Davin News Server

No, New York Times, Maine Lobsters Aren't Dwindling Due to Climate Change

An August 25th article in the New York Times (NYT), titled "What the Lobstermen of Maine Tell Us About the 
Election" claims "...as far as climate change goes, Maine's lobster fishing community may well be America's 
own canary in the coal mine," implying that harm to Maine's lobster fishing industry is an early indicator of 
the dangers from climate change. This is false. Multiple lines of data show that the Maine lobster industry 
is doing well. Amid a mild warming over the past century, record lobster hauls have been recorded in the last 
10 years even as the number of licensed lobstermen has fallen significantly.

Climate Realism discussed the fortunes of the lobster fishery in the face of climate change previously in an 
October 2020 Climate Realism story.

"The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) reports that each of the 10 highest annual lobster catches 
occurred during the past 10 years," reported the 2020 Climate Realism post. "Lobster catches in Maine are 
presently double what they were just 20 years ago."

With two additional years of data, the story is still the same, recent years catches remain among the highest 
ever recorded.

In fact, DMR data show that amid historically normal year to year variations in catch totals, over the past 
34 year period of modest warming, Maine's lobster catch has increased by approximately 288 percent since 
1990, even as the number of licensed lobster fishers declined by almost 13 percent, largely due to stricter 
regulations raising the cost to operators. (See the table, below)

The NYT says in their article, "In part because of climate change, Ms. Guenther believes, the number of full-
time lobster fishermen in Maine may decline by as much as one-half during the next decade." If so that will 
likely be because of federal regulations limiting lobster operations ostensibly to protect endangered North 
Atlantic right whales even as the government promotes massive offshore wind complexes in lobster and whale 
habitat. Climate rules, not modestly warmer waters, are the biggest threat to the lobster industry.

A 2023 masonslobster.com article discussing the state of the industry, also directly refutes the NYT's 
analysis:

 Last year, Maine fishermen hauled ashore 124 million pounds of lobsters, six times more than what they'd 
caught in 1984. The $456 million in value those landings totaled was nearly 20% higher than any other year in 
history, in real terms. These days, around 85% of American lobster caught in the US is landed in Maine-more 
than ever before.

 Even more remarkable than sheer volume, though, is that this sudden sixfold surge has no clear explanation. 
A rise in sea temperatures, which has sped up lobster growth and opened up new coastal habitats for baby 
lobsters, is one likely reason.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has this to say about the state of Maine's lobster 
fishery:

 Maine's economy has reaped the benefits of the lobsters' move. In 2014, New England's lobster industry was 
worth $564 million. Maine alone reported $459.6 million-81% of the total. The arrival of the lobster seems 
like a boon for Mainers, but the thing that pushed them north hasn't gone away: warming ocean temperatures.

Clearly, warmer ocean temperatures, a common claim from climate change advocates, have, if anything, had the 
effect of increasing lobster hauls in Maine, rather than causing a significant decline. (see the graphic, 
below)

In 2021, the value of the Maine lobster catch skyrocketed:
Lobster landings in Maine from 1950 to 2021. (Courtesy Maine Department Of Marine Resources)

NewsCenter Maine recently cited DMR preliminary data for 2023 which suggests that the lobster haul fell in 
2023 to 93,734,116 pounds of lobster, but that figure is in line with the historical inter-annual changes in 
the haul. It is still higher than every year prior 2010, even with a decline in licensed lobster fishers.

Despite the lower catch, the value of the lobster haul increased by $72 million from 2022 to 2023, reaching 
$461,371,720. This was due to a significant increase in the price paid to fishermen, from $3.97 per pound in 
2022 to $4.95 per pound in 2023.

Rather than climate change, in fact, the NYT reports that invasive species are a likely reason for recent 
declines:

 To begin, sea squirts are suddenly everywhere. Translucent, water-filled organisms known as tunicates and 
about the size of a golf ball, they can spread rapidly across the ocean floor, fouling oyster beds and 
leeching oxygen from the seawater. "After they die off," Mr. Black said, 'the bottom is dead." Sea squirts 
were most likely imported in the bilge water of a foreign ship, and they can now thrive in the Gulf of Maine, 
whose water has warmed.

