Mass. lobstermen see catch rebound Resurgence needed to offset summer

BOSTON – The state’s lobster catch has begun to rebound after a sluggish start to the year, and lobstermen are hoping the resurgence lasts long enough to shake off their summer woes.

Lobstermen up and down the Massachusetts coast reported their catch plummeting between 20 and 40 percent through the summer.

But the early fall has seen traps filling at a steady rate around Cape Cod Bay and north to Cape Ann, and it’s hoped coastal waters have finally warmed enough to keep the lobsters clambering into traps through the late fall, said Dave Casoni, a Sandwich lobsterman.

“We just hope it lasts more than a few weeks to make up for a season’s pay,” he said.

The final numbers for the 2004 catch won’t be available until next year. Since 1996, the catch has ranged between 12.2 million and 15.3 million pounds, with 13.7 million pounds recorded in 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

The statewide numbers have been pulled down recently by a mysterious population drop in waters off southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island – called Area 2. Scientists have blamed overfishing and a disease that corrodes lobster shells, among other things.

The bad summer had some lobstermen up north wondering if Area 2’s problems were migrating their way, but Bob Glenn, lobster biologist for the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries, said there’s no connection. The shell disease is rare north of Cape Cod and the lobsters there also have different growth cycles, he said.

“I’m not ready to make the leap of faith that what’s going on in Area 2 is related to the downturn in the Gulf of Maine,” Glenn said. “It’s a different fishery and a different population.”

The prevailing theory among lobstermen is the water took an abnormally long time to warm up this year, leaving the lobsters in a cold-induced torpor that makes them far less likely to wander into traps looking for bait.

“I think the lobsters are there to catch,” said Skip Ryan, a Boston lobsterman. “It’s just a question of when they’re going to crawl.”

Glenn explained that a lobster’s metabolism picks up as the water temperature rises, with 50 to 60 degrees being the temperature range at which they’re most active. But the bottom strata of water take a long time to warm, even in the hottest of summers, and this summer was relatively cool.

Lobstermen say recent storms, including remnants of the hurricanes that hit Florida, may have finally mixed the bottom and top layers of water enough to get the lobsters running.

Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer, a second generation Gloucester lobsterman, said it’s become routine for him to rely on a strong late fall and early winter. But with such a short window, businesses can be battered by anything from abnormally cold weather to a bad storm that jumbles up and destroys traps – exactly what happened after a Nor’easter last December.

The stress of relying on a string of good weeks, added to the rising costs of diesel fuel and bait, has lobstermen more on edge than usual.

“The joke in the fishing industry is that the lobstermen are always crying,” Sawyer said. “There’s been doom and gloom in the industry since the guy caught the first lobster.”

Bob Tice, a Marshfield lobsterman for 18 years, said he’s learned to accept that the lobsters don’t always cooperate with his plans.

“We’ve had some good years, but things don’t last forever,” Tice said. “It’s just the nature of things.”