AP quotes Bayer, Wahle in article on Sweden’s proposed lobster ban
Robert Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute; and Rick Wahle, a marine scientist at UMaine, were quoted in an Associated Press article about Sweden wanting the European Union to bar imports of live American lobsters. Sweden says the crustaceans could spread disease and overwhelm the smaller European variety by outcompeting them for food, according to the article. Bayer said research on shell disease does not suggest it is contagious, and red-tail disease hasn’t been seen in years. Wahle dismissed the danger of interbreeding, another risk raised by Sweden, the article states. He said there is no evidence hybrids of the two lobster species — American and European — are viable in the wild. “Attempts to introduce American lobsters elsewhere have failed,” Wahle said. “A newly introduced lobster would face a gantlet of different species that it has no experience with.” Bayer also was quoted in a Portland Press Herald article and editorial on the proposed ban. ABC News, WAGM (Channel 8 in Presque Isle), Savannahnow and Gloucester Times carried the AP report, and Mainebiz cited the Press Herald article.