Connecticut researchers
found no pesticides in lobsters collected in Long Island Sound, more evidence that warming water is behind the huge decline.
Hartford — Connecticut researchers found no pesticides in lobsters collected in Long Island Sound in late 2014, a new study has found, boosting evidence that warming water temperatures are the main culprit in a huge crustacean decline that has decimated the local lobster industry.
The findings raise questions about restrictions Connecticut passed in 2013, amid concern over declining lobster stocks, limiting coastal use of pesticides that can control mosquito populations that transmit diseases, including the West Nile and Zika viruses.
Lobstermen supported the restrictions, believing pesticides contributed to lobster die-offs. Some municipal and environmental officials were opposed, saying the rules would restrict the use of effective mosquito-controlling pesticides that can protect public health and there was no proven connection between pesticides and lobster die-offs.
The renewed debate about pesticides and lobsters comes as concern grows about the Zika virus spreading to the U.S. from Latin America and the Caribbean. The virus is mainly spread through mosquito bites and causes mild illness or no symptoms in most people. But it can cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.
There have been 426 cases of Zika reported in the U.S. including two in Connecticut — all linked to travel to outbreak areas. Authorities believe it’s likely some small clusters of Zika infections will occur in the U.S. when mosquito numbers increase.
In the new study, the Uni- versity of Connecticut and Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station tested 45 lobsters collected in Long Island Sound from Stamford to Stonington in October 2014.
The results, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, confirmed experts’ belief that there were flaws in 2012 testing by UConn in which lobsters collected in the Northeast tested positive for pesticides.
“Something went wrong. We could not confirm their results, and we found no detectable residues” of pesticides, said Theodore Andreadis, director of the Agricultural Experment Station.
The new study does not reach a conclusion about what has been killing off the lobsters. There is evidence from other research, though, that higher ocean temperatures have played a role, said David Simpson, director of the Marine Fisheries Division at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The number of adult lobsters in New England south of Cape Cod dropped to about 10 million in 2013, just one-fifth the total of the late 1990s, according to a report issued in August by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The lobster catch in the region sank to about 3.3 million pounds in 2013, from a peak of about 22 million in 1997, harshly affecting the lobstering industry in Long Island Sound.
The commission said the declines were largely the result of increasing water temperatures over the previous 15 years and continued fishing. Meanwhile, lobster populations in cooler waters in northern New England are booming.
Michael Grimshaw, a Stonington lobsterman, said Fri- day that he was skeptical of the new study’s findings. He believes pesticides sprayed on land that drained into Long Island Sound contributed to massive lobster die-offs in Long Island Sound in the late 1990s. He worried that removing restrictions on pesticides would cause more dieoffs.
State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, a Norwalk Democrat, said it was too early to say whether lawmakers will revisit the pesticide restrictions. He said it was good policy to prevent pesticides from draining into Long Island Sound.
Joseph Conlon, a technical adviser to the nonprofit American Mosquito Control Association, based in Mount Laurel, N.J., said the Connecticut pesticide restrictions are troublesome.
“We’re taking tools out of our toolbox in order to deal with West Nile virus and potentially Zika virus also,” he said.