Lobstermen and regulators are equally concerned about a continuing decline in lobster harvests in southern New England, but harvesters say they shouldn’t bear the brunt of blame for the sharp drop in stocks.
The decline has been steady for the last three years for which final landings figures are available – 1999 through 2001 – but both groups say the trend is continuing. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has responsibility for the federal management plan for the range of Homarus americanus. Area 2 in the federal management plan is the region most affected, including the Cape Cod waters off Buzzards Bay, Martha’s Vineyard and the entire Rhode Island coast.
Scientists and fishermen agree the sharp decline warrants new regulations and that overfishing is part of the problem. However, fishermen say they shouldn’t bear the brunt of the recovery process because overfishing is not the sole reason for the decline. Regulators say catches in the affected area must be cut by up to 75 percent.
“What bothers me,” said Bill Adler, head of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “They’re saying, ‘We’ve got to do something, so let’s take the fishermen out and shoot them.'”
ASMFC statistics show the catch in Area 2 declined from 8.2 million pounds to around 4.3 million between 1999 and 2001. The drop was particularly acute in Buzzards Bay, where landings dropped from more than 400,000 pounds in 1998 to around 110,000 pounds in 2001.
A panel of fishermen planned to make their own proposal for measures to help ease the crisis at a Feb. 26 ASMFC meeting.
Scientists cannot agree on a single cause for the decline. A disease that pits and cracks the lobsters’ shells has been spreading throughout the Area 2 lobsters for five years, although scientists say they cannot link the disease to lobster deaths. The disease makes the animals unsaleable as live, whole lobsters, even though the meat is still good.
Lobstermen say they worry the disease is weakening the lobsters, making them easier for predators to catch. Harvesters also fear the lobsters’ ability to reproduce may be hampered because female lobsters may be shedding their shells too quickly for eggs to hatch.
Area 2 is situated next to the Long Island Sound lobstering area, which had a massive die off starting in 1999. Scientists so far can find no direct connection between the two problems, but say pollution and the increase in striped bass, a lobster predator, may be factors in the Area 2 die offs.