Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Global Warming and Lobsters

How does warm water effect a lobster?
- Lobsters are dramatically effected by temperature changes in the water. Due to the green house gases and what is known as global warming, the water in the north atlantic and around the world has become much warmer than it was 20-30 years ago. Lobsters can become mentally stressed due to the warmer water and due to the stress, their meat has become less tender. 

How does the warm water effect the fisherman of the northeast?
- The warm water that has been occurring in the north Atlantic has both pros and cons. Pros being, that the warm water tends to excite lobsters to mate and also to grow larger because food is more abundant. The cons being, that the warm waters put stress on the lobster and decreases the quality of the meat that the lobsters have, and because of this, the lobsters sell for a much lower price. 

How does this effect the rest of the oceans ecosystem? 
- Lobsters are far from extinct but with the rapid increase in water temperatures, they may not be able to survive in the temperatures that are approaching at an alarming rate. The loss of a species in an ecosystem throws the entire community out of balance because populations of certain species will flourish and others will dwindle. The lobster eats mostly clams and oysters, the lobster is eaten by trigger fish. Therefore, the population of clams will increase most likely and the population of trigger fish will decrease. This process will run all of the way through the food chain because one of the numbers in the equation is gone, Lobsters. 

What should people be aware of? 
- People should understand that global warming is something that we, as humans, are in complete control of. It should be known that what is happening in our atmosphere is directly affecting the ocean and that we are not only drastically changing what is happening on land but we are also changing the living conditions for organisms in the ocean. The ocean plays the largest role in the homoeostasis of earth and that if the ocean is not in a healthy state that the rest of the earth will not be either. Being eco- friendly will not only spare the delicious lobster that we love so much but it will also spare the rest of the ocean with it. 

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