BELMAR — New Jersey fishermen said they don’t see the steep decline in lobster populations reported in Long Island Sound and southern New England, or the need for plans that could cut their catches by 10 percent — or even shut them down for five years.
“We shouldn’t be balled up into someone else’s problems. I’ve never seen so many small lobsters,” said Joseph Horvath Jr. He brought photographs of lobster traps stuffed with “baby lobsters the size of a dollar bill” to a public hearing here Thursday — a preliminary step before regulators vote in Boston Nov. 7 on big changes to East Coast lobster management.
“The abundance levels are close to all-time lows” in southern New England waters, said Toni Kerns, a staff analyst with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The interstate group coordinates conservation plans for fish species from Maine to Florida, and it has wrestled with the lobster decline for years.
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