PORTLAND — Preliminary figures on this summer’s Maine lobster haul show significant drops in pounds caught and money paid out to lobstermen.

The lobster catch through August showed a 17 percent drop in the number of pounds of lobster and a 23 percent drop in the money paid to lobstermen, said Robert Morrill of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Maine’s lobstermen had landed 10.7 million pounds of lobster and earned $29.3 million through August.

Through August 1992, the figures for the state’s catch were 12.9 million pounds of lobster selling for a total of $38 million.

This year’s average price per pound paid to the lobster boats was slightly higher than last year’s — $2.74 over $2.68.

“It certainly confirms that it was a slow start,” said Morrill.

What else the numbers might mean is debatable among people who kept a close watch on the season.

Some say the season was bad, but not disastrous. Others say when all the numbers are in, September and October will more than make up for the slow start and the season’s landings will be charted as above average.

July, August and September are the biggest months for trapping and selling lobsters. By early July, lobsters usually are crawling closer to shore and shedding their shells. But this year, lobsters were nowhere to be found until late July.

“There was almost a full month there of lobsters they didn’t catch and they never made up for them,” said Joan M. Hyde, manager of Cook’s Lobster Pound on Bailey Island, which buys from up to 30 boats and sells to about 40 Northeast wholesalers.

“The fishermen will have a hard winter and we’ll have a hard winter because we didn’t have the volume that we normally do to make your profit,” said Hyde.

September’s catch was solid, but not enough to make up for the extremely slow start, and some fishermen seem to be making ends meet by selling directly to wholesalers and cutting out the dealer, she said.

Other number-watchers disagreed.

“All indicators that I’m aware of certainly show that fall’s catches are pretty good,” said Jay S. Krouse, director of the Lobster Fisheries Division in the state’s Department of Marine Resources.

“I think it’s going to be an above-average season.”

Since the lobsters shed late, the season was a late one, but still a good one, said James A. Wilson, a University of Maine resource economist who specializes in fisheries.

“In the fall, things really hit fast and furious,” said Wilson. But the problem with a late season is missing the summer tourist market.

“You get a lot of your landings after Labor Day and there’s nowhere to put them except into the pounds and prices fall as a result,” Wilson said.