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By Kathryn Carley
October 24, 2024
American lobsters along Maine’s coast are relocating to new habitats as the Atlantic continues to warm.
Researchers with the University of Maine said the majority of lobsters have left their rocky shelters for open waters as their numbers and density declines
Robert Jarrett, lobster ecology researcher and doctoral candidate at the University of Maine, said the findings reveal how climate change is altering the lobster population and the way fisheries will manage it.
“They’re always going to find a space to be able to thrive because of the oceanography,” Jarrett acknowledged. “But there are definitely some challenges ahead of us.”
Jarrett pointed out a drop in baby lobster survival rates and fewer predators are also creating an older lobster population. He noted coastal water temperatures increased nearly 3 degrees Celsius over the past two decades, forcing lobsters to seek cooler areas to the north.
While the overall lobster population density has declined, researchers said adult lobsters are bigger as fewer juveniles take up habitat space. Still, they emphasized more than 90% of lobsters observed remain within the legal size to be caught and sold, a promising sign for Maine’s $730 million lobster industry.
Jarrett explained the habitat data is helping fill in the information gaps about how lobsters are adapting to an altering environment.
“It’s just providing a lot of context for the health of the lobster stock and hopefully have a better understanding of the population as a whole,” Jarrett stressed.
Jarrett and a team of researchers investigated 20 sites along Maine’s coast, from York to Jonesport, counting and measuring lobsters, as well as collecting temperature and habitat data. The team also reviewed historic data for the same sites dating back to the 1990s.