Climatide

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State officials have declared today, October 11, Massachusetts Lobster Day. Who knew?

I just received the press release announcing Massachusetts Lobster Day 2011 a few minutes ago (better late than never). It included these ‘fun facts’ about the Massachusetts lobster industry:

• In 2010, Massachusetts commercial fishermen landed more than thirteen million pounds of lobster in Massachusetts, generating a gross income of approximately $50 million.
• Massachusetts’ lobster fishery generates about $210 million for the Commonwealth’s economy by doing business with marine suppliers, bait dealers, lobster dealers, restaurants, retail outlets, supply manufacturers, fuel sales, boat and engine builders, banks and insurance companies.
• Approximately 1,300 lobster permits are issued to commercial fishermen in Massachusetts and 10,000 recreational lobster permits. A total of 50 Massachusetts ports have commercial lobster trap fishermen.
• The commercial lobster fishery is the second most valuable fishery in Massachusetts, after the sea scallop fishery.

So that’s more than $200 million in annual revenues plus over a thousand Massachusetts jobs at risk from climate change. But back to the fun facts …

• The Massachusetts lobster trap fishery is conducted by individual, small, owner-operated enterprises.
• Massachusetts lobstermen have removed 3,000 miles of floating rope from waters in an effort to reduce the risk of entanglements of large whales, including the endangered Northern Right Whale, and other marine mammals.

Weren’t we just talking about that?