Wahle quoted in Bloomberg article on lobsters, trade war
Richard Wahle, a professor of marine sciences and director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, was quoted in a Bloomberg article about the lobster industry and the trade wars affecting it, and factors contributing to lobster population decline. Wahle’s American Lobster Settlement Index has revealed a noticeable drop in the population of lobsters between Rhode Island and Newfoundland in recent years, according to the article. This is a result of rising ocean temperatures, according to Wahle, who said the changes both attract new predators and reduce the population of copepods, a staple in the diet of larval lobsters. Wahle said warmer temperatures could also have led to a population collapse of tiny fatty phytoplankton that the copepods consume.