Lobster fishing has been a good business in the Gulf of Maine for a long time. With the exception of a few notable dips, both the landings and value of the catch have been on an upward swing for decades . Between 1984 and 2014, the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine jumped an estimated 515% , while simultaneously declining by 78% in southern New England as the water warmed in both regions.
While it’s started to decline in recent years, numbers are still far higher than they were several decades ago. The result? A lobster housing crisis. “The warming sea temperatures have actually created a real sweet spot for lobster reproduction,” said Brian Skerry, a National Geographic photographer and producer on the recent GBH/PBS series Sea Change , which explores the impact of climate change on the Gulf of Maine.
Skerry, who lives in York, has been diving in the Gulf of Maine since childhood. But when he began diving on the Isles of Shoals for his most recent project, he saw something he’d never seen before: lobsters crawling all over the bottom, digging foxholes in the sand. “I wasn’t used to seeing that,” said Skerry.
“Usually they’re tucked away in rocky crevices and dens.” Win Watson, a lobster scientist at the University of New Hampshire, clued him in. “He said, ‘Well, what you’re seeing, Brian, is actually a direct result of climate change.
Because there’s such an abundance of lobsters, the good rocky crevice habitat has been taken by the lobsters.