Regulators weigh 5-year southern NE lobstering ban
By JAY LINDSAY
Associated Press Writer
BOSTON (AP) -- Lobstermen in southern New England are facing a possible five-year fishing ban after biologists made that recommendation to regulators, saying the drastic step is needed to save the depleted stock.
The Lobster Technical Committee of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission acknowledged "the catastrophic effects" on local lobstermen if the moratorium was enacted. But it said it was needed to rebuild the lobster population and secure the industry's long-term health.
Rhode Island lobsterman Bill McElroy said there will be no industry in southern New England if the recommendation is adopted.
"The infrastructure would collapse, the markets would be swept up. There just wouldn't be any way to come back from it," said McElroy, 63. "So it's essentially a death sentence, if they were to follow through on that."
Implementing the committee's recommendation to the commission's American Lobster Management Board is a long way from reality. The board meets in July to discuss a range of options now being devised to revive the lobster stock, including far less severe alternatives, such as no changes at all. A final decision could come by November.
Lobster board member Dennis Abbott, a New Hampshire state representative, said the committee's recommendation, though extreme, must be seriously considered given the stock's persistent weakness and the rigorous science behind the advice.
"They didn't wake up in the morning and just pull this out of the air," he said. "At some point some drastic action seems to be necessary.
"But it becomes a dilemma of trying to protect the lobstermen in their occupations versus protecting the resource and ensuring there is a resource," Abbott said.
The vast majority of lobsters caught in the Northeast are trapped north of Cape Cod to Maine, an area that accounts for about 93 percent of the catch and has recently grappled with the opposite problem - a glut of lobsters on the market.
The southern New England region includes areas south of Cape Cod down to North Carolina, with the bulk of the inshore lobster catch between Massachusetts and Long Island Sound.
The area once accounted for as much as a quarter of the Northeast's total catch, compared to just 5 to 7 percent today. The population peaked in the late 1990s at an estimated 35 million lobsters, but the stock plummeted to around 13 million by 2003. Scientists have never pinpointed a cause for the crash, but possible culprits include overfishing, a 1996 Rhode Island oil spill, a disfiguring shell disease and pesticide-polluted run off.
Since 2003, recovery has been slow, with about 15 million lobsters currently estimated in southern New England, well below the 25 million target and a sliver of the 116 million estimated to live in the Gulf of Maine.
The committee report offers some explanations why the stock hasn't rebounded, including warming waters that more frequently break 68 degrees, a temperature that can retard a lobster's growth and spawning. It can also force lobsters into deeper, colder waters, where they are more susceptible to predators and their larvae are less likely to settle in suitable spots to grow.
The report also cited fishing pressure, though it said lobstermen aren't overfishing the area. But the report said the local catch hasn't declined as steeply as the lobster population.
McElroy questioned how getting lobstermen off the water would solve anything if everyone acknowledges they aren't overfishing. He noted the southern New England's estimated lobster population was even lower in the early 1980s than it is now, and a boom followed in the coming decades. He advocated keeping the status quo, saying tough protections for lobsters are already in place, such as trap and size limits. There's no guarantee banning lobster fishing would have any impact on what could be a cyclical downturn, he said.
"It's pretty obvious to most fishermen that it's a host of environmental problems that are creating this trouble," McElroy said. "If you're not the problem, how can you be the solution?"
By JAY LINDSAY
Associated Press Writer
BOSTON (AP) -- Lobstermen in southern New England are facing a possible five-year fishing ban after biologists made that recommendation to regulators, saying the drastic step is needed to save the depleted stock.
The Lobster Technical Committee of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission acknowledged "the catastrophic effects" on local lobstermen if the moratorium was enacted. But it said it was needed to rebuild the lobster population and secure the industry's long-term health.
Rhode Island lobsterman Bill McElroy said there will be no industry in southern New England if the recommendation is adopted.
"The infrastructure would collapse, the markets would be swept up. There just wouldn't be any way to come back from it," said McElroy, 63. "So it's essentially a death sentence, if they were to follow through on that."
Implementing the committee's recommendation to the commission's American Lobster Management Board is a long way from reality. The board meets in July to discuss a range of options now being devised to revive the lobster stock, including far less severe alternatives, such as no changes at all. A final decision could come by November.
Lobster board member Dennis Abbott, a New Hampshire state representative, said the committee's recommendation, though extreme, must be seriously considered given the stock's persistent weakness and the rigorous science behind the advice.
"They didn't wake up in the morning and just pull this out of the air," he said. "At some point some drastic action seems to be necessary.
"But it becomes a dilemma of trying to protect the lobstermen in their occupations versus protecting the resource and ensuring there is a resource," Abbott said.
The vast majority of lobsters caught in the Northeast are trapped north of Cape Cod to Maine, an area that accounts for about 93 percent of the catch and has recently grappled with the opposite problem - a glut of lobsters on the market.
The southern New England region includes areas south of Cape Cod down to North Carolina, with the bulk of the inshore lobster catch between Massachusetts and Long Island Sound.
