The Atlantic lobster is not on any list of endangered species. Right. But, to me, it is symbolic of the massive challenges attending efforts to conserve all of the more common wildlife species with high commercial value. Like so many such species, it the Atlantic lobster experiences a one-two punch of destruction.
On one hand, there is high consumer demand for lobsters and thus profits to be made from its exploitation. The other punch is environmental change, and degradation, most of it the direct or indirect result of climate change and pollution.
A recent Toronto Star article by Haley Ryan describes how there has a been significant increases in lobster populations in Nova Scotia in response to rise in water temperature. As a result, lobster fisherfolk are hauling in huge numbers, thus enhancing profits. While preferring water between 10° and 16° C (50o° to 61° F) Atlantic lobsters can endure even warmer water – up to a point. But, we know from collapses in lobster numbers in waters to the south – in Long Island Sound and Cape Cod regions – that when waters get too warm, lobsters become vulnerable to bacteria and other stressors, resulting in massive die-offs. Lobsters numbers in Long Island Sound (between New York and Connecticut) decreased some 70 percent during an unusually warm period 21 years ago, without subsequent recovery.
So-called Marine Heat Waves (MHWs) may naturally occur but, in conjunction with climate change, their frequency is increasing in seas across the globe, including our east coast. But, there it has not reached a level that endangers lobsters. That means the lobster fishery may be blundering into what has been called a “gilded trap.” Since the disastrous collapse in the economically vital cod of Newfoundland in 1992, caused by overfishing, it should be clear that huge numbers of available animals don’t guarantee survival of a given wildlife population. And, while recovery from a naturally occurring population decline is the norm, declines resulting from human behavior are more likely to be slow to bounce back, if at all, especially if the causation is not ended. A moratorium on cod fishing is one thing, but a quick end to climate change? Not happening.
The gilded trap is that the more of a “resource” – lobster in this case – there is, the more money there is to be made from selling it. But, those market forces dictate that the larger the supply, the less value per unit is the demand. As inventory goes up, value per unit goes down, and so more units – lobsters – are “needed” to provide the same income. And, that is what leads to the first of the one two-punch against the “resource” – over-exploitation, as the cod collapse illustrated.
And, this generalization, as simplistic as I’ve made it, applies to most commercially valued species of wild animal and plant, to the detriment of our ability to save them. From lobsters to lions, from common to endangered, the world’s wildlife is in serious decline from both habitat degradation and market forces.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry
