AP, Press Herald report on grant awarded to track diseased lobsters

The Associated Press and the Portland Press Herald reported the Maine Department of Marine Resources awarded more than $127,000 for a lobster shell study led by University of Maine researchers. The grant will aid the development of the project, “A Proactive Approach to Addressing Lobster Health in the Context of a Changing Ecosystem,” which will look at how changes in the ocean can affect lobster reproduction and the animal’s susceptibility to disease, according to the AP. UMaine will create a rapid response team to collect and evaluate sick lobsters harvested in state waters, Deborah Bouchard, who manages the UMaine Animal Health Laboratory and coordinates research at the Aquaculture Research Institute, told the Press Herald. “We want to get the word out to call us anytime that a lobsterman sees something in their traps that’s not right,” Bouchard said. “For years, all the dollars for this kind of thing went southward, where the highest incidence of shell disease was, but now we are seeing funding to study what’s happening right here. Even though it’s not prevalent in Maine waters now, we need to know what’s creeping up the shoreline.” The new UMaine study will be the only real-time study of shell disease in state waters, and will flesh out the state’s statistical research to date, the Press Herald reported. Fosters.com and SF Gate carried the AP report. World Fishing & Aquaculture and WLBZ (Channel 2) also reported on the research.