Beal speaks with Press Herald about climate change effects on Maine clam industry

Brian Beal, a professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine at Machias, spoke with the Portland Press Herald for the article, “Climate change to have drastic effects on Gulf of Maine lobster, clam fisheries.” Recent research suggests Maine’s soft-shell clam industry could collapse unless steps are taken to protect the fishery from green crabs that are thriving in the state’s warming waters, according to the Press Herald. “Something is out of whack and we need to do something about it. We need to adapt,” said Beal, who has studied soft-shell clams for more than 30 years. Without an “introduction of some revolutionary thinking to the clam industry,” Beal said, Maine may not have much of an industry left in the near future as the green crab spreads and multiplies in the warming waters. When Beal began conducting professional research in the mid-1980s, it was possible to get survival rates of 50 percent to 60 percent for young clams placed in unprotected areas, the article states. Now they are seeing survival rates of 5 percent or less. In some areas of Casco Bay, less than 0.01 percent of juvenile clams survived beyond their first year, he said. “We are going to lose an iconic fishery, and we are going to lose it either because people don’t care about it or they just don’t believe” in the science, Beal said. The Times Record also published the Press Herald article.