SBU Investigator Offers Insights into the Current Health of LI Sound Lobsters

Stony Brook University investigator Dr. Anne McElroy discusses her research on the effects of pesticides on larvae and juvenile lobsters in this Fox News segment about the current state of the fishery. Beginning in Fall 1999, the state of this Long Island Sound fishery was in question, as lobsters began experiencing unprecedented mortalities, particularly in the Sound's western basin.

The Long Island Sound Lobster Initiative was formed after a July 2000 Congressional allocation of $6.6 million in federal funds to NOAA to research the scientific and economic impacts of the die off. Congress directed that approximately $3.5 million of those federal funds be dedicated for research investigating potential causes. New York and Connecticut Sea Grant both received $165,000 each in federal funding to facilitate communication of the research findings to lobster fishers, resource managers, and the public.

Sixty-five scientists at 30 institutions and agencies nationwide participated in the research initiative, investigating the effects of environmental factors, mosquito control pesticides, and disease on the physiology and health of American lobsters. In addition to the CT and NY Sea Grant programs, research projects were funded by NOAA Fisheries, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the State of CT through the CT Department of Environmental Protection Office of Long Island Sound Programs and Marine Fisheries Division.

McElroy's investigation, "The Effects of Pesticides of Lobster Health: Trace Level Measurements and Toxicological Assessment at Environmentally Realistic Concentrations," was one of the Sea Grant-funded projects.

For more background on the five years of research, see Sea Grant's final report "Responding to a Resource Disaster: American Lobsters in Long Island Sound, 1999 - 2004, " which can be found under Sea Grant's "Long Island Sound Lobster Research Initiative" resources site, http://www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/lobster.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NOAA
• New York Sea Grant
• Sea Grant
• Long Island Sound
• lobster
• lobstermen