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Possible 5 year ban on lobster harvest in East coast waters?
#1
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Consider the lobster: The population of the crustaceans is at such low levels along the East Coast that a regulatory agency is proposing a five-year ban on harvesting them between Cape Cod and Virginia.

"Long Island Sound, in particular, has been in poor health since 1999," said Toni Kerns, senior fishery management plan coordinator at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. "We had a die off in the fishery."
Thursday, the technical committee of biologists for the Atlantic commission is meeting in Warwick, R.I., to discuss the proposal. They have the final authority to shut down lobstering in these coastal waters.

The ban, however, would spare Maine, where lobsters are thriving. Last year, fishermen pulled in 75.6 million pounds -- the largest take in years, according to state records and estimates. The harvest raked in $223.7 million -- although that was about $22 million lighter than in 2008.

Nearly 90% of the nation's lobsters come from Maine, according to George Lapointe, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. He estimates that only 4 million pounds of lobsters were produced in other states last year, so the ban won't have a large practical impact.

He argues the ban won't necessarily lift lobster prices -- as many fear, because Maine lobstermen already have the market cornered, with or without a moratorium in other states. (Lobsters currently sell for an average of $4.50 a pound for hardshell and $3.50 for softshell, according to Kerns.)

"There have been people making allegations that we're doing this to price markets," said Lapointe. "Just the idea that it's going to somehow be a boost to our fishery is not based on any information that I've seen. So there's no economic boom that I see from our discussion in southern New England."


0:00 /1:58Call of the sea becomes faint
Susan Povich, co-owner of the Red Hook Lobster Pound, a lobster retailer in Brooklyn, N.Y., says she doesn't foresee any change in prices, even if the ban goes through.

"It's not going to affect my business because I get my lobsters from Maine," said Povich, whose husband and co-owner, Ralph Gorham, drives 300 miles to Georgetown, Maine, every week to bring live lobsters back to Brooklyn.

"I don't know anyone who sells Southern lobsters, New York lobsters," said Povich. "I hope [the ban] rejuvenates the population. I'd love to sell local lobsters."

But even if the crustacean population bounces back after the potential ban, there might not be anyone left to harvest after five years, worries David Simpson, director of the marine fisheries division at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He's concerned about the declining number of professional fisherman and fears that their berths will be replaced by sailboats.

Of the 250 lobster permits issued in Connecticut, there are only 20 to 40 professionals "who make a substantial portion of their income from lobstering," he said. That's compared to more than 6,000 permits in Maine, of which 1,600 would be considered full-time professionals, said Lapointe.

"If we close that space for five years, it's not going to be a matter of turning a switch to get it back," he said. "It would be very hard pressed to gain that toe hold on the shoreline. They won't have a space to tie up their boat anymore."
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#2
i was worried how this would affect Cape Cod lobster harvesters when i read this in local paper a little while back, but it is true the important state for lobstering is Maine. it looks like the ban would be southward of Cape, which won't have the huge fiscal impact that a Maine ban would.
prices have been lowest in years.


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#3
Looks like they changed their minds


-- A proposed ban on lobstering has been put on ice, at least for the next few months.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission had proposed a five-year moratorium on lobster harvesting along the Atlantic Coast between Cape Cod, Mass. and North Carolina, but on Thursday tabled the ban until fall.

The commission is considering a ban to allow the declining lobster population to recover.

Toni Kerns, senior fishery management plan coordinator at the Commission, said that a committee of biologists will present study results at the follow-up meeting that show how the lobster population would react to three different alternatives: a 50% reduction in harvesting, a 75% reduction, or maintaining the status quo, which is no reduction at all.

Lobstering is currently allowed along the Atlantic Coast, despite the fact that disease killed off large numbers of the crustaceans in Long Island Sound about 10 years ago.

The majority of U.S. lobsters come from Maine, which is not being considered for a ban because the population there is thriving. Lobstermen pulled in a robust 76.3 million pounds in 2009, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the largest harvest in years.
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#4
We can't continue to rape the oceans of their bounty without consequences. You fish everything out and we're hosed...if we aren't already.
Fug duh kund
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#5
Seconded - there's too many fucking fat Yanks anyway.
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#6


Are all Americans Yanks to you ?...I ask because here in America Yanks come from up north.
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#7
Fuck you all .........the rule does not apply to each ship. You can have 5 traps per boat with no license. The big boats off shore are the ones depleting the stocks, not the individual people. I would love to see the international boats gone. They are the ones that take all the clams and lobster and scallops. Not the guy digging them up on shore. They drag the bottom and fuck everything up, taking everything and killing everything along the way.



So go fuck yourselves ya bunch of twats.


*****This has been a public service message for all the dipshits from Maggot***
Thank you
Please wipe your asses twice
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He ain't heavy, he's my brother.
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#8
(07-25-2010, 03:00 PM)Duchess Wrote:

Are all Americans Yanks to you ?...I ask because here in America Yanks come from up north.


We make no such distinction - you're all over the other side of the pond Smiley_emoticons_fies

FWIW We have a North/South divide in the UK, too.
'Oop North is where the friendly common folk live, ex-miners and all that, flat caps and whippets
Dahhn Sarff is where all the snobby bastards live, bankers and all that.

The true cunts are those that live 'Oop North and reckon they should be Dahhn Sarff.
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