2025 CEQ Annual Report

Wildlife

Piping Plovers               Raptors               Forest Birds                State-Listed Species

Lobster and Fishes of Long Island Sound

 

 

 

Lobster

Lobster landings in 2024 (most recent data available) increased by about 48 percent from 2023 levels and approximately 28 percent from the previous ten-year average.⁵⁴ However, lobster landings from state waters have declined dramatically from a high of over 3.7 million pounds in 1998 to 185,075 pounds in 2024. 

 

Researchers investigated several possible causes for the dramatic downturn in lobster populations since 1998, including disease, changes in water quality, changes in climatic conditions, and other human impacts to Long Island Sound, such as the presence of pesticides. Scientists did not detect pesticides in lobsters collected in 2014, leaving the warming waters as the most likely cause for Connecticut's lobster decline. Warmer temperature has been linked to the increased prevalence of epizootic shell disease, which weakens lobsters’ shells.⁵⁵ 

Marine Fish Survey

   

The chart depicts the geometric mean for fish species caught during the fall surveys in Long Island Sound by adaptation group. The trends show that the average number of warm-temperate species have increased significantly while the average number of cold-temperate species captured have decreased over the 40-year time series. Even though DEEP completes spring and fall tows most years, the difference is particularly evident in the fall, more so than the spring, when water temperatures are highest. Although overall finfish diversity in the Sound remains high, the composition of the finfish community is changing in favor of species tolerant of warmer temperatures.⁵⁶

_{Technical Note: *Data from 2010, 2020, and 2025 are missing for the marine species chart because no fall surveys were conducted during those years.} 

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⁵⁴ _{NOAA, Annual commercial landing statistics, 1970-2024, accessed February 5, 2026; www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/sustainable-fisheries/commercial-fisheries-landings.} 

⁵⁵ _{Kisei R. Tanaka, Michael P. Torre et al., “An ensemble high-resolution projection of changes in the future habitat of American lobster and sea scallop in the Northeast US continental shelf”; April 27, 2020; doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13069.}

⁵⁶ _{DEEP, Division of Marine Fisheries; personal communication from K. Gottschall February 9, 2026.}