AP quotes Beal in report on Maine’s record-low clam harvest
The Associated Press cited Brian Beal, a professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine at Machias, in an article about the dwindling harvest of soft-shell clams along the New England coast. The 2017 clam harvest in Maine, which produces more soft-shell clams than any other state, was a little more than 1.4 million pounds — the lowest total since 1930, according to the article. The clam fishery is coping with a declining number of fishermen, a warming ocean, harmful algal blooms in the marine environment and growing populations of predator species, said regulators and scientists. Growing numbers of crabs, fish and worms that eat the clams are one problem, according to Beal. The growth of predators could be tied to rising ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, Beal said. “Seawater temperature is driving the biological and environmental factors that regulate clam populations,” he said. “That spells doom and gloom for the clamming industry and probably for other industries as well.” The Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald and The Maine Edge carried the AP report.