For 13 years I was a lobsterman from Cliff Island. Lobstermen are close observers of the natural world. When you climb into your boat each morning you are a witness to wildness and beauty. But that is half the story. We have worry and warnings. Global warming, climate change and carbon pollution are disturbing the ocean and threatening our way of life. It used to be that only scientists could detect rising temperatures or alarming changes in fish stocks. Now almost every fisherman and lobsterman on the coast is aware of these changes in our everyday environment.

Here in the Gulf of Maine the clues are all around us. Dogfish now far outnumber cod and haddock. They prey on young cod, haddock and other groundfish. They have become the dominant species in the gulf. The scientific data back up what lobstermen and fishermen are seeing firsthand. James Sulikowski, a biologist at the University of New England, says, "There are an estimated 230,000 metric tons of spawning dogfish in the Gulf of Maine compared with only 10,000 metric tons of spawning cod. That's a 23-to-1 ratio."

Recent data from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute indicate that the Gulf of Maine is warming 99 percent faster than the world's oceans. As waters warm in the Gulf of Maine, cod are moving north to colder water. This mainstay of the coastal economy for centuries may never return, even with stringent fishing regulations in place. Menhaden, herring, hake and northern shrimp populations are dangerously depleted. And the remnant populations of these species are migrating to colder waters. Other sea life we're not used to in the gulf, like blue crabs, black sea bass and longfin squid, are turning up in fishermen's nets.

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