Submitted by TheDeadPlant t3_z630s6 in Maine
Comments
ZippittyDooBlah t1_iy0f8lm wrote
Reading about how bountiful cod were 400 years ago is mind-boggling.
Bywater t1_iy1ad8j wrote
Overfishing and captialism are bro's.
fiddlersgreen2021 t1_iy1q6x3 wrote
The soviets had just as much do to with stocks collapsing as the the capitalists did.
Bywater t1_iy21uh0 wrote
Lol. There were still fish back when their were soviets, for sure they overfished but it was the last half century of capitalism that fucked the seas up beyond repair.
CoastalSailing t1_iy1vp66 wrote
Tragedy of the Commons
Mannymarlo t1_iy36zga wrote
No it’s the jews and pitbulls that are responsible
tricheboars t1_iy4y3cl wrote
Ewww who let Kanye go online again?
_Face t1_iy15ppb wrote
How about 40 years ago.
987nevertry t1_iy18573 wrote
So thickly plentiful that they impeded the travel of ships through the sea
grimmowl t1_iy16tii wrote
or the sardine ... Sardine museum in Rockport is super interesting. Sardine was a large money maker in the state ...
geneticswag t1_iy1gp6v wrote
shrimp
Mannymarlo t1_iy36uod wrote
They weren’t counting cod 400 yrs ago You can trust me on this
ResurgentOcelot t1_iy3e8i5 wrote
You can trust them on this.
They went back in time. Math wasn’t invented yet back in the 1600. People didn’t count fish because they didn’t sell them, they threw them all in a vat and neanderthals migrated from the villages to go bobbing for fishes.
You can trust me on this.
yeyakattack t1_ixz5elu wrote
They’ll be right if nothing changes and soon.
2crowsonmymantle t1_iy0jiku wrote
I’m from the midcoast of maine and nobody I know that still lives and works there has seen a whale yarned up in their gear since…..1990-something.
Maine commercial fishing/lobstering is incredibly over regulated to start with, I can’t see this as anything but another nail in the coast’s coffin. It’s depressing and sickening. The work fishermen do is dangerous, expensive, and back breaking. This is just more strain and stress.
Mammoth-Quote-7057 t1_iy2suto wrote
Idk, I dig up and down the coast from Kittery to Calais and just this past summer there was a whale stuck out at Brookings Bay for a few days, it would surface in the same spot to breathe then sink back down, we dig this place alot and for a few days this went on. Lobstermen drop there traps up and down the center of the bay, I'm assuming the whale was tangled up in gear which is why it was stuck in the same spot for days. Of course something else could of tangled it, but if not a lobster trap another piece of fishing gear.
2crowsonmymantle t1_iy2uab4 wrote
Really, first I’ve heard of it!
PinkLemonade2 t1_iy0xe98 wrote
Y'all remember how much lobster we send to China?
Not going to get full tinfoil, but the ulterior motive(s) for our sea bugs is real.
VinceGchillin t1_iy1zdv8 wrote
Ulterior motives? You mean selling food to people who pay for it? Not everything China does is nefarious bro
Dorrbrook t1_iy1dnf0 wrote
You mean the lobster China pays money for?
PinkLemonade2 t1_iy0x2wp wrote
^^^^^^^ facts
It's a political game that is fucking real people right where it counts ------ as usual. 😩
Hismadnessty t1_iy1gqxw wrote
This isn’t about whales. This is all sponsored by Diamond Offshore Wind, a renewable energy company, to displace fishermen.
MSCOTTGARAND t1_iy15kpc wrote
Let's declare war against Canada again just to divert attention from the lobster industry.
Stonesword75 t1_iy1q79b wrote
Surrender pronto,
Or we'll level Toronto!
michaelreadit t1_iy22ppw wrote
I wouldn’t really want to bother Toronto but that’s a damned good chirp
Stonesword75 t1_iy23dyy wrote
Wish I could claim credit for it.
