How does global warming affect lobsters?
Global warming affects lobsters in negative ways. Lobsters are healthy, if the temperature of the ocean water and chemical composition is right. Sea water contains calcium carbonate which is extracted into lobsters helping them build their shells. If calcium carbonate was reduced in the ocean, then it will ultimately hurt the lobsters and shorten their lives. Although warmer water has been known to increase lobster population, it also can damage the food source for larval lobsters, reducing the numbers of born lobsters. Additionally, warm water also increases the chance of disease is lobsters which could greatly affect us all.
How does global warming affect lobster’s interaction with one another?
When lobsters are caught by fishermen and put into tanks, their claws get banded up so they don’t eat one another in the depressing and tiny tanks. This behavior usually was usually only seen when lobsters were locked up together in a tank, but now because of global warming the cannibalism of lobsters is happening in the ocean. Because global warming is heating the water up, the lobster population is increasing, while its predators are being killed off by the water change. This results in a high number of lobsters crowding each other. The big lobsters eat the little ones as they are a nuisance and food has become more limited.
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/warming-oceans-are-turning-lobsters-into-cannibals
Lobster Cannibalism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvF7IYa6obc&feature=player_embedded
What is lobster shell disease?
Lobster shell disease is caused by global warming as it heats up the ocean waters allowing for more bacteria to grow. Along the coast of Maine, and in the Long Island Sound, many lobsters are dying because of shell disease. The shell disease eats the lobster alive as it eats through its shell and prevents the lobster from molting, resulting in its death. Shell disease is not caused by one bacteria, it is caused by many that make the perfect combination in destroying lobster shells. Researchers first noticed lobster shell disease 20 years ago. The disease showed up as little black dots on the lobsters’ shells. Today, the disease has gotten so bad that lobsters’ entire shell is infected! Some shells are even rotted entirely. In the southern New England area and the Long Island sound, thirty percent off the total lobster population is infected.
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