The Gulf of Maine has seen the number of baby lobsters drop by half since 2007, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists as the population of adult lobsters remains near a record high, contributing to robust catches.
According to Reuters, since the baby lobsters reach harvestable size in eight years, the state's 4,200 lobstermen should be able to feel the dip, scientists said.
Nearly 70 percent of Maine's total seafood harvest was represented by the state's lobstermen, who hauled in a record catch worth $365 million last year.
"Larger catches generally follow high levels years earlier of baby lobster settlement - the process in which young lobsters reach the ocean floor and grow. The boom in lobster catches in recent years follows a trend of heavy lobster settlement in the mid-2000s, university scientists say," the Associated Press reported.
But that pace might not be sustainable, said Carl Wilson, the state's lobster biologist.
"It's our first indicator that things might be changing in the future," Wilson said. "Low settlement, it's thought, in the future will lead to lower landings."
However, over-fishing is not responsible for the decline, scientists, including University of Maine researcher Rick Wahle, who founded the baby lobster study in 1989, said.
Despite the record hauls, the lobster's industry is also the most closely regulated in the country, Reuters reported.
"This remains the most productive lobster habitat on the planet," Wahle said. "The evidence points elsewhere."
Shifting ocean currents, wind and weather patterns may have contributed to the decline by leading drifting lobster larvae astray, Wahle and other researchers said.
"The survey relies on divers who use vacuum cleaner-like suction tubs and traps to count baby lobsters on the rock ocean floor of the New England and Canadian coasts," Reuters reported.
"Scientists said it is unclear whether the decline in the count of young lobsters will eventually cut into the high harvests, which have pushed prices down and left lobstermen scrambling to find new markets."
"We don't know if we're coming to a stable period, or if we're going to come back down to Earth," said Carl Wilson, Maine's state lobster biologist. "But I think for the first time, we're starting to see a change in the system."