However, it is a movie quote from Canadian Bacon. A delightful 90s film where America accidentally goes to nuclear war with Canada so an unpopular president can try to gain popularity from factory workers who used to make military weapons in a post Cold War.
modifiedchoke t1_iy38dwj wrote
So bad it’s good. Love it.
PatsFreak101 t1_iy3wrbv wrote
The Webster Ashburton treaty was a betrayal. We want the rest of Aroostook county.
PatsFreak101 t1_iy0i4n6 wrote
The Canadian lobster industry is licking its lips right now
BriefausdemGeist t1_iy3f32b wrote
So many comments here seem to stem from a complete willful ignorance of the plain fact breeding grounds are moving north - and have been - due to (1) warming seas and (2) over lobstering*
Even with all the checks in place to prevent over lobstering, they only started in earnest what…30 years ago? 40?
Do you people not remember Rachel Carson anymore, or are you so flannel-addled you’ve forgotten that resources are limited and endangered by overuse?
theora55 t1_iy3lgdl wrote
Maine has had more rigorous standards for minimum lobster sizes and not taking egg-bearing lobsters than neighboring Canada and New Hampshire. Not sure about now, but this was the case in the past. Lobsters don't stop at boundaries, so this was beneficial to Canada & NH lobster fishers.
BriefausdemGeist t1_iy3ngt3 wrote
Maine lobstering has very stringent regulations now, but as you also point out, those regulations didn’t affect lobstering from other jurisdictions. Unless they only lobstered in Maine’s maritime jurisdiction - a cartographical line no lobster recognizes - whatever their quotas were or were not still affects the stability and viability of the overall population
Tankbean t1_iy3xmr6 wrote
Warming. Check. Gulf of Maine is warming faster than virtually anywhere on the planet.
Over fishing.... Nope. I know most people don't have literature access, so here are some quotes from: Ryan, Richard W., Daniel S. Holland, and Guillermo E. Herrera. "Bioeconomic equilibrium in a bait-constrained fishery." Marine Resource Economics 25.3 (2010): 281-293.
"The massive amounts of herring used for lobster bait are hypothesized as one of the reasons for the unprecedented productivity of the lobster fishery in Maine, where landings in recent years have been more than three times pre-1990 average levels (Grabowski et al. 2010)."
"The Gulf of Maine lobster stock is the recipient of a “growth subsidy;” i.e., increased growth as a result of consumption of bait. Jury et al. (2001, p. 1127) find that of the lobsters entering a trap, only 6% are captured, whereas 94% escape. Among that 6%, only legal-size lobsters would be kept, while the others would be immediately released. Due to the high rate of Bait-Constrained Fishery escape from traps and the fact that sublegal lobsters along with V-notched5 females are released, bait consumption while in the trap provides a free meal for many lobsters while they grow. Additionally, discarded bait supplements food available to wild lobsters. Saila, Nixon, and Oviatt (2002); Grabowski et al. (2009); and Grabowski et al. (2010) attribute the proliferation of lobster biomass and landings at least in part to these externalities associated with the process of harvesting lobsters. In a mark-recapture study, Grabowski et al. (2009) find that lobster in areas with traps; that is, areas delineated as open to harvesting lobster, outgrow those in areas without traps by approximately 15%."
With herring getting expensive, lobster harvesters have turned to other bait. I strongly suspect the net input of biomass into the Gulf has increased since more of those sources have become freshwater (see the commercial sucker or sea-run alewife fisheries in Maine). Essentially, the Gulf of Maine is a lobster farm that's had increasing numbers for decades due to the warming ocean and the increased input of bait. Now it's starting to reach the point where it's too warm and the lobster are moving North. Catches have been increasing Downeast. Over the next 10-20 years we'll see Southern and Midcoast Maine catches continue to decrease while Downeast and Canadian catches increase. Additionally, as others have pointed out, there is nothing natural about the Gulf. See the previous collapses (ie, cod, shrimp, herring, scallop). The warming is also presenting as species moving into our waters. For instance, I have little doubt there will be a decent recreational blue crab fishery within the next couple decades.
