The lobster industry is the most valuable single-species fishery in the United States, but as the waters off the coast of New Hampshire warm because of climate change, the industry will face continuing challenges in the years ahead.Fishing boats are a part of the quintessential landscape of New England, providing a livelihood for thousands, but that might change in the coming years. Joshua Carloni, who leads the lobster monitoring program for New Hampshire Fish and Game, researches lobster migration."We don't want to see what happened in southern New England happen in the Gulf of Maine," Carloni said. "If you act proactively, you could mitigate some of that."In the mid-1990s, lobster populations were booming off the southern New England coastline. But since then, waters have warmed dramatically, and the lobster population crashed by more than 90%."When you have these warm water temperatures, they get stressed out, and disease starts to set in," Carloni said.Lobsters can live comfortably in water temperatures below 68 degrees. In search of better conditions, they migrated north into the cooler waters of the Gulf of Maine, just east of New Hampshire."Over the past 20 years, we've seen that population increase to levels that we've never seen," Carloni said. "We're still at near record high levels."That population boom has resulted in record profits for the lobster industry in New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts and Maine. But despite the recent success, New Hampshire's waters have not been immune to rapid warming.The Gulf of Maine Research Institute released a report in 2015 that showed that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world's oceans. Data shows average summer water temperatures above 60 degrees have become much more frequent in the past decade."Everything is so temperature-related that these changes are causing things to change faster than what they had ever been measured before," said Erik Anderson, president of the New Hampshire Fish Council.Anderson said the industry is still doing well off the Seacoast."Everything is still taking place," he said. "It might be in different time frames, but it still takes place with some regularity."Some scientists point to a warmer climate extending the lobstering season well into the winter months. Others say a warmer climate will change the distribution of lobster fishing. Carloni said his team is finding that warmer conditions near the coast are pushing lobster populations offshore into deeper, colder waters."There is evidence that, as lobsters move farther offshore, as the climate continues to change, that could affect the number of baby lobsters settling in historical near-shore nursery grounds," he said.Fewer baby lobsters that mature close to shore could cause lobster crews in New Hampshire to travel farther offshore than ever before to catch mature lobsters. That could come with increased costs to the industry, such as more money spent on gas, vessel maintenance, equipment and crew members. Those costs could eventually get passed on to consumers.The future of lobstering in New Hampshire is somewhat unclear. But the research going on in the Gulf of Maine will be critical for helping the lobster industry adapt to a warmer world and warmer oceans.