Lobster industry facing new regs

NEW BEDFORD – Southern New England’s fading lobster fishery will be subject to a battery of new regulations, possibly closed fishing areas and stricter size standards, to try to save the crustacean’s population.

The number of adult lobsters in New England south of Cape Cod was estimated in 2013 to be about 10 million, which is one-fifth the total from the late 1990s. Scientists issued a report last year that said the economically important species is shifting northward, in large part due to the warming of the ocean, The Standard-Times reported May 2. •

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