Warming Atlantic Ocean May Be Pushing Lobsters North - AP

[hatrack]

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"Maine's lobstermen have been hauling up phenomenal numbers for almost 15 years. Their 62.3 million pounds in 2002 set a record -- triple the typical catch in the 1980s. That's more than $200 million worth of lobster and by far the dominant share of the Northeast's most valuable fishery. But can it last?

Starting in the late 1990s, in the southern reaches of its near-shore commercial range, the big-clawed American lobster has been withering at an alarming rate from New York state to Massachusetts. Signs of decline have crept as far north as the southern Gulf of Maine, the edge of the country's lobster mother lode.

Finding an explanation has been a problem. Government biologists have said the lobster is overfished off the Northeast, but that doesn't account for Maine's extravagant abundance. Researchers have blamed the trouble on diseases, pollutants and predators. But that fails to explain any larger pattern.

In recent months, however, a scientific consensus has begun to congeal. It centers on global warming. The theory holds that warming is already killing off the American lobster in its southern near-shore range, where it lives near its heat tolerance. In Maine, where it is well within its comfort zone, more warmth -- up to a point -- may be making it proliferate. If temperatures rise too high, though, even Maine may ultimately turn less hospitable to lobster, some researchers say. Last year's state catch fell back almost 14 percent, to 53.9 million pounds."

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http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-lob22.html

[Lost147]

1. NOOOOO

SAY IT AIN'T SO!!! I live in Maine and I have a None Commerical lobstering license that allows me to put out 5 traps so when ever I want a lobster fest I just bait them, drop them, pull them up 48 hours later and cook them up!