The Maine Lobster Mystery
The cause of a die-off of thousands of lobsters that made headlines this fall remains a mystery.
Even more puzzling, scientists can't agree if there ever was, or still is, a serious health problem affecting Maine's trademark seafood.
A Department of Marine Resources researcher suggested that reports of dead lobsters were overblown, but the head of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine insisted something's amiss.
Diane Cowan, the DMR's senior lobster scientist, said she has received no recent reports of dead or weakened lobsters in traps. "As far as I know, it could be explained by natural mortality," Cowan said from her office in Boothbay Harbor. "We don't have any evidence of anything of epidemic proportions."
Robert Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute, said there continues to be a problem at tidal lobster pounds and he believes people in the industry are reluctant to talk about it.
"Because of all the publicity, we probably don't have all the information because people are getting gun-shy," he said.
Following a record $136 million harvest last year, Maine lobster fishermen were alarmed when some began finding as many as a dozen dead lobsters a day in their traps in the late summer and fall.
The illness does not affect humans, researchers say.
The problem first came to the attention of researchers last winter when lobsters started dying in lobster pounds, where they are kept alive in cramped quarters. The death rate declined in the spring, but returned in the late summer when lobster pounds were being restocked.
"Any time we lose lobsters, it's a serious concern whether it's one or a thousand. What's frustrating to everyone is we don't know what caused this," said Pat White, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association.
While there continue to be serious problems at tidal lobster pounds, Bayer said, problems with lobster in the ocean have lessened since the lobsters have migrated farther offshore.
Research indicates there is something wrong with lobsters closer to shore, where they migrate in the spring and summer. Data also indicate it's worse in some places than others, but Bayer won't say where.
About half of the state's 65 tidal lobster pounds are seeing higher-than-normal lobster mortality rates, said Peter Daley, president of the Maine Lobster Pound Association. And some have seen mortality rates upward of 30 percent, while the typical rate is 5 percent to 10 percent, he said.
By David Sharp