PORTLAND – Sen. Olympia Snowe is seeking federal assistance to lend a hand to Maine’s struggling lobster industry.

Snowe announced Tuesday that she has written the Small Business Administration, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture asking each agency to help as lobstermen suffer under low prices and high costs.

Maine lobster prices have sunk to levels of the 1980s as the global economy has stifled demand. At the same time, lobstermen have been paying high prices for bait and fuel.

Snowe wants the government to promote investment in domestic seafood processing plants and to intervene on behalf of Maine’s fishermen as it does on behalf of farmers in similar times of crisis.