BOSTON – Despite predictions that the population was in hot water due to overfishing, the number of lobster crawling along the ocean floor in New England has apparently increased.

Marine biologists are confounded by the development. But fishermen say the bait they feed the crustaceans may be helping the population grow and thrive.

“It’s mind-boggling why we fish the lobsters so hard and yet they remain so abundant,” Winsor Watson, a University of New Hampshire zoologist, told The Boston Globe. “It’s baffling. We just don’t have enough scientific data to know why.”

Lobster remains one of New England’s most heavily fished and most profitable catches, as well as a regional icon.

In the 1990s, many fishermen turned to lobster when cod and other groundfish stocks were depleted and once-plentiful fishing grounds were ordered closed.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the lobster catch has increased to 78.4 million pounds in 1999, from 48.5 million pounds in 1995.

Yet, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says a random survey conducted in the Gulf of Maine shows the lobster population tripled between 1982 and 1997.

Over the same period, the number of traps in Maine increased to 2.7 million from 1.5 million.

There are several possible explanations, scientists and fishermen say.

Lobstermen believe the herring and the fish-scrap bait they use to lure the creatures are feeding the population.

They say smaller lobsters feed in the traps and depart through a vent that keeps legal-sized lobsters in but lets smaller lobsters escape.

Scientists and lobstermen are also exploring the possibility that lobsters are reaching sexual maturity faster and laying eggs earlier in their lives.

Two years ago, scientists predicted, absent restrictions, the lobster population would collapse as groundfish stocks did in the 1990s.

Because it takes five to seven years for lobsters to grow to legal size, it would take years for the species to rebound from a population drop.

Now, marine biologists are saying the plentiful stocks offer an opportunity to cut back on fishing and protect the species – and the industry – before it’s too late. There are already concerns about population declines in Massachusetts Bay and Long Island Sound.

“It’s a very important question. Do we have to undergo a collapse to prove this, or can we learn by analogy from other fisheries?” asks Steven Murawski of the Fisheries Service.

“Should we be cautious or say this is a different critter and doesn’t play by the rules?”

“That fact that it hasn’t collapsed yet is wonderful. But by any standard measure, we are overfishing this stock,” he said.

William Adler of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association said the industry understands the needs for limits, but believes they do not have to be strict.

“Lobstermen have concrete numbers that they see out there and the scientists have mathematical numbers on a computer that are soft like Jell-O,” he said.