HYANNIS, Mass. – The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission is considering shutting down the Southern New England lobster industry for five years because of a decline in the lobster population that some scientists attribute to climate change, the Cape Cod Times reported Sunday.
For the past decade, lobstermen from Buzzards Bay to Long Island Sound have seen a dramatic decrease in catches, which was originally blamed on overfishing, water pollution and shell disease outbreaks. According to the Times’ report, though, scientists are now considering rising ocean temperatures as a culprit.
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According to scientists, lobsters’ life expectancy is heavily influenced by water temperature, and they are intolerant of prolonged exposure to temperatures above 68 degrees. The number of days per year that the waters between Buzzards Bay and Long Island Sound reach that mark has increased in the past decade.
“Those higher temperatures are being seen for longer periods of time, [which] is breaking the threshold barrier where lobsters will survive,” Toni Kerns, fishing management plan coordinator for lobsters at fisheries commission, told the paper.
Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, told the Times that he understands the climate change explanation for the lobster population’s downward trend, but is against a total ban on the industry. The impact such a ban would have on the local economy is too much to risk, he said.
“That’s what really worries everyone. You put everyone out of business and in distress and you’re not even sure it’s going to work,” Adler told the Times.
