Dan’s Papers February 25, 2011 danspapers.com Page 20
Arnold Leo’s View of a Plan to Shut Lobstering By T.J. Clemente A nice-sized lobster on a plate with drawn butter being placed in front of you is a luxury upscale East Enders pay for with pride. But it is nothing like the cost some East End lobstermen may have to pay should the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission go forward with a plan to basically place a moratorium on all lobster harvesting from Cape Cod to southern New Jersey, a plan that will be presented at the March 21 meeting of the Lobster Board in South Carolina. Arnold Leo, the longtime expert on matters pertaining to our local fisheries, was gracious enough to take some time to explain all the options, reasons and possible solutions for this proposed “death sentence” for local lobstermen. It seems the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission researchers and another independent scientific group examined data collected over the last few years indicating a dramatic decrease in the lobster population in the effected area (Cape Cod to southern New Jersey.) Amazingly, at the same time, in the waters north of Cape Cod there seems to be an abundance of lobsters, which is driving prices low even with the expensive marine fuel needed to harvest them. Leo sent me documents and then explained the basics. He concluded from the data that external factors are responsible for the decline in the local lobster population, including higher water temperatures, the fact that fish like the over abundant black striped bass are eating the young lob-
ster larvae, and perhaps some chemical influences in shallow water due to pollution. He said that from its heyday in 2000, lobster traps locally have dwindled from around 400,000 to just 44,000 in the New York area. At the March 21 meeting the Fisheries Commission will hear discussions that range from leaving things as they are, to a five-year moratorium on all lobster fishing, which the commission’s experts have proposed. Leo pointed out that although the lobstermen were not cited as the cause for the dwindling lobster population, banning harvesting was the only action the commission could take to try to improve the population. After all, the commissioners can’t dictate a change in water temperatures or ban black striped bass from devouring lobster larvae. Leo wrote in a letter to the Fisheries Commission, which he was kind enough to send me a copy of, his suggestions for tackling the problem, which center on leaving things as they are for two more years while collecting some new data, because, he said, “How does one truly count the number of fish in the sea? The methods are semi-educational guesses.” He did say he agreed that “lobster are preyed upon by a variety of bottom inhabiting species, including teleost fish, sharks, rays, skates, octopuses, and crabs,” and that lobster
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“larvae are subject to predation in the water column, and post-larvae are vulnerable to mud crabs, cunner, and an array of other bottom-feeding finfish.” “With the recovery of the striped bass resource,” Leo wrote, “substantial predation of sub-legal lobster by striped bass has been reported.” He concluded, “Clearly predation must be deemed to be a serious impediment to rebuilding a lobster stock that may be in a low phase of its population cycle.” Leo wrote that despite the problems of predation and rising sea temperatures, it would be possible to increase lobster recruitment. Leo recommends that the Lobster Board postpone the moratorium proposal (Addendum XVII) and “adopt a resolution to continue status quo management for the Southern Northeast lobster seasons of 2011 and 2012, and encourage the collection and analysis of survey data for the purpose of adopting new biological reference points for the SNE lobster fishery.” The Fisheries Commission will make the final decision at a meeting later this summer. Its decision will either end lobster harvesting from Cape Cod to southern New Jersey, or give the lobstermen an opportunity to keep their jobs at a time when good paying jobs are hard to find.
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