AP quotes Bouchard in article on lobster shell disease increase
The Associated Press spoke with Deborah Bouchard, a microbiologist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, for an article about lobster shell disease ticking up slightly in Maine over the last couple of years. The disease, often called epizootic shell disease, is a bacterial infection that makes lobsters impossible to sell as food, eating away at their shells and sometimes killing them, according to the article. The Maine Department of Marine Resources said researchers found the disease in about 1 percent of lobsters last year, but overall prevalence of the disease remains low, especially compared to southern New England waters. Scientists who study the fishery, such as Bouchard, said it remains important to monitor for the disease, which appears to correlate with warming temperatures. “People have been investigating shell disease,” she said. “I don’t know if we can even call it emerging yet.” The Portland Press Herald, Bangor Daily News, SFGate and The Kansas City Star carried the AP report.