Biologist: Lobster abundance may be species' weakness
One of the chief threats to Maine's top fishery — lobsters — could be an abundance of the species.
This year, Maine lobstermen saw low prices and a glut of lobsters, but a University of Maine biologist said that abundance could, in combination with environmental factors, put the species at risk, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Robert Steneck, a professor at the University of Maine's Darling Marine Center in Walpole, told the audience at a three-day lobster symposium starting Wednesday that the number of lobsters is higher than ever.
But Steneck warned that changes in the overall diversity of species — mostly a loss of large predatory fish — in the Gulf of Maine and rising water temperatures could make that population susceptible to a disease catastrophic for the species.
Steneck cited the spread of a bacterial infection that continues to hurt the lobster fishery in southern New England.
Last year, 100 million pounds of lobster were brought ashore from Maine waters, worth $330 million at last year's wholesale prices, the newspaper reported.
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