Fishery scientists have recommended a five-year moratorium on lobster fishing in the Southern New England area, citing reproductive failure and other problems caused by a steady rise in ocean temperature since 1999.
If implemented, the moratorium would put an end to a valuable fishery whose members say they have been blindsided.
“We’re done. From Cape Cod south, Long Island Sound to Jersey. No compensation, no nothing,” said Vinny Damm, a Montauk lobsterman since 1978.
“It’s going to affect a lot of people in Montauk, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Shinnecock, all the way to Cape May, N.J. Not just fishermen,” he said, “but the pack-out docks, the trap builders, all the way down the line.”
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