Lobster die-off impact lingers Harvest still poor in Long Island Sound

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – The Connecticut lobster industry continues to reel from a massive die-off in Long Island Sound more than two years ago.

Preliminary figures released by the Department of Environmental Protection show that 1.36 million pounds of lobster were harvested in the sound in 2001.

That figure is in marked contrast to the 3.7 million pounds fished in 1998, the year before the die-off killed more than a million lobsters in the western sound.

“I look at the data and I talk to the fishermen – the ones who are still at it. And if I had to pick one word for it, I’d say it was dismal,” said Ernie Beckwith, manager of marine fisheries for the DEP.

At its peak in 1998, lobstering amounted to a $35 million industry in Connecticut. Today the lobster business is tallying about $13.6 million.

Mike Horvath of Norwalk is among the scores of lobstermen driven out of the business.

“I’m living on my savings. And I’ve budgeted pretty close. If I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t have anything,” Horvath told the Connecticut Post. “Still, I had to sell my boat, my equipment. I had to. There was just too much debt; it eats you alive.”

Connecticut has 312 licensed commercial lobsterman, down 31 percent from 450 two years ago.

Federal disaster designation for the region freed up $13.9 million to help lobster fishers cope with financial losses and retrain for other jobs as well as fund research into the causes of the die-off.

Researchers have yet to pinpoint the cause of the lobster deaths that devastated the industry.

At the University of Connecticut’s pathobiology lab in Storrs, researchers who have a share of a $6.6 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration still are trying to determine the cause.

A microscopic parasite, a paramoeba, that is known to attack rock crabs was found in each of 50 dead lobsters tested at their lab.

“While it may seem to be a factor in the lobsters’ die-off, we don’t know if it indeed was or if it was the only one,” said Sylvain DeGuise, an assistant professor of pathology at UConn.

At its peak, there were 320,000 licensed traps lining Long Island Sound. A year after the die-off, DEP records show there were only 160,000 licensed traps.

As for the future of the industry. Beckwith said it could take some time for any sort of rebound.

“The way it looks now, it might be at least five years or seven years before the lobsters are back to where they were in the [western] sound,” Beckwith said.