Shell disease putting clamps on New England lobster business

Lobsters in Maine could soon be plagued with a disease that causes no harm to the meat, but alters the shell's appearance to the point that makes them unmarketable, Clarke Canfield reports for The Associated Press. The disease, which has been in New England since the 1990s, only affects one of every 1,000 Maine lobsters, "but scientists and lobstermen are concerned because the incidence grew fivefold from 2010 to 2012."

Kathy Castro, a biologist at the University of Rhode Island, told Canfield that shell disease could be linked to a number of pressures such as rising water temperatures, pollution, and low oxygen levels in the water. (University of Rhode Island photo: A lobster with shell disease)

Lobster in New England is "valued at more than $400 million to fishermen and hundreds of millions more to coastal communities," Canfield writes. In Rhode Island only 1 percent of lobster had the disease in 1996, but that number jumped to 20 percent in 1998 and now ranges from 18 to 34 percent each year. The number in Cape Cod is 20 percent, with a high of 38 percent in 2011. Only 3 percent in Massachusetts were reported to have the disease in 2000, and the number has stayed steady. (Read more)