In a year that might be remembered as the one that brought climate change close to home for the lobster industry, lobster larvae in 2012 continued to settle mostly in the patterns we\u27ve seen before. The ocean heat wave that broke all the records and triggered an early shedder season does not seem to have had a corresponding positive effect on lobster settlement. Once again Maine\u27s lobster fishery boasted another year of historically high lobster landings, just as southern New England lobstermen still struggle with how to manage the fishery in a world of shell disease and dwindling recruitment. This issue of the Update summarizes the regional time trends in the settlement index and examines the first steps we\u27re taking in evaluating ALSI as an early warning system for the fishery