The area once accounted for as much as a quarter of the Northeast's total catch, compared to just 5 to 7 percent today. The population peaked in the late 1990s at an estimated 35 million lobsters, but the stock plummeted to around 13 million by 2003. Scientists have never pinpointed a cause for the crash, but possible culprits include overfishing, a 1996 Rhode Island oil spill, a disfiguring shell disease and pesticide-polluted run off.
Since 2003, recovery has been slow, with about 15 million lobsters currently estimated in southern New England, well below the 25 million target and a sliver of the 116 million estimated to live in the Gulf of Maine.
The committee report offers some explanations why the stock hasn't rebounded, including warming waters that more frequently break 68 degrees, a temperature that can retard a lobster's growth and spawning. It can also force lobsters into deeper, colder waters, where they are more susceptible to predators and their larvae are less likely to settle in suitable spots to grow.
The report also cited fishing pressure, though it said lobstermen aren't overfishing the area. But the report said the local catch hasn't declined as steeply as the lobster population.
McElroy questioned how getting lobstermen off the water would solve anything if everyone acknowledges they aren't overfishing. He noted the southern New England's estimated lobster population was even lower in the early 1980s than it is now, and a boom followed in the coming decades. He advocated keeping the status quo, saying tough protections for lobsters are already in place, such as trap and size limits. There's no guarantee banning lobster fishing would have any impact on what could be a cyclical downturn, he said.
"It's pretty obvious to most fishermen that it's a host of environmental problems that are creating this trouble," McElroy said. "If you're not the problem, how can you be the solution?"
Officials Propose Ban On Catching Lobster
Lobster Population On Decline Since 1990s, Officials Say
POSTED: 3:02 pm EDT June 11, 2010
UPDATED: 5:47 pm EDT June 11, 2010
facebookdel.icio.usbuzzdiggreddit›› Email›› PrintNEW LONDON, Conn. -- The future of lobsters may require a five-year moratorium. But Connecticut’s lobster fisherman and retailers said it could sink a lot of jobs and significantly raise the price of lobster, a summertime seafood treat.
In order to improve the declining stock between Cape Cod and Virginia, the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission is considering the ban, but the cost could mean thousands of jobs.
It won’t just affect fishermen like Mike Theiler. There are suppliers, marine repair, fuel dealers and others attached to the industry.
“I’ve been fishing over 20 years and a lot of money invested in my business. It’s really disturbing,” said Theiler.
The marine committee said the decline in lobsters is also disturbing, saying it has to police itself to save lobstering. It said a proposed ban could help increase the lobster population once again.
Seafood retailers like Grossman’s in Groton said a lobster fishing moratorium would force them to buy more lobsters from Maine and Canada.
Since the 1990s, the number of lobsters in Long Island Sound and southern New England has dropped off.
Officials said the possible causes of the die-off included warmer waters, overfishing and pesticide polluted runoff.
Theiler said they are already seeing an improvement of the product and maybe measures already established are working.
“We’re seeing larger, wider ranges of sizes throughout the catch. We’re seeing greater length frequency per molt,” said Theiler.
A decision on whether to pass the ban will take place in November. If approved, the ban could begin as early as July 2011.
Lobster Population On Decline Since 1990s, Officials Say
POSTED: 3:02 pm EDT June 11, 2010
UPDATED: 5:47 pm EDT June 11, 2010
facebookdel.icio.usbuzzdiggreddit›› Email›› PrintNEW LONDON, Conn. -- The future of lobsters may require a five-year moratorium. But Connecticut’s lobster fisherman and retailers said it could sink a lot of jobs and significantly raise the price of lobster, a summertime seafood treat.
In order to improve the declining stock between Cape Cod and Virginia, the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission is considering the ban, but the cost could mean thousands of jobs.
It won’t just affect fishermen like Mike Theiler. There are suppliers, marine repair, fuel dealers and others attached to the industry.
“I’ve been fishing over 20 years and a lot of money invested in my business. It’s really disturbing,” said Theiler.
The marine committee said the decline in lobsters is also disturbing, saying it has to police itself to save lobstering. It said a proposed ban could help increase the lobster population once again.
Seafood retailers like Grossman’s in Groton said a lobster fishing moratorium would force them to buy more lobsters from Maine and Canada.
Since the 1990s, the number of lobsters in Long Island Sound and southern New England has dropped off.
Officials said the possible causes of the die-off included warmer waters, overfishing and pesticide polluted runoff.
Theiler said they are already seeing an improvement of the product and maybe measures already established are working.
“We’re seeing larger, wider ranges of sizes throughout the catch. We’re seeing greater length frequency per molt,” said Theiler.
A decision on whether to pass the ban will take place in November. If approved, the ban could begin as early as July 2011.
