PORTLAND – A decade-long crash in Maine’s once-lucrative sea urchin fishery has prompted state officials and divers to consider a shutdown in order to preserve the resource.

The urchin population along the coast has declined by 90 percent in the past decade, according to University of Maine researchers, who also conclude that divers and draggers are still killing urchins about three times faster than the annual replacement rate.

Those findings led Marine Resources Commissioner George Lapointe to consider an immediate closure of the fishery from Kittery to Rockland. The state will allow urchin fishing this winter under the limited, 94-day season, but regulators and divers are expected to resume discussions in the spring about a potential shutdown next winter.

Diving for sea urchins was like a gold rush along the Maine coast a decade ago. More than 1,500 divers scoured coastal waters almost year-round, plucking sea urchins from the ocean floor and selling them at a premium to exporters who shipped them to Japan. Divers sold nearly $40 million worth of urchins in 1992, making it Maine’s second most valuable fishery after lobster.

The boom led to a dramatic bust. Yong Chen, a professor at the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences, and a student, Bob Grabowski, used a combination of analyses to determine that only about 10 percent of coastal Maine’s urchin population remains.

“The problem right now,” Chen said, “is can those urchins help the population come back?”

While only a fraction of its past value, Maine’s urchin fishery remains a valuable and important coastal industry in Maine. About 560 active divers now work between September and April, landing nearly $13 million worth of urchins in 2001. It was Maine’s fourth most valuable fishery that year.

But the future of the remaining urchin fishery along at least the southern half of the coast is now so clearly in jeopardy that a growing number of fishermen actually support the idea of giving the resource a break.

“I used to be a strong opponent of shutting it down. But now it might be necessary,” said Rob Odlin of South Portland, who has been diving for urchins for 15 years.

A shutdown of even a year could have long-term impacts, because Maine processors could go out of business and divers could lose access to the Japanese market. But, Odlin says, the urchins are now so scarce they may not be able to come back naturally. “I just don’t see us sustaining an industry at the present rate we’re doing it.”

When state officials considered banning urchin fishing from Kittery to Rockland this winter, they polled members of the industry. Of 359 licensed fishermen, 87 responded. And the results were surprisingly close. While 49 opposed the shutdown, 38 fishermen, or 44 percent, supported it.

The support wasn’t considered strong enough to order an emergency closure and risk a potential court challenge. But potentially severe cutbacks – including a shutdown – are on the table for next year.

“For a fisherman to actually ask to be cut back is a rare thing. It’s a difficult thing to do,” said Margaret Hunter, a Department of Marine Resources scientist. “It tells you that there’s definitely a problem out there.”