Jim Clifford, Founder

I spent my summers as a boy in a small cabin at Mansfield Grove, along Long Island Sound. I caught eels and sold them for a nickel a piece to Buddy Erich, a local fisherman. There were so many lobsters in the Sound that anyone could get a personal license for 10 lobster pots. No one does that today because there are virtually no lobsters left in Long Island Sound. Where have they gone?

As I grew older, I learned that Long Island Sound, and other bodies of water, were so polluted that Congress passed the Clean Water Act. While a student at Georgetown University, I went door to door as a volunteer for the Clean Water Action Project, collecting signatures and donations to raise awareness and funds to strengthen the Clean Water Act. The lobsters struggled through the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, but survived.

Today, Long Island Sound is much cleaner, but 90% of the lobsters have died or migrated north out of the Sound. My wife asked, why can’t the lobsters adapt? - an excellent question that reveals the essence of the problem.

Lobsters have existed for millions of year. They are very adaptable. But the lobsters have left Long Island Sound because the water temperatures have risen much too fast for lobsters and other sea life to adapt. The water temperatures in Long Island Sound (and other shallow bodies of water) are rising much faster than in our oceans. This is why I created this website. I hope you return for more stories.