For Tom Fote, of Toms River, the decline of the lobster industry in New Jersey is proof that ocean warming is having big environmental and economic effects.
“I manage lobsters, and we saw what happened in the last 20 years. We had a huge population of lobster that grew in the mid-Atlantic. Now it’s starting to collapse,” said Fote, who is one of three New Jersey commissioners on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
He told panelists at the 12th annual Future of the Ocean Symposium, focused on priorities for President-elect Donald Trump’s administration and Congress at Monmouth University on Wednesday, that the water off New Jersey has become too warm for lobsters.
