It has been a tough early season for Maine lobstermen, and fishing has been hard and slow. But the tide may be turning, and there are indications things may be picking up in areas along the Maine coast.

“This is as poor a season as I’ve seen since ’83,” said Rick Freeman, manager at the Sorrento Lobster and Fish Co. “It has been terrible.”

Fishing is noticeably slower compared with the past several seasons when the spring fishing was “rather good” and provided a buffer for fishermen and lobster pounds until the summer season kicked in, according to Freeman. But spring and early summer fishing have been really poor, he said.

Storms and cooler-than-normal temperatures have been cited as causes of the poor fishing earlier this spring. High winds made it difficult for fishermen to get out on the water, according to previous reports in the Bangor Daily News, and the low water temperatures made lobsters less hungry and less likely to enter the traps in search of food.

Those cool temperatures may have something to do with what is happening now, according to Dr. Robert Bayer, executive director of the Maine Lobster Institute at the University of Maine. But Bayer was not overly concerned with the low catch so far this year.

The low lobster catch so far this season is not an indication of the overall health of the lobster population, Bayer said Wednesday.

“This is just a slow start to the season,” he said. “There’s plenty of brood stock out there. For whatever reason, they’re a little behind schedule.”

The lobster are out there, agreed Steve Robbins III, manager of the Stonington Lobster Co-op. Robbins cited surveys conducted by the Maine Department of Marine Resources that show a healthy population in Maine’s coastal waters.

“There’s a good batch of lobster out there on bottom,” he said. “That’s a good sign of things to come.”

That, however, has been little help to fishermen, especially in areas where they are heavily dependent on lobster for their livelihood. The past six months have been tough on them, Robbins said.

“People need to be out making money,” he said. “It has been a slow spring, and the cost of doing business is expensive. Everything we do is based on the price of petroleum products, and you know where that’s going.”

Despite the slow start, there are signs that a normal lobster season is about to kick in. In Sorrento, Freeman said, he is starting to see the catch pick up.

“We’re starting to see some product from the midcoast and western Maine,” he said, noting that is usually a sign that the catch should pick up in Down East areas soon. “We’re usually about 10 days behind those areas.”

That would mean lobsters should begin showing up in Down East traps sometime next week.

“If we don’t see them next week, that could be cause for concern,” Freeman said.

Robbins is confident the fishing will improve and already is seeing some improvement.

“I think that it will be a good year,” Robbins said. “Things have been slow; they’re picking up, but we’ve got a long ways to go.”