This is a link to the original article. I copied and pasted part of this below, but reading the whole thing gives you a better idea about the issues and status.
http://tinyurl.com/2ddl973
Cape lobster industry faces crisis
By Doug Fraser
dfraser@capecodonline.com
June 13, 2010
Second long section of whole article
....Looking for answers
Despite drastic new regulations that ended overfishing, there has been no evidence of a turnaround in Southern New England lobster stocks. In fact, indicators of abundance, like the numbers of juvenile lobsters that become legal-sized each year, have been worsening. Last year, the Atlantic States commission's tech committee, a confab of lobster scientists, began looking for answers.
What surprised them, said Glenn, was the complete lack of lobsters in many inshore areas where they used to be caught. That included little to no evidence of egg-bearing females or the tiny lobsters that settle on the bottom after they mature from free-floating larvae.
The marine fisheries' own lobster surveys showed that, in Buzzards Bay, for instance, many lobsters were found in locations all over the bay by research cruises in 1999. Over the next decade, researchers caught few, if any lobsters in the bay. In a trend mirrored up and down the southern New England coastline, lobsters were found congregating in the deeper, cooler waters of Vineyard Sound.
It appeared that the whole population had moved west to get away from what had become an intolerable heat in the bay.
That was understandable because a lobster's whole life, from reproduction and growth to health and mortality, is influenced by temperature. They grow faster and become sexually mature sooner in warmer water. Still, they prefer temperatures between 53 and 64 degrees, can detect a change of less than 2 degrees and will avoid areas with constant temperatures over 66 degrees.
Glenn said the expansion in the number of days with high water temperatures is probably a bigger factor than the temperature rise itself. While lobsters can tolerate the occasional warm day, prolonged exposure to water over 68 degrees wreaks havoc on their respiratory and immune systems and leads to outbreaks of shell disease and other lobster diseases.
Long-term recorded water temperatures from Long Island to Cape Cod show a steady upward trend over the past 20 years in not only water temperature, but in the number of days over 68 degrees. In temperature studies from New York to Buzzards Bay, the pattern is strikingly similar. At the Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Conn., recorded water temperatures since 1976 showed that the number of days over the 68 degree mark dramatically increased after 1999. There were just five days over 68 degrees in 1998. In 1999 that rose to 55, then 75 the next year. Over the decade most years registered between 65 and 75 days over 68 degrees. A similar trend was noted in Buzzards Bay. At the same time, Glenn noticed, commercial landings started a long steep slide that continues even today.
"When you map it out, in 1999 there were strong temperature anomalies, and at the same time commercial landings and all the different trawl survey indices of abundance decrease, then that is a remarkable coincidence," said Glenn.
snip...
http://tinyurl.com/2ddl973
Cape lobster industry faces crisis
By Doug Fraser
dfraser@capecodonline.com
June 13, 2010
Second long section of whole article
....Looking for answers
Despite drastic new regulations that ended overfishing, there has been no evidence of a turnaround in Southern New England lobster stocks. In fact, indicators of abundance, like the numbers of juvenile lobsters that become legal-sized each year, have been worsening. Last year, the Atlantic States commission's tech committee, a confab of lobster scientists, began looking for answers.
What surprised them, said Glenn, was the complete lack of lobsters in many inshore areas where they used to be caught. That included little to no evidence of egg-bearing females or the tiny lobsters that settle on the bottom after they mature from free-floating larvae.
The marine fisheries' own lobster surveys showed that, in Buzzards Bay, for instance, many lobsters were found in locations all over the bay by research cruises in 1999. Over the next decade, researchers caught few, if any lobsters in the bay. In a trend mirrored up and down the southern New England coastline, lobsters were found congregating in the deeper, cooler waters of Vineyard Sound.
It appeared that the whole population had moved west to get away from what had become an intolerable heat in the bay.
That was understandable because a lobster's whole life, from reproduction and growth to health and mortality, is influenced by temperature. They grow faster and become sexually mature sooner in warmer water. Still, they prefer temperatures between 53 and 64 degrees, can detect a change of less than 2 degrees and will avoid areas with constant temperatures over 66 degrees.
Glenn said the expansion in the number of days with high water temperatures is probably a bigger factor than the temperature rise itself. While lobsters can tolerate the occasional warm day, prolonged exposure to water over 68 degrees wreaks havoc on their respiratory and immune systems and leads to outbreaks of shell disease and other lobster diseases.
Long-term recorded water temperatures from Long Island to Cape Cod show a steady upward trend over the past 20 years in not only water temperature, but in the number of days over 68 degrees. In temperature studies from New York to Buzzards Bay, the pattern is strikingly similar. At the Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Conn., recorded water temperatures since 1976 showed that the number of days over the 68 degree mark dramatically increased after 1999. There were just five days over 68 degrees in 1998. In 1999 that rose to 55, then 75 the next year. Over the decade most years registered between 65 and 75 days over 68 degrees. A similar trend was noted in Buzzards Bay. At the same time, Glenn noticed, commercial landings started a long steep slide that continues even today.
"When you map it out, in 1999 there were strong temperature anomalies, and at the same time commercial landings and all the different trawl survey indices of abundance decrease, then that is a remarkable coincidence," said Glenn.
snip...