The Long Island Sound is at the very southern end of lobsters’ range.  It’s also at the very northern end of blue crabs’ range.  Historically, both are found in the Sound, but only lobsters appear in numbers great enough for commercial fishing.  Over the past three decades, water temperatures in the Sound have risen almost two degrees, and the annual lobster catch has dropped from about 12 million to two or three million pounds a year.  At the same time, lobstermen are seeing much greater numbers of blue crabs.  This situation is putting a great financial strain on Connecticut’s lobstermen.  Read the full story in the Boston Globe article by Gregory B. Hladky.

One interesting piece of info in the story: Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough, of Noank, Connecticut does not use local lobsters.  They obtain Canadian lobsters through a wholesaler.  Said Jerry Mears of Abbott’s: “We used to have fishermen working right off our dock.  But we slowly phased that out."  The photo above is of one of Abbott’s many dining areas, from the Roadfood.com review.