ELLSWORTH — With lobstermen readying their gear and setting out traps for spring fishing, many of them are wondering if they’ll have enough bait to last them through the year.

The Maine lobster industry has traditionally favored herring as its primary bait, but reductions in landings quotas and rising prices are forcing fishermen to change their ways.

In 2007, according to the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), lobstermen used herring in 83 percent of the traps they fished. Last year, when lobster landings were the highest in history, herring was used in just 59 percent of traps hauled by Maine lobstermen, and it was expensive.

In 2007, bait cost lobstermen an average of $21 per bushel. Last year, the average cost was around $27 per bushel and recent developments suggest that the price could increase significantly as herring becomes even scarcer.

The New England Fishery Management Council is considering changes (known as Amendment 5) to the current Atlantic herring fishery management plan that, among others, calls for significantly increased at-sea monitoring and sampling of the catch aboard the big mid-water trawlers — some as large as 165 feet — that fish for sea-run herring in the Gulf of Maine. The aim of this change is to reduce the amount of unwanted bycatch of species other than sea-run Atlantic herring.

One question for the lobster industry is who will pay the cost of increased observer coverage. As recently as 2010, only about 4 percent of the trips by the big herring trawlers carried observers.

The lobster industry, along with other Maine fishermen, is facing an even bigger threat than just a potential increase in the price of bait.

For more maritime news, pick up a copy of The Ellsworth American.