SnooCats7847 t1_iy1qr2w wrote
You should also take into account that down east lobstermen have been making six figures for the last 10 years. You need to always take this griping with a grain of salt.
professor_cheX t1_iy15687 wrote
Lobstermen from maine need to work together to pool some money to get a bigger seat at the table for negotiating this stuff. MA, CT, Canada outpace whatever is done here in ME.
Mannymarlo t1_iy36pv5 wrote
It’s coming people. This year the bearing sea crab industry was forced to shutter windows and Maine lobster is next. Personally I’m okay with it but feel there should be some financial considerations for lobstermen and their investments
dempceysBIGballs t1_iy1fb0l wrote
When someone from Maine tries to make a joke
Mannymarlo t1_iy372ri wrote
Quit killing stuff for cash. Just ain’t right, takes no skill , fucking up the plsnet
mainething t1_iy18ltt wrote
Repeat after me :
"They aren't their lobsters!"
otakugrey t1_iy2akx7 wrote
All the denialism over working class industries here by our politicians makes me really depressed.
frozenhawaiian t1_iy4628e wrote
Talking with my friends who lobster commercially their take is that all these new gear regulations and speed restrictions is going to drive a majority of the fleet out of business. What I’m told by them is that the only people who will be able to hang in are the ones who have big boats who can fish a full 800 trap license year round and the little guys who lobster as a side job and have some other source of income.
As for the ground fishing industry. That’s all but dead. to my knowledge there are still a few working out of Portland but north of Casco bay there’s not a single one that I know of.
PlentyCommission166 t1_iy29g78 wrote
Just take all the money going to the lawyers
And build some damn lobster harvesting mini submarines
PROBLEM SOLVED
DamnMaineYankee t1_iy3mf98 wrote
Thanks Trump tariffs - so much lobster biz went to Canada - forever: more stable market, no idiotic political maneuvers from unhinged GQPers.
DamnMaineYankee t1_iy3lyfx wrote
NOAA needs to do a field trip and leave their dear desks and workstations.
[deleted] t1_iy3nj9k wrote
[removed]
Mannymarlo t1_iy7g67q wrote
Trump can fix this ! Trump is really God 💩 🙌
TarantinoFan23 t1_ixzahei wrote
If lobstering as an industry in maine fails, will i still be able to get lobster? And, will it cost more or less?
Grand_Response6068 t1_ixzeq7a wrote
more!!!!! less supply more demand = higher prices... just like gas
reddittheguy t1_ixzy1s6 wrote
I wonder if/how much availability is also driving demand. Like, you drive by certain places in Maine and there are lobster shacks all over the place, if lobstering fails and those places shutter up, how much of that demand was being inflated by availability?
Is your average American really going to miss it like most people might miss beef or chicken? Or is it just something propped up by availability in touristy areas?
MaineJackalope t1_iy079i6 wrote
I think the Right Whales issue is going to damage the industry heavily but I'm optimistic that it can rebound. Though likely still at reduced levels
The thing with the whales is vertical lines that snare them up (allegedly) but if and when people are pushed to it, I bet they can find alternatives to static vertical trap lines.
Did a lot of youth robotics stuff and I see two viable options just off the top of my head, either traps that can stow then release a buoy from the sea floor on a timer, so the lines are only present while the lobstering boats are out collecting, and lineless traps that rely on a RC submersible to hook them up to a tow line so the boats can haul them in.
Both would be costly modifications to make though, but the means of surviving are still there if the Fed and lobstermen can come to an agreement on new practices.
I also kinda like the idea of a coast town having a mom and pop robotics shop to sell and maintain it all.
Grand_Response6068 t1_iy0ddly wrote
It'll probably be both... i know some people that LOVE lobster and some people dont. but can you imagine all the lobstering towns? even portland places like that could die out
Grand_Response6068 t1_iy0dlys wrote
it almost feels like a west virginia type situation if they do go out of business, the coal mines closed and west virginia towns and the state in general died off
CoastalSailing t1_iy0doe0 wrote
Check out the scallop fishery.
Or the cod.