- AUGUSTA, Me. (AP) -- The shellfish that is the very symbol of Maine is
in trouble, with dozens of lobsters hauled up each day dead or dying from
an illness that has researchers baffled.
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- The cause and extent of the deaths are
unclear, though researchers say some kind of bacteria is the primary suspect.
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- Researchers are conducting tests and
asking lobstermen in the No. 1 lobster-producing state in the United States
to come forward with more details to build a clear picture.
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- "We've never seen anything like
this in the 20 years I've worked with lobsters," Robert Bayer, director
of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute, said Tuesday.
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- Bayer stressed that the disease poses
no threat to people who eat lobsters, since dead lobsters are thrown away,
sick lobsters don't get sent to market and healthy lobsters are boiled
before they're eaten.
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- Maine's cold waters are prized for lobsters,
and colourful buoys marking the traps dot the state's harbours and channels.
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- Maine produces about a quarter of the
lobster caught in the United States and Canada, and last year sold a record
21 million kilograms. It's a $136-million-a-year business in Maine.
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- Last year, owners of lobster pounds --
seaside businesses where live lobsters are kept in large tanks for resale
to restaurants and individuals -- first began noticing the problem. A survey
later calculated their losses at 12 per cent of their stock.
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- This summer, lobstermen reported their
catches were down as much as 50 per cent; some said they found as many
as a dozen dead lobsters each day in the traps they pulled aboard their
boats.
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- Robert Brown of the Maine Lobster Dealers
Association said the disease has cost $2.5 million US so far.
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