Lobsters Begin Long March North!
By Paul Homewood
According to David Millward:
I would not be as impertinent as to guess the political leanings of Maine’s lobstermen. But it would be fair to say they could be characterised as blue-collar workers and part of the demographic targeted by the Trump campaign.
A couple of weeks ago I spent some time with them and learned at first hand the impact climate change is having at least on one industry.
Warming sea waters have seen lobsters migrate north.
That must explain why lobster catches have been going up in leaps and bounds in Maine for the last 30 years, at least until last year. (Obviously, that is when the lobsters’ long march to colder waters must have begun!)
https://www.maine.gov/dmr/commercial-fishing/landings/documents/lobster.graph.pdf
FOOTNOTE
I am flattered by all of the positive comments in the Telegraph article. And I promise I did not write this one!!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Actually, the lobsters have moved North in the last few years- about one hundred miles. They are still off the State of Maine.
The local waters have been warming faster than 99.9% of the world ocean, which is another way of saying it has nothing to do with global warming. They breed better in comparatively cold waters and thrive better (much better) in warm waters. So the ecology is complicated.
https://qz.com/506376/lobsters-2/
Never mind the Lobsters, it’s summer, time for the BBC’s annual insinuation that ‘tropical’ sunfish turning up off the west side of Scotland is otherworldly etc.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-45388695
(Search BBC news for sunfish, pages of results.)
https://www.glaucus.org.uk/Sunfish.htm
They are not just ‘tropical’ but temperate water fish – normally deep water – and little is known about them, they probably ride the warm gulf stream up the UK. It seems to me that most surface sightings are dying parasitic infested/cold shocked individuals. It’s actually pretty common to see them in late summer, any increase in sightings is speculative, probably just down to looking more or increased human presence. On gov./academic sites the sightings are mostly in a line the shipping follows off the SW of England!
The fact that both the UK shore and boat caught records have stood since 1976 does not suggest a recent global warming fueled invasion.
https://oceansunfish.org/distribution.php
The northernmost record is from 1881 off Norway.
It’s easy to laugh , but migration patterns of New World lobsters is a valid and genuine area of study for many students of the subject. I studied ‘Blue Collar Lobsters and the impact of EU dinners’ for three semesters. The correlation is high
When I used to visit Brussels I noticed that, around the back of the fish specialty restaurants of the Quai aux Briques, the boxes were piled high in which lobsters had come from Maine and Canada.
The North American lobster is of VITAL interest to Brussels. President Trump could do the UK a real favour by threatening to stop the export of lobsters to the Commission Troughers if they are not nicer to us.
Two thoughts that might not have crossed the minds of those prosperous Maine lobstermen: There is such a thing as overfishing, and it must be possible that the lobbies are sick and tired of suffering mass murder annually and have taken steps to better their lot ?
Over fishing? Or rather over-lobstering.
“Maine’s record year for cod was 1991, when fishermen brought more than 21 million pounds. The industry collapsed entirely in the early 1990s owing to overfishing and debatably, greed, lack of foresight and poor local administration. By 1993 six cod populations had collapsed, forcing a belated 10 year moratorium on fishing.
Since then limited licenses have been introduced. Fishermen brought less than 170,000 pounds of the fish to land in the state last year. The haul was below the previous record low of about 250,000 pounds a year earlier”.
It’s refreshing to see from the comments that it appears people are waking up to the CAGW scam. Would be nice to see some of that here in Australia.
Thoroughly endorse the idea of giving the magnificent PH a Knighthood ! He deserves it.
Hear hear!!
Yeah great factual work as always.
Factual must be, as if not the BBC and its ilk would be all over him with never ending rebukes and slurs.
Bet theres some Govt surveillance going on in case the reporting ever hits the TV and poses a clear & present danger to the £15 billion a year emission taxes they steal. If it did, that’s when it would start.
You deserve a pat on the back, Paul – goodness knows you work hard enough for it.
That Lobster graph shows a sudden dip during the Global Financial Crisis too. Are lobster sales a barometer for the Worlds economic health?
RS
Correct me if I’m wrong, but such marine life displacement is not new. I seem to have a vague recollection that herring migrated to the north sea from the Baltic in the Middle Ages.
Fish availability varies from season to season. It is Ecology 101 that wide cycles exist based on the interactions in the food chain. And if you ask what has caused the outcome for any particular season, the answer you get depends on whom you ask.
I LOVE lobster, but rarely have it. I wish some of them would come up the Monongahela River near my home. Oh, wait. They would have to come up from the Gulf of Mexico and it is fresh water all the way. Dang.
PETA wants a memorial to Lobsters killed in road crash.
You cannot reason with extremists, be it animal protection or other supposed environmentalists – they are all nuts.
https://www.statesman.com/news/national/peta-wants-build-foot-memorial-for-lobsters-killed-truck-crash/k7s3hMOhh9hNjxiFtPhkpO/