July 31, 2013 — Scientists, fishermen, fisheries regulators and environmental advocates from across the nation are meeting in Portland this week to discuss how climate change is affecting New England's waters, and how best to manage those changes. The non-profit Island Institute is hosting the event, called "A Climate of Change." Tom Porter has more.
The Institute's president, Rob Snyder, says the warming of the oceans means the appearance of new species in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere, and raises new questions. "How do we actually create management systems before we have historical catch records? This is a big new question for how you would consider managing in a changing environment," he says.
Rodman Sykes is a commercial fishermen from Rhode Island. He's been fishing for 30 years and says he's now starting to see the emergence of new species like Cobia, for example, which he says is normally only found off Florida. He's also noticing a marked increase in the numbers of other fish which were previously only rarely seen in Rhode Island waters – for example the torpedo ray.
"Twenty years ago, we might see two or three a month – like that," Sykes says. "Now we see them every day, up to 100-pounders."
Conversely, Sykes there are other species that are vanishing as the warming oceans cause them to move further north, towards the Gulf of Maine. "There's abundance of red hake in the Gulf of Maine – we used to have abundance of red hake down in southern New England, which we don't any more."
Steve Train, who fishes for lobster out of Long Island, Maine, is also noticing changes.
Listen to the audio and read the full story at Maine Public Broadcasting Network