September 14, 2022 — Many tourists visiting coastal Maine may at some point purchase a lobster roll, with big chunks of lobster meat, a dash of mayo and a bag of potato chips on the side. But as summers become hotter and sea temperatures rise in the Gulf of Maine, there’s concern that warmer waters will cause the cold water crustacean to move elsewhere, making it harder to satisfy lobster cravings for the region’s tourists.
The Gulf of Maine has been a hotspot for ocean warming, increasing at a rate of 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit each decade in the last 40 years — about three times the global average. At higher water temperatures, lobsters hit what is known as a “stress threshold,” where they become more vulnerable to disease and less likely to reproduce.
But at least in recent years, it seems, the lobster — and some locals who depend on them for their livelihoods — have found success even as their future in warming ocean waters is more uncertain.