Warmer waters might prevent baby lobsters from surviving

ROBERT F. BUKATY/ASSOCIATED PRESS/FILE 2016

The scientists found that lobster larvae struggled to survive when they were reared in water 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the temperatures that are currently typical of the western Gulf of Maine.

By Patrick Whittle ASSOCIATED PRESS SEPTEMBER 24, 2016

PORTLAND, Maine — Baby lobsters might not be able to survive in the ocean’s waters if the ocean continues to warm at the expected rate.

The paper appears this month in the scientific journal ICES Journal of Marine Science. It could serve as a wake-up call that the lobster fishery faces a looming climate crisis that is already visible in southern New England, said Jesica Waller, one of the study’s authors.

The authors said the study is the first of its kind to focus on how American lobsters will be affected by warming waters and the increasing acidification of the ocean in tandem. The study found that acidification had almost no effect on young lobsters’ survival, Waller said.

Michael Tlusty, an ocean scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center at the New England Aquarium, said the study is especially important because it considered both warming and changing ocean chemistry.

‘‘This is the type of work that really needs to be done,’’ said Tlusty, who was not affiliated with the study. ‘‘The oceans are not changing one parameter at a time.’’