Study offers hope for the resilience of the American lobster fishery

According to a study by researchers at William & Mary's Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences, the American lobster may be more resilient to the effects of climate change than expected. For the first time, experiments performed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have documented how female American lobsters groom their offspring, providing evidence that these behaviors are not significantly impacted by temperature and acidity levels forecasted for Maine's coastal waters by the end of the century.The findings are published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.Despite being one of the largest commercial fisheries in the U.S. with an annual economic impact of more than $460 million in Maine alone, few studies have documented the reproductive behavior of female American lobsters. With the Gulf of Maine warming faster than nearly any other ocean surface on the planet, it's important to understand how the effects of climate change will impact the ...