Today, the New York Times featured an article titled — “Climate Change Brought a Lobster Boom. Now It Could Cause a Bust.” The article suggests that while rising water temperatures due to climate change have brought a boom in the Maine lobster catch, increasing temperatures may lead to a collapse of the fishery. This concern is nothing new. Five years ago, we posted “The Ecology and Economics of Lobster – Will The Maine Lobster Boom End in a Bust?” Increasingly, the signs of a bust are becoming more ominous.
The NYTimes quotes Dave Cousens, who stepped down as president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association in March, “Climate change really helped us for the last 20 years.” But, he added, “Climate change is going to kill us, in probably the next 30.”