Maine Lobsters to Go Extinct by 2100

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Maine published in this month’s issue of ICES Journal of Marine Science found that Maine lobsters will be extinct by 2100 due to warming waters caused by climate change. The United Nations predicted that waters in the Gulf of Maine—where most of America’s remaining lobster fisheries are located—will warm by five degrees in the next 84 years, an environment in which lobster larvae cannot survive. “There has been a near total collapse in Rhode Island, the southern end of the fishery, and we know our waters are getting warmer,” study author Jessica Waller says. Previous studies have predicted that all saltwater fish could be extinct by 2048 due to warming water temperatures, ocean acidification, and human consumption. In a 2014 study, ecologist Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia reported that 30 percent of the “edible” fish population had already declined by 90 percent, nullifying the notion that some fish species can be consumed “sustainably.” To remedy the pressing issue, companies such as New Wave Foods have developed animal-free versions of sealife, and the results are so impressive that chefs at Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley will be implementing their vegan shrimp across the company’s menus.