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North American Lobster, Isle of Shoals, NH

Photo by Brian Skerry

The lobster housing crisis

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 percent, while simultaneously declining by 78 percent 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 that got there first, and now you've got these other lobsters that have to sort of dig a temporary, low-rent condo out in the sand.’”

“It’s a lobster housing crisis,” said Skerry.

The Gulf of Maine is an ecological treasure trove. More than 1,000 feet deep at its deepest point, the waters are an “amazing confluence of currents,” said Skerry, mixed by the world’s largest tides. 

“If you were making a perfect recipe, if you were going to bake the perfect cake, you need all the right ingredients,” said Skerry, “You need the right mixing. And in this case, because the Gulf of Maine is in a temperate zone and it also has seasonal stratification from the seasons, it’s led to this proliferation of life that is really unique in the world.”

It also suffers, Skerry wrote in a cover story for National Geographic that ran in June, from that curse of the oceans: “Its exterior hides what lies beneath—both the exquisite natural beauty and the ongoing devastation.”

The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than nearly all other areas of the world’s oceans. Currents are shifting, bringing warm water from the Gulf Stream closer to the coast. Melting glaciers in the Arctic are sending the Labrador Current's dense water into the Atlantic, pushing it away from Maine.

“Coming back to this after decades of not really diving the Gulf of Maine I was shocked to learn and see how much had disappeared,” said Skerry. “I went to some of my usual haunts – places like Eastport Maine that used to be like a jewelry store, like an aquarium. It was like a ghost town.”

A North Atlantic Right Whale breaches in the Bay of Fundy, Canada.

Photo by Brian Skerry

Skerry, who produced the series, did see some hopeful signs, like the tiny silver alewives that had returned to many rivers with the removal of dams up and down the coast.

“They're a real source of energy and protein for so many animals. And for a very long time, they were no longer here. So you see this restoration – with a little bit of conservation, like removing the dams, they come back and are healthy.”

But mostly he saw rapid –and in many cases, devastating – change. 

Lobsters are showing signs of becoming skinnier as one of their primary larval food sources, the tiny, fatty Copepod, shows up earlier in the season. That could have impacts higher up the food chain as well. “They're getting skinnier, so they may not provide the nutrition to the animals that eat them,” said Skerry. 

Sea birds were another “very visual” indicator of climate change, said Skerry. As ocean temperatures rise, the tiny, slender-bodied fish, like sand lances, herrings and whitings, that puffins and terns have historically fed to their chicks have become less abundant, replaced by larger fish like butterfish. 

“The parent doesn't really know the difference,” said Skerry. “They're out there foraging. They see a silver fish. They catch it, they bring it back to their chick, but because it's a wide-bodied silver fish, the chick can't swallow it. We have video of the little chick trying to swallow it and either choking or spitting it out.”

For a long time, said Skerry, humans have directed nature into silos, “when in reality, everything is interdependent.”

“I believe that we're living at a pivotal moment in history where maybe for the very first time, humans understand both the problems and the solutions for our planet. And we just need a collective will, a desire, to move toward those, those solutions.”

Cashes Ledge, a rich region of marine biodiversity located approximately 90miles off the coast within the Gulf of Maine. On Ammen Rock, the shallowest area on Cashes Ledge, lies a lush kelp forest. This kelp forest is the largest kelp forest on the Continental Shelf of North America and is home to a variety of fish species including cod, cunner and pollock. Some of the cod fish here have a unique, red coloration. Many invertebrates cover the bottom here as well, including mussels and sea stars.

Photo by Brian Skerry

This explainer piece on the permitting reform bill that's making its way through Congress. The bill, as Sam Matey put it in a recent post on his newsletter, The Weekly Anthropocene, is "a messy compromise between clean energy and fossil fuel interests that leaves no one completely satisfied." 

The bill has been opposed by prominent environmental groups and advocates, including longtime activist Bill McKibben, who say it will increase fossil fuel development and exports of liquid natural gas.

Others, including Matey, argue that it will make pave the way for the U.S. to build more transmission lines and renewable energy projects. Either way, it looks like it has a decent chance of passing, and if it does, will likely have a profound effect on energy production in the United States.

While The Maine Monitor does not place its content behind paywalls, some newsrooms we link to in this newsletter may. 

Repurposed Lincoln paper mill could become world's largest long-duration energy storage system | Portland Press Herald

'Sovereign market,' first of its kind in Maine, opens in Stockholm | Maine Public

Regulators move to delay increase in minimum lobster size | Portland Press Herald

Acadia hikers who violated trail closure face up to 6 months behind bars | Bangor Daily News

Basking shark washes ashore in Blue Hill | The Ellsworth American

During a visit to Maine, Pete Buttigieg touts infrastructure improvements in the works | Maine Public

August heat wave stresses New England electric grid | Maine Public

Researchers are on a mission this summer to learn more about right whales in the Gulf of Maine | Maine Public

DEP says Sandy River dredging violated Maine laws | Maine Public

Debby bringing heavy rain, flooding, possible tornadoes northeast | Portland Press Herald

Know of a story that we should be digging into? Send it to our newsroom. 

The Maine Monitor is a publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism. We believe news is a public good and keep our news free to access. We have no paywall and do not charge for our newsletters. If you value the reporting we do for Maine, please consider making a donation! We cannot do this reporting without your support.