If Maine’s embattled crustaceans are crawling to Canada, the prevailing reason was always thought to be greenhouse-gas oceanic acidification south of the international border.
But a new study turns that theory on its head, blaming alleged lobster movement on warm water allegedly caused by “climate change.”
“As the ocean warms, lobsters are packing their bags and heading north, a slow-motion migration that spells a profound and uncertain future for the industry and the communities that depend on it,” according to William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
“The problem isn’t that lobsters will disappear or bizarrely evolve into the clawless spiny lobsters of Florida,” the researchers said. “The problem is that the very water that has nurtured them for centuries is becoming their biggest stressor.”
They pooh-poohed the common refrain from fellow environmentalists that greenhouse-gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are acidifying – and killing – fish more than warm water is.
The lab people tried an experiment, putting one batch of juvenile lobsters in an acidified bath and a second batch in warm water.
The former survived longer than the latter.
The Gulf of Maine, so they claim, is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans, the result of which unnaturally speeds up the metabolism of lobster larvae, preventing them from developing normally.
Between 1982 and last year, the Gulf’s average annual sea-surface temperature warmed at nearly triple the rate of the world’s oceans, according to the latest analysis.
Maine has seen record-breaking lobster landings in recent years.
But the “scientists” suddenly justify that alleged anomaly by saying it’s not necessarily a sign of a healthy population.
Instead, it’s likely a “temporary consolidation” due to the northern migration to colder water, they retort.
So however fast the Gulf of Maine is supposedly heating up, it’s still the chilliest, most accommodating medium lobsters can find compared to southern waters.
“The ultimate destination for these climate-migrating lobsters is north, into the cooler, more stable waters of Canada,” William & Mary say. “This clear and unambiguous trend is reshaping the entire industry, creating a future where the heart of the American lobster fishery may no longer be in America.”
The lobster industry is the lifeblood of dozens of coastal towns. For many families, it’s a multi-generational way of life.
A decline in lobster landings would mean a direct threat to the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen and the entire shoreside economy of bait suppliers, trap builders, and processors.
Whether acidification, warm water or none of the above, the good news is that the New England lobster won’t evolve into the Florida “spiny” variety, which have no claws.
The claw, of course, is one of the key ingredients in traditional Maine lobster rolls.
