F R O M T H E C R O W E ’ S N E S T
The New Independence
The climate has taken center stage in the lobster fishery. The climate as a game changer has been in the wings for a long time, too long. The slow pace at which the climate changes and the way humans are programmed to react to change are part of why we got this deep into it before seeing the writing on the wall.
Those who were making big money on the causes of climate change and their support of denial efforts is the part that caused so much time to be lost in turning acceptance around.
Going into this new world the fishing industry is faced with doing what it has done well for a long time as well as figuring out a way to do what they do best in a world that could be very new and possibly unpredictable.
Since things are always changing to some degree for most businesses, doing nothing under the circumstances would seem to hold little promise. The obvious question is what to do. No one now has a specific solution, but gathering the cumulative knowledge of fishermen, scientists, dealers and managers is a good first move.
The DMR meetings with fishermen along the coast have been productive. Keeping as many in the industry informed, gathering information and opinions, collectively strategizing and becoming more aware of the emerging circumstances may be the only and the best answer
right now. This is not a storm that will soon blow over delivering the expected good weather that follows.
Climate change is here to stay, probably for a very long time. Staying on top of the learning curve is the new normal. All the environmental changes may not be bad for the lobster. But since lobster evolved over a few million years of adaptation, relatively sudden environmental changes are not likely going to be major improvements for them.
The need for management, fishermen and scientists to work together may never have been more important. Rapidly gaining a more complete understanding of lobster and other species becomes more essential as climate change undermines the long established baselines for making evaluations.
Re-evaluating resource monitoring, seasonal fishing cycles, handling product, maximizing market value and maintaining communications among all the participants may make interdependence the new independence.