A disease that turns lobsters' shells a pale white color is spreading northwards up to Maine, quite the concern for the New England lobster industry, as the affected crustaceans displaying an unsightly whitened shell are far less marketable, potentially a problem for the multi-million dollar fishing industry, the Huffington Post reports.
The epizootic shell disease is caused by bacteria that eats away at a lobster's shell and leaves behind ugly legions, having first appeared in New England waters in the 1990s. The number of infected lobsters has drastically increased in recent years, as according to HuffPost, about one out of every three or four lobsters caught in southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island waters have been found to be infected.
In 1996, less than 1 percent of Rhode Island lobsters were diseased, with only 4 percent in 1997, but in '98 the percentage jumped to nearly 20 percent, and since then ranges from 18 to 34 percent a year. A similar story played out in Cape Cod, Mass., where from 2000 to 2011, an average 22 percent of sampled lobsters were found to be infected with the disease.
What is causing the increase in the shell disease in New England's waters?
Rising water temperatures, low oxygen levels in the water and pollution are all possible factors in the increase of diseased lobsters, which can kill them before they have properly molted and shed and grown their new shells, according to Kathy Castro, a fisheries biologist at the University of Rhode Island Fisheries Center.
Though the shell disease is thankfully not harmful to humans, it does affect the important Maine and New England fisheries market, accounting for $400 million in revenue for fishermen and coastal communities. Though diseased lobsters can still be processed, as the shell disease does not change their meat, they are far less than valuable in a market that favors healthy, live lobster.
However, not all biologists are worried about the disease affecting local populations, as in the waters north of Cape Cod, only about 3 percent of sampled lobsters have had the disease since 2000.
"It's certainly something to keep an eye on. But in terms of our perspective of Gulf of Maine shell disease, we don't see it as something to get particularly concerned about," Tracy Pugh, a fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, told the Huffington Post. "The rates are pretty low. We don't see a pattern."
In Maine, however, observers have found one out of every 2,000 lobsters sampled to be diseased from 2008 to 2010, and that rate rose to four out of 2,000 in 2011, and six out of 2,000 in 2012.
"From talking to fisherman from Massachusetts on up, it seems like each year it's moving its way north a little bit," South Bristol lobsterman Arnold Gamage Jr., who's been fishing all his life, said to HuffPost. "If we go all day long and I see a few that have shell disease, I think to myself, 'That's a lot.' And I suppose it is a lot compared to none. But it's still a very small number; it's way less than 1 percent."
Carl Wilson, the state lobster biologist with the Department of Marine Resources, told HuffPost that for now, it's far too soon to know whether the recent increase in lobster shell disease in New England is in an anomaly or the beginnings of something more serious, as 2012 marked record-breaking ocean temperature highs. Fisheries are considerably worried, however, as lobsters account for 65 percent of Maine's commercial seafood harvest.
"Keep an eye on it. Keep monitoring it. Lobby federal and state agencies to fund research to understand more about it," Wilson advised. "I think when you have such a high dependence on single fishery, how could you not have a concern? There can be threats to the lobster population that are completely out of the influence of the fishermen, so any change is going to be a concern."
