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By Jon Birger, senior writer
Last Updated: July 18, 2009: 9:05 AM ET


NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Looking for an inexpensive change-up for your next backyard barbeque? Try lobster. "Per pound, it's less expensive than hot dogs right now," grumbles lobster-boat captain Mike Dassatt, who fishes the coast near Belfast, Maine, with his wife Sheila.

You won't hear many complaints from lobster-loving tourists in Bar Harbor or Kennebunkport, but the Maine lobster fishery is coping with the steepest price decline in generations. All around the globe, the lousy economy is having a devastating impact on demand for luxury goods, and the Maine lobster may well be the Mercedes-Benz of food.

Restaurant demand for lobster is down 30% to 35%, versus 10% to 15% for other seafood, reports Michael Tourkistas, CEO of Lynn, Mass., seafood distributor East Coast Seafoods. "Lobster is considered a celebration food -- a feel-good food -- and right now people don't have a lot to celebrate," says Tourkistas.

If that weren't bad enough, the implosion of the Icelandic banks, long the dominant lenders to the fishing industry, has reduced funding available to the big Canadian lobster processors, cutting demand further. These processors typically purchase and process more than half of Maine's annual lobster catch before shipping them frozen to restaurants, cruise ships, and supermarkets all over the globe.

On the other hand, the size of the lobster catch is bigger than ever, thanks to excellent oversight of the state's lobster fishery. Maine lobstermen caught 67 million pounds of the crustaceans last year, 4 million more than in 2007 and triple the amount caught 20 years ago.