{"id":341059,"date":"2024-08-29T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T15:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=341059"},"modified":"2024-08-29T17:56:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T15:56:12","slug":"no-new-york-times-maine-lobsters-arent-dwindling-due-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=341059","title":{"rendered":"No, New York Times, Maine Lobsters Aren\u2019t Dwindling Due to Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts and H. Sterling Burnett<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An August 25th article in the New York Times<\/em> (NYT), titled \u201cWhat the Lobstermen of Maine Tell Us About the Election<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong> claims \u201c\u2026as far as climate change goes, Maine\u2019s lobster fishing community may well be America\u2019s own canary in the coal mine,\u201d implying that harm to Maine\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate Realism<\/em> discussed the fortunes of the lobster fishery in the face of climate change previously in an October 2020 Climate Realism<\/em> story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Maine Department of Marine Resouces (DMR) reports<\/a> that each of the 10 highest annual lobster catches occurred during the past 10 years,\u201d reported the 2020 Climate Realism<\/em> post. \u201cLobster catches in Maine are presently double what they were just 20 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With two additional years of data, the story is still the same, recent years catches remain among the highest ever recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The NYT says in their article, \u201cIn 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.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2023 masonslobster.com<\/a> article discussing the state of the industry, also directly refutes the NYT\u2019s analysis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Maine fishermen hauled ashore 124 million pounds of lobsters, six times more than what they\u2019d 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\u2014more than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has this to say<\/a> about the state of Maine\u2019s lobster fishery:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maine\u2019s economy has reaped the benefits of the lobsters\u2019 move. In 2014, New England\u2019s lobster industry was worth $564 million. Maine alone reported $459.6 million\u201481% of the total. The arrival of the lobster seems like a boon for Mainers, but the thing that pushed them north hasn\u2019t gone away: warming ocean temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, the value of the Maine lobster catch skyrocketed:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Lobster landings in Maine from 1950 to 2021. (Courtesy Maine Department Of Marine Resources)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

NewsCenter Maine<\/a> 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 interannual changes in the haul. It is still higher than every year prior 2010, even with a decline in licensed lobster fishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than climate change, in fact, the NYT reports that invasive species are a likely reason for recent declines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> rapidly across the ocean floor, fouling oyster beds and leeching oxygen from the seawater. \u201cAfter they die off,\u201d Mr. Black said, \u201cthe bottom is dead.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sea squirts<\/a>, brought in by a ship in bilgewater, have nothing to do with climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, since climate change operates on long time scales, of 30 years or more<\/a>, 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\u2019s probably why the NYT article was in the opinion section<\/em> of the newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s lobster fishery is doing well. It is profitable and the catch remains abundant. NYT\u2019s story is shoddy journalism at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An August 25th article in the New York Times (NYT), titled \u201cWhat the Lobstermen of Maine Tell Us About the Election\u201d claims \u201c\u2026as far as climate change goes, Maine\u2019s lobster fishing community may well be America\u2019s own canary in the coal mine,\u201d implying that harm to Maine\u2019s lobster fishing industry is an early indicator of the dangers from climate change. This is false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":341069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691819743,691830391,691830392,691821016,691820439],"class_list":{"0":"post-341059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-climate-propaganda","10":"tag-lobster-fishing-industry","11":"tag-maine-department-of-marine-resouces-dmr","12":"tag-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration-noaa","13":"tag-new-york-times","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/00-lobster-fishery.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1qIX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":242837,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=242837","url_meta":{"origin":341059,"position":0},"title":"Biden Administration throws lobstermen under the bus","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/02\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is trying to extricate itself from a dilemma placed squarely in its lap by the Biden Administration.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-69.png?fit=1197%2C513&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-69.png?fit=1197%2C513&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-69.png?fit=1197%2C513&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-69.png?fit=1197%2C513&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-69.png?fit=1197%2C513&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":277909,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=277909","url_meta":{"origin":341059,"position":1},"title":"Fishermen Unite to Prevent Offshore Wind Industry Wrecking Marine\u00a0Ecosystems","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Serious studies have shown that offshore wind farms are doing irreparable harm to crabs and lobsters.","rel":"","context":"In \"crabs\"","block_context":{"text":"crabs","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=crabs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0crablobsterpod.jpg?fit=1200%2C918&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0crablobsterpod.jpg?fit=1200%2C918&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0crablobsterpod.jpg?fit=1200%2C918&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0crablobsterpod.jpg?fit=1200%2C918&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/0crablobsterpod.jpg?fit=1200%2C918&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":376590,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=376590","url_meta":{"origin":341059,"position":2},"title":"Tuna fishers, lobstermen praise reopening of waters","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The ongoing political seesaw that has severely impacted the U.S. seafood industry has Samoan and Hawaiian fisheries and Maine lobstermen cheering President Trump and environmental groups again gnashing their teeth. 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Editor\u2019s note: This summary serves as a fact check on the biggest false claims made in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate Fact-Check\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Fact-Check","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-fact-check-2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0september-2024.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0september-2024.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0september-2024.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0september-2024.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0september-2024.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":246448,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=246448","url_meta":{"origin":341059,"position":5},"title":"Fishermen Fight Back: Giant Offshore Wind Turbines Threatening Lobsters, Whales & More","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It pays not to get between a fisherman and their livelihood, as the offshore wind industry is learning fast.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-52.png?fit=1200%2C782&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-52.png?fit=1200%2C782&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-52.png?fit=1200%2C782&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-52.png?fit=1200%2C782&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-52.png?fit=1200%2C782&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341059"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341071,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341059\/revisions\/341071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/341069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=341059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=341059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}