At first glance, the little six-line story in the New York Times, "Maine: A Record Haul of Lobster Last Year," would appear to be unalloyed good news. The Maine lobster fleet last year harvested 100 million pounds of the tasty crustacean, an all-time record. Even more good news seems to come in the last line: "The lobster population has benefited from conservation measures . . ." [yay team!] ". . . warmer waters off Maine . . ." [uh oh] ". . . and a decline in predators like codfish [more uh oh]." Those same warming waters that favor lobsters, it turns out, may be a new threat to already troubled Atlantic salmon stocks. And the disastrous decline of North Atlantic cod stocks is a heavy price to pay for the occasional lobster roll. We can only hope that conservation measures can do for the cod what they seem to have done for the lobster.
--Paul Rauber
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