Like his fellow lobster fishermen up and down the Maine coast, David Cousens has spent the past few weeks getting his gear in shape for the coming season.

Cousens has been busy painting buoys, putting identification tags on his traps, and getting his boat ship-shape for the hard work ahead. Cousens fishes with 800 traps and typically has them all in the water by early May. He strings his traps in waters between South Thomaston and Matinicus and keeps fishing until after Christmas.

There are no guarantees in the fishing business, but Cousens is looking forward to a productive year. He said lobster landings dropped off from a high of 58 million pounds in 2001 to around 53 million last year, a sure sign that the growing pressure on the fishery may be exacting a toll.

“The problem is right now we’ve got too many people fishing for the fishery,” Cousens said recently. “There’s no ground fish, no shrimp, scallops or urchins. Lobster is the only one left in Maine, it’s the only one healthy that’s left. Consequently, it’s in danger.”

As president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Cousens has been deeply involved with the regulatory attempts to the keep the fishery viable. As someone who began fishing as a child with his father and grandfather, and started on his own at the age of 10 hauling lobsters by hand from a 14-foot-long skiff, Cousens has devoted a lifetime to the craft and worries that it may be in jeopardy.

“We’re really set up for a catastrophe if we have a bad year or two,” he said.

Cousens cited a combination of factors that could have a dramatic impact on the future of the fishery. Leaving aside the growing cost for fuel and bait, what lobster fishermen fear the most is an expansion of shell disease into Maine.

Shell disease, which causes lobsters to shed their shells at an alarming rate, preventing them from reproducing, first appeared off Long Island, N.Y., in the mid-1990s. It took only a few years for the disease to spread across southern New England, all but wiping out lobster fisheries in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

“They went from a robust fishery to out of business in four years. That took 15 million pounds from those states that are not in the marketplace anymore,” said Cousens. “The reason the price in Maine has been strong for the past couple of years was primarily caused by the collapse of the southern New England fishery.”

Scientists have been unable to determine the cause of shell disease, but some believe that pollution and warmer water temperatures may have damaged the lobster’s immune system. Without knowing the cause, finding a cure is unlikely, said Cousens. He noted that lobster fishermen all over the state are keeping an eye out for signs of shell disease but, so far, they have found none.

“If shell disease does come up here, we’re not going to be able to stop it or cure it, we’re just going to observe it,” said Cousens.

Cousens said the state has a lot more going for it than its southern neighbors because of its strict regulations and work of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. The association has 1,100 members but should have three times as many, considering the potential problems that lie ahead, he said. Maine has about 7,000 licensed lobster fishermen.

“We should have all the full-time fishermen because these are important issues,” Cousens said. “With the membership we have we can only be reactive. We’re able to put fires out but we should be ahead of the game. We’re talking about an economic engine that’s a big part of the Maine economy. That’s why it’s so important to keep the fishery sustainable.”

Another concern is a steady supply of bait. Most fishermen use herring for bait, and that resource is being threatened by factory ships miles offshore. The herring caught by those foreign ships is not only used as a food resource, but also to feed farmed fish. Some projections indicate that the demand for wild fish could outpace the herring supply within a decade.

“We can affect the herring politically and we have to do that,” he said.

Cousens said Maine’s fishermen have been able to sustain the fishery because of their willingness to change. Over the years the fishermen have supported regulations on size, a ban on taking egg-bearing females and dragging for lobsters. They also approved gear changes such as the trap tags, escape vents and ghost panels that allow lobsters to escape from lost traps, as well as the decision to create eight separate zones, each with its own regulations and elected representatives

“We’ve got the best enforcement of any state in New England. Our compliance is over 95 percent. I don’t think there is very much cheating going on, although you’re always going to have some,” said Cousens. “Most of your fishermen like the rules and go by them. If the fishermen believe in the rules, they’ll obey them.”

Cousens said fishermen are working with scientists to study lobster. Each fisherman now has two special ventless traps with a fine mesh designed to capture baby lobsters. When the traps are hauled the fishermen record the size and sex of the young lobsters before setting them free.

Lobster fishing has always been a family affair. As was the case with his father, Cousens took his three sons fishing at an early age. And like their father, sons Alex, 21, and Andy, 18, are both full-time lobster fishermen. A third son, Sam, 10, may also wind up a fisherman.

“If you are a child of a lobsterman, you’ve got a leg up,” he said. “No doubt about that.”

Still, with an initial investment of around $150,000, lobster fishing is a risky business. All it takes is a couple of bad years to strain a fisherman’s finances. Twenty years ago, annual lobster landings were in the 18 million pounds range and Cousens worries what will happen should those days return.

“As long as the fishing stays good, everyone is making a living. My kids have never seen bad fishing. They don’t know what it’s like to get a pound a trap,” he said. “Anyone that’s come in new has seen nothing but an increase in landings and good landings. If we fish it down, we’re all going to be out of a job. And that’s not that rosy a future.”