Submitted by JustAMaineGirl t3_y8ft14 in Maine
Comments
the_wookie_of_maine t1_it05yat wrote
I think you are giving people in government too much credit.
Is climate change real, Yes
BraskysAnSOB t1_it0a8e2 wrote
Don’t you think the “lobster people” would be the first to know if the the thing they spent their lives catching was going extinct?
ZealousidealTreat139 t1_it0evf0 wrote
It's the "frog in a pot" complex. Ask any lobsterman how their haul has been throughout their career and you'll find a substantial number of cases where reports come back of a gradual decline over the years. Be this from overfishing, climate change, or a combination of those combined with other outside factors it all points in the same direction.
TarantinoFan23 t1_it0ibj3 wrote
How would they know?
BraskysAnSOB t1_it0k79x wrote
Their catch would be decreasing. Instead It’s gone up since the 90s.
waterson2022 t1_it0lfdi wrote
Yes, prices will go up for Lobster since crab is not available. Higher prices for lobster may cause more harvesting which could weaken the lobster population.
KYazut t1_it0p8ux wrote
By what metric? Like, if everyone else goes out of business, I’m probably catching more fish than I used to.
Bywater t1_it0ynur wrote
I mean in sales maybe people will buy lobsters instead of snow crab. Environmentally not directly, but it is for sure a warning of what could happen. It's a pretty delicate balance for the sea insects. In theory it should stay cold enough down there due to the gulf currents and the bay of fundi ones that we have quite awhile before it goes tits up. The problem is we have the gulf slowing (its at its lowest rate on record) so it is going to stall and crawl over our gulf and its mostly shit warm water. The water coming out of the bay being more freshwater (which adds to warmth) and destabilizes the saline content, which makes it warmer along with a global "death" of micro organisms that act as food and change the density of the sea itself, again making it warmer. All these things combine to be the reason our gulf is warming faster than any other ocean bodies right now. Right before Connecticut's lobstering crashed they had record hauls, then boom, shit is done, whatever you manage to catch comes up dead in the trap.
[deleted] t1_it1d07l wrote
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MaineJackalope t1_it1ruqt wrote
Kinda, lobsters are fine with warmer waters while snow crabs are not, so Alaska might have just had it's fishing population up and migrate north for colder water. Warm waters are still bad for lobster cause parasites plus we still got that fucking right whale thing going on.
I'm willing to bet a lack of Alaskan crab is gonna drive up demand for Maine Lobster in some cases
MaineJackalope t1_it1snev wrote
Maine's government does not believe right whales are at risk, the Federal government does; specifically the National Marine Fisheries Service, which the State of Maine is suing to try and get the decision reversed. Iirc the Governor and all our representatives in Congress have been vocally outspoken in this for years as NOAA was looking into restrictions on lobster fishing back in 2020 but had no meaningful plan to protect right whales from the thing actually killing them, cruise and cargo liners, proving the environment only matters if it's not in the way of major industry
King_O_Walpole t1_it1vlv7 wrote
Not a concern of over harvesting in Maine. Our lobster fishing regulations are the best, it’s the NH and MA fisherman who are allowed to land oversized lobsters, lobsters caught as by catch, and do not honor the v-notch/egg filled lobsters the same way we do.
Maine does it right, the other states give a huge middle finger to Maine with their regulations
lafnmatt t1_it25qwu wrote
Going extinct huh? What’re you basing that on? Most likely you’re just basing. Drugs are bad.
lafnmatt t1_it260h4 wrote
My thoughts exactly. I fish for them everyday we can get out and we catch em like no one’s business. More than 60% go back overboard cuz they’re too small and/or punch tails but we always do well.
lafnmatt t1_it26l91 wrote
There are noteworthy devices called scales that weigh the catch which is then portrayed on the receipt “slip” that the co-op gives you to keep track of what you’re selling. It’s a pen and paper thing which then goes into each’s records. Crazy right?
lafnmatt t1_it2740t wrote
That must be why they dropped the price 50 cents on Sunday. Doesn’t jive with your crab not available argument. What is it you do for a living? Obviously you don’t fish.
Doc_coletti t1_it2cr5l wrote
More and more green crabs every year!
TarantinoFan23 t1_it2q38w wrote
The scales tell you how many lobsters are in the ocean? What did it say this year?
TarantinoFan23 t1_it2tnnu wrote
Oh man, l want to be wrong so bad. Lobster is my favorite food.
TarantinoFan23 t1_it2ttru wrote
lafnmatt t1_it2x2n4 wrote
No, they weigh our catch. The lobsters in the traps I haul tell me what’s in the ocean. The majority of them are undersized and therefore go back over the rail along with the eggers. There’s no lack of lobster in the 200ish square miles we are allowed to fish (which isn’t even a thousandth of percent of the Gulf of Maine) let alone the rest of the ocean which covers 70% of the globe. You can’t imagine the vastness of the ocean. So I answered your question. My question to you is do you fish? If not then what makes you think you’ve got a clue what is going on in the northern Atlantic Ocean?
lafnmatt t1_it2xfui wrote
Buy some then. I’d tell ya what the boat price is, i.e. what we’re getting paid for catching them, but I don’t think you’d believe it. I sell them and I don’t even believe it but most definitely buy some lobster and support Maine lobstering. We’re a dying breed.
TarantinoFan23 t1_it2xqtt wrote
If I fished everyday in the same 2x2 spot in a lake, I wouldn't assume I knew the ecology of the lake just from fishing that tiny fraction of the lake.
lafnmatt t1_it2y0it wrote
Right. But you’re assuming lobsters are going extinct and have broken how many traps over the rail of a fishing vessel?
OptimalFlight101 t1_it35bvi wrote
Maybe we can gmo to make them 10x as large.
[deleted] t1_it35m9d wrote
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SnooCats7847 t1_it37yer wrote
4.10/5.10 in Portland
lafnmatt t1_it3bd1s wrote
We were @ $4.25/run 5.25/select up til Sunday when they dropped it 50 cents on us after that 3 day blow. Now we’re sittin at 3.75/4.75 respectively. Price is supposed to go the other way this time of year. Scary time for the lobster industry for sure.
lafnmatt t1_it3bev4 wrote
I fish out of Prospect Harbor
SnooCats7847 t1_it3ef0h wrote
Thought it might go down a little for the fall. Pretty soon there won’t be a split price so that’ll be nice!
lafnmatt t1_it3ev64 wrote
Amen to that. The alewives started about a month later so I’m hoping it’s just a late year. Good luck to ya. 👍🏼
waterson2022 t1_it4vntq wrote
Just wait.
lafnmatt t1_it75apz wrote
Wait for what exactly..?
hike_me t1_it8c0uk wrote
It’s not that the Maine government doesn’t “believe” the science from the federal government — it’s that they don’t care either way because of money
TarantinoFan23 t1_it00r60 wrote
The lobsters are going extinct too. Maine government is using the myth of the right whale to ease the lobsterpeople out instead of just springing on them fishermen like in they just did in Alaska.