A disease affecting the shells of lobsters, leaving them unrecognizable and in some cases unmarketable, is slowly creeping northward to the coast of Maine, according to the Associated Press.
The disease, which is not harmful to humans, has affected three out of every 1,000 lobsters sampled in Maine, last year. New England waters have already been hurt by the so-called epizootic shell disease, which is caused by bacteria that eats away at a lobster's shell. The disease stresses lobsters and can sometimes kill them but doesn't taint their meat.
According to Carl Wilson, the state lobster biologist with the Department of Marine Resources, the disease first became noticeable in southern New England waters in the 1990s.
One in every three or four lobsters caught in waters off southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island in recent years has been diseased.
According to the AP, lobsters account for 65 percent of the value of the Maine's commercial seafood harvest. Scientist and lobstermen are concerned because the prevalence grew from 2010 to 2012. Wilson said people should be concerned, but not alarmed, by the numbers.
"But it's not, considering all the sampling we have and all the caveats of our sampling design," Wilson said. "But it's something we are watching."
According to ABC News, lobsters are one of the most important fisheries in Maine and New England, valued at more than $400 million to fishermen. Diseased lobsters can still be processed but are harder to sell.
Biologist began sampling for the disease in Rhode Island and found less than 1 percent in 1996 and 4 percent in 1997. But in 1998, the percentage jumped to nearly 20 percent; since then and ranged from 18 to 34 percent a year.
Kathy Castro, a fisheries biologist at the University of Rhode Island Fisheries Center, said the shell disease is linked to varies things such as rising water temperatures, pollution and low oxygen levels in the water, according to Associated Press. Young lobsters can molt out of the disease when they shed their shells and grow new ones.
Due to the sudden increase of shell disease over a short period in southern New England, Maine's lobstermen and scientists have good reason to be worried, said Jeffrey Shields, a marine science professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who's been hired to assess some of the diseased lobsters caught off Maine.
"Keep an eye on it. Keep monitoring it. Lobby federal and state agencies to fund research to understand more about it," said Shields.
According to the AP, Shields said he is confident the shell disease in Maine will not be replicate in southern New England.
"I think when you have such a high dependence on single fishery, how could you not have a concern?" Wilson said. "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."
