a year ago.