F R O M T H E C R O W E ’ S N E S T
Unexpected Differences
The glut of low market value lobster this past summer appears to have been the shot heard round the Gulf of Maine. The recent move by the DMR to restrict lobster fishing to 3 days a week in early summer is intended to address the immediate problem of fishery value.
The bad news is that the macro problem for the fishery is larger than could have been imagined just a few generations ago. In fact it’s as large as it gets on this planet, its global. There is enough momentum and complexity behind the changes effecting oceans and the GOM that if the causes all stopped today, it would be a lot of generations before the climate returned to normal.
The good news for the lobster industry in Maine is that some of the best marine scientists and the best lobster scientists are here in Maine. Fortunately, the future of the lobster resource is what they are all thinking about right now.
Finding a means of preserving the dollar value of the lobster fishery will help keep fishermen in business. And while fishermen are often at odds with scientists over the in the water reality, more recently the water temperatures, the timing and surge of shedders, the number of lobster out there, and the absence of lobster predators have made fishermen aware that something is going on in the water that they have never before seen themselves or heard about from elders.
Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? What about the boat price? Where will it all go from here? These a few questions fishermen are asking about fishing conditions.
The DMR may be able to make near term regulatory supply and demand changes that influence current market value. But scientists are tasked with considering something far more complicated with outcomes far more unpredictable than market shifts.
No scientist anywhere has a practical plan for jambing on the climate change brakes. But a lot of the environmental changes happening in the GOM have been under the microscope for years. The causes have been a long time coming, but the results could be sudden and dramatic. Science may be able to help fishermen figure out better ways to deal with a future fishery that could differ in unexpected ways.