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Lobster Population is Shifting North; Ocean Warming Blamed

By Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine - The lobster population has plummeted to the lowest levels on record in southern New England. But it has climbed to heights never before seen in northern New England, in the cold waters off Maine.

In 2013, the number of adult lobsters in New England south of Cape Cod slid to about 10 million, just one-fifth the total in the late 1990s, according to a report issued this month by regulators. The lobster catch in the region sank to about 3.3 million pounds in 2013, from a peak of about 22 million in 1997.

In northern New England, meanwhile, lobsters are booming.

The population in the Gulf of Maine — a body of water that touches Canada, Maine, New Hampshire and the northern shore of Massachusetts — and in the Georges Bank fishing grounds farther out to sea has reached record highs, more than doubling to about 250 million adult lobsters since the mid-1990s, the report said.

Maine fishermen have landed more than 100 million pounds of lobster for four years in a row, by far the highest four-year haul in the state's history.

Scientists say one of the chief reasons for the northward shift is that the ocean is getting warmer. At a power plant in Long Island Sound, for example, there were more than 75 days with a recorded average water temperature above 68 degrees Fahrenheit in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the report said. Between 1976 and 2010, that happened only twice.

The trend is driving lobstermen in Connecticut and Rhode Island out of business. And some regulators say there's not much they can do about the problem because it's largely environmental.