ENVIRONMENT: Lobster Die-Off a Puzzling Concern

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Title: Stigma from die-off repels potential buyers

By THANE GRAUEL - CONNECTICUT POST

Thane.Grauel@Thomnews.com

STAMFORD - Even if area fishermen could pull enough lobsters out of the water to justify burning up boat fuel, restaurateurs and wholesalers aren't exactly lining up at the docks.

"There's a real stigma attached as far as consumer acceptance," Steve Burt, an East Norwalk lobster dealer, told those attending a lobster health symposium Monday in Stamford. "I have specific customers that will not buy Long Island Sound lobsters at any price."

That's because of a die-off that killed as many as 90 percent of lobsters at the western end of the Sound by last fall and also spread eastward. The 250 or so attending ranged from scientists to students, from struggling lobstermen to lawyers envisioning litigation.

The event drew a multitude of academics and environmental officials from Virginia to Canada. There was a large contingent from Maine, home to this country's most lucrative lobster fishery. The problems here - the cause of which most every speaker admitted still is unknown - are being watched closely by other New England coastal states.

"We are very concerned," said Paul Waterstrat of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. "The Canadians wanted to put a ban on importing lobsters from the United States. That would have affected us."

Researchers detailed what they had learned so far about the problems, but readily admitted that the exact cause is not known and might never be known.

What they do know is that a parasite called a paramoeba, which ordinarily is fought off by a lobster's immune system, is now attacking its nervous system and killing it. But what made the animals susceptible to the parasite - warmer water, toxic chemicals, storm runoff or some other stressor - is not known. Officials say the parasite is harmless to people.

And in the eastern stretch of the Sound, which has largely been spared the die-off, and into Rhode Island waters, scientist said shell disease, which damages the shells and leaves an unappetizing appearance, is hitting much harder than usual. Ordinarily present in one-tenth of 1 percent of the lobsters in the Sound, scientists said it is now affecting about 9 percent of the catch.

Lobstermen, detailing their observations beginning in summer 1998, when the die-off began in earnest, frequently used the word "catastrophic."

John Makowsky of Norwalk has been setting traps for 30 years, and said he'd never seen anything like it. He recalled pulling up his traps and seeing lobsters with foggy eyes and no signs of life.

"Empty shells," he said. "Dead. Wiped out."

Roger Frate Jr. of Stamford recalled finding the usual grassy growth gone from a trap, "and it had a smell of sulfur I'd never smelled before."

He also said he noticed the water turned clear, increasing visibility from 1= feet to about 12 feet. He suspects chlorine, possibly from sewage treatment plants.

"I've never seen anything clean up like that except swimming pools," he said.

George Dahl of Northport, Long Island, said he heard the same observation from pleased non-fishermen. He told them, "Gin and vodka are clear and there's not a lot [of life] in that."

Joe Finke of Bayville, N.Y., and others mentioned Hurricane Floyd, which swept through last Sept. 16, as a possible factor. They suspect untreated runoff from overworked sewage treatment plants carried contaminants into the Sound. In any case, Finke, who is president of the Western Lobstermen's Association, said people are hurting.

"Two members of my association have lost their houses," he said. "Others are using their IRA accounts to pay bills and going without health insurance."

Robert Bayer of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine played a videotape of a lobster suffering from pesticide poisoning, something some believe is killing Sound lobsters. The lobster on the tape was writhing in spasms before going limp.

"I showed this to about a dozen fishermen last night and a couple said they'd seen it," he said of the symptoms.

The seminar is to continue today, with invited working groups starting work on a plan of action.

Thane Grauel, who covers regional issues, can be reached at 330-6226.

http://www.connpost.com/local1.html

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 18, 2000

Answers

Still more fish stries, eh, Dee? Gosh, there have been so many of them that, why is it that I keep thinking y2k-induced chemical and sewage spillages into these various bodies of water? Seems only logical to me.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), April 19, 2000.

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