CATCHES of lobster, a traditional Christmas treat in much of Europe, are
soaring. But scientists fear that bumper catches will be followed by a
population crash. And efforts to regulate the fishery are being hindered by a
240-year-old treaty.
The North American fisheries are an important source of imported lobster for
European tables. Fishermen left under-employed by the collapse of other
commercial fisheries in North America have been turning their hands to lobster.
The number of people working in the industry has doubled since 1980. From an
average of 7600 tonnes a year between 1977 and 1986, the average catch in the
northeastern US has now grown to 32 000 tonnes. Similar increases have taken
place in Canada.
Fortunately the population of lobsters has kept pace with the increasing
catches. 鈥淎t first we thought it was because there were fewer young cod to eat
the lobster larvae,鈥� says Steve Murawski of the National Marine Fisheries
Service in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 鈥淏ut the increase in lobsters started
before the major decline in cod.鈥� Now, he says, the chief suspect is global
warming. Lobsters grow faster in warmer water.
Advertisement
Unfortunately, the minimum legal length for lobster destined for the pot is
about eight centimetres. Many lobsters grow this big a year before they become
sexually mature. So they won鈥檛 reproduce before they are caught. The fishing
boom means few lobster have a chance to grow beyond minimum length. 鈥淭hree
quarters or more of the catch in some places is not yet mature,鈥� says Murawski.
鈥淚n some places we are leaving only 2 per cent of the potential egg laying
蹿别尘补濒别蝉.鈥�
If conditions for the survival of lobster larvae should become slightly less
favourable, the population could crash. And the slow-maturing lobster would take
a long time to recover. 鈥淲e had a similar crash in red king crab in the Bering
Sea in the 1980s, and it still hasn鈥檛 recovered,鈥� says Murawski. One answer
would be to increase the minimum legal size, but fishermen object, believing
there would be a smaller market for larger, more expensive lobster.
Signs of overfishing are already emerging on the southwestern coast of Nova
Scotia, where catches in the past couple of years have been down 30 per cent.
The Canadian government has cut the season for catching lobsters to two months a
year to try and preserve stocks.
But in October, in an unrelated fishing dispute, the Canadian supreme court
ruled that under a treaty signed in 1760, the local Mi鈥檏maq and Maliseet tribes
have unhindered access to the lobster.
Native fishermen immediately began setting their traps, two months before the
season opened for other fishermen. They retaliated by burning buildings and
smashing lobster traps鈥攍anding one native boy in hospital. Native leaders
have now declared a voluntary moratorium on lobster fishing in the hope that new
ways of controlling catches will be devised before the next season opens.
