Two Gray Ladies In One!

Global warming — is there nothing it can’t do?

A ”PERFECT STORM” of sustained high water temperature, low levels of dissolved oxygen and the toxic impacts of ammonia and sulfides created lethal conditions for lobsters in western Long Island Sound in September 1999 and all but certainly explains why they suddenly died in tremendous numbers, according to researchers.

— “ENVIRONMENT; Warm Water Cited in Lobster Die-Off,” the New York Times, October 17, 2004.

There is good news for consumers, but bad for struggling lobstermen: Prices for the delicacy are cheap again this season, and could stay that way.

Massachusetts lobstermen were paid about $3.74 per pound last week, just four cents more than a year ago, when prices hit a record low. That means supermarket prices of $6.99 to $9.99 a pound, depending on size.

Get used to the bargains, the experts say, because climate change, in the form of warmer oceans, and fewer predators are likely to mean a plentiful lobster supply for years to come. On top of that, looser regulations on the crustacean’s predators — cod, halibut, and hake — are creating bigger lobster populations.

— “With warming seas, lobsters become an abundant bargain,” the NYT-owned Boston Globe, July 4th, 2013. Note that the article’s metatag, which displays the text atop your Web browser and in Google searches is even more explicit:   “Lobsters on july 4 are cheap again thanks to global warming and fewer predators.”

Perhaps the Globe toned down the actual headline because its parent company is currently in the process of grappling with “the inconvenient news that temperatures have been flat for more than a decade now,” as Steve Hayward noted a month ago at Power Line.

Hopefully the “(Not Quite) Complete List Of Things Supposedly Caused By Global Warming” has been adjusted to reflect that global warming causes both more and less lobsters. Incidentally, has anyone at the Globe checked with Boston-area bar owner Sam Malone, or the actor who portrayed him, to get his take on this issue?

(Via Maggie’s Farm.)