18 THE BOUNDING MAIN
olested, lobsters can live for decades—as mucyyears, it is t—and top groers ure. “Biologists,” according to times, “estimate t 90percent of lobsters are cauger t aboutage six.” Despite declining catcinue to receive state andfederal tax incentives t encourage t compel to acquirebigger boats and to tensively. today fists arereduced to fis market in t, buteven their numbers are now falling.
e are remarkably ignorant of t rule life in t ougo be in areas t urally impoverisers t to be. tarcticaproduce only about 3 percent of toplankton—far too little, it osupport a complex ecosystem, and yet it does. Crab-eater seals are not a species of animal tmost of us tually be t numerous large species ofanimal on Earter een million of tarctica. t least op some works. Remarkably no one knows how.
All t t tle about Eart system. But to us, once you start talkingabout life, t deal kno least got going in t place.