Sea squirts, brought in by a ship in bilge-water, have nothing to do with climate change.

Also, since climate change operates on long time scales, of 30 years or more, claims by the NYT of a climate 
connection to reducing catches in any single year are simply rank speculation with nothing to back it up. 
That's probably why the NYT article was in the opinion section of the newspaper.

Contrary to the impression given by the NYT promoting the prescribed climate crisis narrative that climate 
change causes nearly every bad thing that happens, data show that Maine's lobster fishery is doing well. It 
is profitable and the catch remains abundant. NYT's story is shoddy journalism at best.


https://climateataglance.com/climate-at-a-glance-weather-vs-climate/
https://climaterealism.com/2020/10/google-promotes-maine-shellfish-scare-as-production-sets-record/
https://i0.wp.com/climaterealism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/LobsterGraph.png?ssl=1
https://i0.wp.com/climaterealism.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/LobsterTable.png?ssl=1
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/08/28/no-new-york-times-maine-lobsters-arent-dwindling-due-to-climate-
change/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/08/28/no-new-york-times-maine-lobsters-arent-dwindling-due-to-climate-
change/#comments
https://wattsupwiththat.com/author/wattsupwiththat/
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-and/climate-lobsters
https://www.maine.gov/dmr/sites/maine.gov.dmr/files/docs/lobster.table.pdf
https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2018-11-15/sea-squirts-are-thriving-in-the-gulf-of-
maine-and-theres-nothing-you-can-do-about-it
https://www.masonslobster.com/news/the-enigma-behind-americas-freak,-20-year-lobster-boom/
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/fisheries/maine-lobster-catch-2023-marine-resources/97-
1889ead8-4636-4c54-9e45-4ab75b2b450a
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/25/opinion/maine-lobster-climate-change-election.html
https://www.whoi.edu/science/B/people/kamaral/SeaSquirts.html

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/08/28/no-new-york-times-maine-lobsters-arent-dwindling-due-to-climate-
change/

=====

August:

Thousands Without Power In Tasmania As Cold And Snow Intensify

Foot Of Snow Closes Going-To-The-Sun Road

Rare August Snow Clips Montana's Peaks

Earth's Oceans Are Cooling Fast, And Scientists Have Yet To Come Up With A Party-Approved Reason Why

Snow In Wyoming And Colorado

August Snow Has U.S. Resorts Planning For Winter

Rare Snow And Century-Old Cold Records Fall In California

Rare August Chill Breaks Decades-Old Records

Rare August Snow For The Sierra Nevada

The Atlantic's Rapid Cooling

Heavy Snow Hits New Zealand's South Island

Record Summer Chills Sweep The Great Lakes, Northeast, and Southern Canada

Where Are The Hurricanes? Another Crushing Defeat For Team Climate Change

Antarctica Registers -75.5C (-103.9F), Sea Ice Surges

Winter Far From Over In New Zealand

Historical "Heatwave Days" Show No Trend

Researchers Pumped Extra CO2 Into A Forest, And Biodiversity Thrived

Low Temperature Records Fall In U.S.

Frosts Persist In South America, Impacting Coffee Prices

Island Nations Like Tuvalu: Growing, Not Sinking

Record Cold Sweeps Brazil

Antarctica Back Below -70C (-94F)

Summer Snowfall at Khardungla Pass

Polar Bear And Arctic Sea Ice Lies Persist

Polar Fronts To Hit South America

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Gains 1 Million Km2 In A Week

Frigid Winter Forecast For NH

Vast Cold Wave About To Sweep The U.S.
Greek Study Challenges CO2-Temperature Causality
Arctic Shipping Season Is Shortening
Rapid Antarctic Sea Ice Growth
Heavy Snow Hits New Zealand
Too Many Polar Bears In Greenland
British Farmers Paid To NOT Produce Food
Record July Cold Hits Scotland
Summer To Quit Early This Year
Remarkable Summer Gains On The Greenland Ice Sheet
Arctic Sea Ice Extent: No Cause For Alarm
$78 Trillion To Fight The Hoax of 'Climate Crisis'