I need to have lunch, so....
"Urchin loss feeds crab population; Study sees upset in ocean system" by Clarke Canfield | Associated Press, March 26, 2013
PORTLAND, Maine — A boom that saw Maine fishermen harvest millions of pounds of sea urchins for the lucrative Japanese market depleted the spiny sea creatures, turning the ecosystem upside-down and creating an ideal habitat for an urchin predator that has flourished, according to a new scientific study.
The urchin bonanza of the 1990s triggered an ecological chain reaction that ‘‘flipped’’ the ecosystem from one with a stable amount of kelp and Jonah crabs to one with an overabundance of kelp and crabs and a lack of urchins, the study said.
The urchin population might not recover unless fishery managers find ways to increase the number of fish that prey on Jonah crabs, whose strong numbers have been preventing the urchin population from rebounding, researchers said.
What has happened with urchins underscores the need for ecosystem-based ocean management, where regulators recognize that the rise or fall of one species can affect the rise or fall of another, said Robert Steneck, a professor at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center who led the study.
‘‘This kind of ecological interaction was the impetus for President Obama’s initiative in 2010 to move the country toward ecosystem management,’’ Steneck said. ‘‘We have been ignoring strong interactions among species for decades. This is a great example of how it’s more complicated than just assuming that by reducing fishing mortality rates on a managed species, it’s going to recover.’’
Related: Carlin on the Environment
Sorry.
Also see: Say Goodbye to the Great Lakes
Yeah, how that carp get here?
The paper, ‘‘Ecosystem Flips, Locks, and Feedbacks: The Lasting Effect of Fisheries on Maine’s Kelp Forest Ecosystem,’’ appears in the latest edition of the Bulletin of Marine Science, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.
The paper was written by a research team that included three University of Maine graduates who at one time studied under Steneck.
In addition to Steneck, coauthors were Douglas McNaught of the University of Maine at Machias, Amanda Leland of the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., and John Vavrinec of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Sequim, Wash.
I don't care how many experts the new$paper cites or what papers they wrote. We know what the$e particular $cienti$ts are about.
Sea urchins used to be a pest in Maine’s coastal waters, destroying kelp beds and clogging lobster traps. But that changed in the late 1980s when processors developed markets in Japan for the urchin roe, or uni.
With a gold rush mindset, thousands of fishermen harvested the globular spiny creatures from the ocean bottom by hand or in devices dragged behind their boats. Hundreds more people worked at processing plants along the Portland waterfront, making it the state’s number two fishery behind lobster.
But the catch fell sharply in ensuing years as the urchin population shrank....
I don't like to type with my mouth full.
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Better stick with lobstah!
"Lobster industry fears another ocean warm up" by Clarke Canfield | Associated Press, April 15, 2013
PORTLAND, Maine — Ocean temperatures have been higher than normal in the Gulf of Maine, creating fears among lobstermen that there could be a repeat of last spring’s early harvest that resulted in a market glut, a crash in the prices fishermen get, and a blockade of Maine-caught lobsters in Canada.
Crack this open if you like: Meaty Maine Post
Temperature readings at selected ocean buoys off the Maine coast have been lower than last winter, but they’ve still been above normal the past few months. Some fishermen are already finding some soft-shell lobsters in traps, months earlier than usual.
Can you smell the fart mist over the fish, or.... ????
Fishermen do not want to see a recurrence of last year, when the strong early catch caused prices to plummet and tensions to boil over when Canadian lobstermen, angered by the low prices, blocked truckloads of Maine’s catch from being delivered to processing plants in Canada....
Fishermen were scratching their heads last year when lobsters began showing up in traps in large numbers four to six weeks earlier than usual. Maine’s lobster catch, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the total US harvest, typically begins picking up in late June or early July as the bottom-dwelling crustaceans start getting active while shedding their hard shells in favor of new soft shells.
Last year’s early flood of lobsters, combined with a strong Canadian spring catch, drove down prices and created a mess for lobstermen and dealers with supply far exceeding demand. For the year, fishermen hauled in a record 126 million pounds of product. But they received only $2.69 a pound on average, the lowest price since 1994.
A lobster’s growth and activity ramp up when water warms, said Rick Wahle, of the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences at the Darling Marine Center in Bristol. Water temperatures in February for the most part were at levels normally not reached until late May or early June. They have since cooled a bit, but early April temperatures were still at levels usually not reached for three to five more weeks....
If you want to go foor a dip in the Boston Globe be my guest. I'm going to eat my lunch, and it ain't gonna be lobster.
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Related:
Lobbing You This Post About Maine
Boston Globe Hauls Up Lobster Trap
Maine Lobster Roll
Why does the Globe's menu always cause me to lose my appetite?
