A strong foreign market and good initial harvest has made for a good start to the spiny lobster season for Florida Keys commercial fishermen.

The prices that fishermen have been paid in the first month of the season has doubled from what they were paid last year. Prices increased from last year's $3 a pound to $5 to $5.50 a pound for lobster and as much as $7 per pound for live lobster, which is mostly going to China, Taiwan and other overseas markets.

Last year, many lobster fishermen brought in their traps early as the price was not worth the money they spent on fuel, ice and crew members, fishermen said.

"The season this year is 10 times better than what we dealt with last year," Conch Key lobster fisherman Gary Nichols said. "There's a lot of demand for lobsters."

Nichols is one of the fishermen who has benefited from exporting live lobsters overseas.

"You have to get the lobsters out of South Florida," Nichols said. "It's hard to compete with Third World countries that are flooding our South Florida markets. You have to have niche markets."

Stock Island Lobster Co. owner Peter Bacle said Asian markets also are the reason the prices for all lobsters are doing so well so far this season.

"Europe is not so good," Bacle said.

The weather also cooperated with fishermen in the first three weeks of the season, which started Aug. 6. There was virtually no wind to speak of. Stock Island-based fisherman George Niles fished 17 days in a row before taking a break, he said. The last four days he fished he averaged 550 pounds of lobster a day, he said.

"It's always good when it's calm," Niles said.

Nichols said many Upper Keys fishermen had 1,000-pound days in the first two weeks, but the catch has dropped off in the past week. Also, the winds picked up during that time, and many fishermen were using the time to work on their boats, fix traps and prepare for stone crab season, which opens Oct. 14.

tohara@keysnews.com