PORTLAND – Maine’s lobster catch is off by a third this year, say dealers and lobstermen.

The dip is increasing fears that the days of record annual catches may be at an end.

Peter McAleney of Portland, president of the Maine Import/Export Lobster Dealers Association, blames the poor catch on the unusually cold water, which never warmed up after a cold winter and spring.

“We’re so far behind last year it’s pathetic,” McAleney said. “I don’t know if we can make up for it.”

An estimated 58.8 million pounds of lobster valued at more than $188 million were caught in Maine last year.

This year about 20 million pounds have been caught so far, a decline of between 25 percent and 50 percent. At this time last year more than 30 million pounds had been caught.

Since lobster brings in nearly two-thirds of all Maine fishing revenue, a decline in the fishery could be devastating.

Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee, said the record catches of the past decade “can’t go on forever.”

But neither McAleney nor Damon is willing to concede that the lobster fishery has seen its best days.

“To have it tail off isn’t necessarily a bellwether of the decline of the fishery,” Damon said.

Lobster remains one of New England’s most heavily fished and most profitable catches. In the 1990s, many fishermen turned to lobster when cod and other groundfish stocks were depleted and fishing grounds were ordered closed.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in 2000 said a random survey conducted in the Gulf of Maine showed the lobster population tripled between 1982 and 1997. Over the same period, the number of traps in Maine increased from 1.5 million to 2.7 million.