Who says “global warming” doesn’t have some positive value? Well I guess if you are a tofu chomping green that recoils at the thought of eating lobster, you wouldn’t see this in a positive light, but many people do.
Miguel Rakiewicz submits this in WUWT Tips and Notes today:
Newly abundant and much cheaper lobster thanks to Global Warming.
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A story published in The Toronto Star in print on Saturday, 07 July 2012, and on the web on Friday, 06 July 2012, (06 July 2012) http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1223031–lobster-is-now-cheaper-than-cold-cuts-in-some-places-mclobster-anyonereveals that lobster prices have gone down substantially enough to make it much more accessible to the average consumer.
On Friday, oversupply pushed the price to fishermen down to $2.50 a pound in Maine and $4 in Canada.
…
As the text proceeds, it eventually gets to the reason for this economic and culinary miracle:Global Warming.
” [ Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada ] blames global warming and increasing water temperatures for the current oversupply. The Maine lobsters have come to market a month early, because of the warm spring temperatures, he said. ”
A lobster, or more, in every pot is the gift of Global Warming. An interesting new slide for
Al Gore’s next show.
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Of course a warm spring doesn’t prove anything and we should remember that seafood is not climate. OTOH, we’ve been lectured that this warm spring is a likely signature of global warming, so I suppose we can posit a connection.
DARN, you are making me hungry. I have not had lobster since I left New England. Too expensive in the sunny south. So I have to eat crawdads instead.
If I recall the temperatures in the North Atlantic have peaked and turned….
GRAPH: NOAA monthly running average for North Atlantic
Anthony, I am surprised you did not have this graph up under the article.
“Irvine [executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada] blames global warming and increasing water temperatures for the current oversupply.”
I think there are plenty of confounding variables that determine a lobster population, including overfishing/fishing management and quotas, number of predators, disease (e.g. bacteria, parasites), location (lobster population not always in the same place – they have legs), salinity, temperature, food supply, toxins (natural and from humans), etc.
This article from NOAA several years ago blames lower lobster population on global warming: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/ecosys/ecology/Benthos/ See Figure 7. Hmmm. So rising temps caused the population to decrease a few years ago but increase now.
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd0911/#3 “Temperature is one of the most important governing environmental factors for marine organisms. Marine organisms have minimum and maximum temperatures beyond which they cannot survive. Additionally, they have preferred temperature ranges. Within the bounds of these thermal limits, temperature influences many processes including metabolism, growth, consumption, and maturity. Thus, changes in temperature will have far-reaching impacts on species in the ecosystem and on the ecosystem itself. Temperature in the NES LME has varied substantially over the past 150 years (Figure 3.5). The late 1800s and early 1900s were the coolest in the 150 year record. This relatively cool period was followed by the warmest period in the record: 1945-1955. There was a rapid drop in temperatures through the 1960s followed by a steady increase to the present. Current temperatures are not as warm as experienced during the early 1950s, but they are within half-a-degree. Temperatures from specific coastal sites along the U.S. northeast coast follow this same pattern.”
Let’s look at the ocean temps at the depth the lobsters live: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd0911/images/f3-5.gif
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd0911/images/f3-6.gif
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd0911/images/f3-8.gif – habitat range also varies over decades
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd0911/images/f3-11.gif – salinity changes
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/crd/crd0911/images/f5-1.gif – lobster population (lower left panel)
While I don’t have data through 2012, it is quite clear that natural cycles + fishery management are the primary determinants of lobster population and these dominate any possible component from CO2.
We need to stop the sale of gasoline now before it causes the return of the giant New England clam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9TxeqeDCE
One reason for the low prices presently (I think I saw $6/lb for small lobsters a day or two ago) is that the when the lobsters molt, their new shells are bigger and suddenly many become legal to catch. Before they molt, their flesh can get a bit chalky, afterwards it becomes very tasty, but there’s so much new space in the shell that there just isn’t much meat. You’re paying quite a bit for what is essentially sea water!
Sweet spot – 1.75 lb lobster in September or October.
I’ll add to what Ric Werme said. Buy the very biggest lobsters you can find. Sure, they cost more, but you get more meat per dollar than with small lobsters.
Yes, we just get small lobsters off UK shores…..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7517853.stm
I thought acidification of the ocean was doom for creatures of the sea with shells?
Ha. Ha. Very carny!
Was that club “The Vegetarian Meat Market”?
Only dead ones. Their shells dissolve back into the water faster … where the calcium is easier for the living ones to access and use, so they grow faster! As usual, the Alarmist Narrative is 180° opposite to reality.
Rick is correct- they are molting and that drives the price down. Nothing new here, move along.
BS. There’s no evidence of ocean warming.
Brian H says:
July 10, 2012 at 1:12 am
kim2ooo says:
July 9, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings and commented:
This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore.
[REPLY: Good. I like it. -REP]
Ha. Ha. Very carny!
Was that club “The Vegetarian Meat Market”?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ha ha ha ha
Dono…it must have been some sort of vegetarian meat and greet 🙂
Must be like real estate: location, location, location. Here in Alaska, the state fisheries biologists claim that when the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) goes into the cold phase (which it did starting in 2005), it tends to favor shellfish growth and tends to not favor finsfish. Sure enough, the dungeness, snow and king crab populations are doing well. OTOH, king and coho salmon returns have crashed the last several years, with the kings being particularly bad statewide this year. Interestingly enough, red (sockeye) and pink returns have been pretty good the last few years, likely due to what they are eating.
Now here’s the bizzaro part, PDO in cold phase seems to favor finfish returns in the Pacific Northwest leading to pretty good king salmon returns. There’s a lot going on out in the Big Water that we have not yet a clue about. More data. More data. Cheers –
http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/fed/oeip/ca-pdo.cfm
carny
As in “Carneros” ?
http://www.carneros.com/about/fact-or-fiction
Lobsters aren’t as stupid as global warming fish resource experts. If they liked it warm, they would have walked down to Florida. Sheesh. Maybe polar bears like ice and snow, they could have walked to Florida by now too.
clipe says:
July 9, 2012 at 4:06 pm
Here’s what happens when you forget about the lobsters “in the boot”. Paris ORY.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/kevster1346/badloadaircraft.jpg
Just to clarify, it was a load of lobsters on the “upper deck” that tipped the aircraft in the above link.
B744-combi at Orly for heavy maintenance. It was a ferry flight utilised to move a large shipment of live lobsters (packed in heavy brine) from Halifax directly to Europe.
The Orly ground crew ignored the offload sheet and/or were unaware of Air Canada’s standard use of a “pogo stick” (tail stanchion).
And I’m betting all of those formerly live lobsters made an unexpected return trip to YHZ.
“And I’m betting all of those formerly live lobsters made an unexpected return trip to YHZ.”
All the ones on the upper deck that is.
Here is where I found the badloadaircraft.jpg
http://h2roadmap.com/blog/wp-admin/images/badloadaircraft.jpg
Die Zauberflotist says:
July 9, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Very very funny. What do all of you who don’t give a rip about climate change propose we do when the warm water allows the lobsters evolve into THIS….
Any guesses if trilobites tasted like lobster?
Oi Anthony – don´t lump all of us tofu eaters with the radical greens, like Paul Bain lassoing ¨deniers¨ in one herd. 😉
Nah, as in carnivore. Not as in carnival barker. Or wino.