The Maine Sea Grant program at the University of Maine is
hosting a conference in Portland beginning Tuesday focusing on
issues such as warming ocean temperatures, the changing food web
and seafood economics. About 135 people have registered,
including scientists from the United States, Canada and Europe,
regulators and industry representatives. The conference comes
when the Maine harvest is going gangbusters, the southern New
England fishery has virtually collapsed and ocean temperatures
are warming, which could have a profound effect on the lobster
population, said symposium co-chairman Rick Wahle, a University
of Maine research professor. "Lobsters have the potential to be
a sort of poster child for climate change impact and the impacts
of human activity," Wahle said. The symposium, which wraps up
Friday, features more than 80 scientific talks. The goal is to
promote a broad dialogue about lobsters to better understand and
manage them. Lobsters are caught roughly from Virginia to
Newfoundland, with Maine a