LAY OFF OUR LOBSTERS

The Maine lobster industry has been getting hit from all directions lately. Friends of animals complain that lobsters suffer. Friends of the ocean complain that Maine lobstermen may be catching too many of the crustaceans and endangering the resource.

The facts don’t bear out these charges. Lobsters feel no pain, according to researchers. And the lobster population keeps growing despite record catches, since Maine’s independent lobstermen and women respect trap limits, avoid fishing on Sunday during the summer, and carefully toss back egg-bearing females, as well as undersize or oversize lobsters.

Some good-hearted citizens have been taken in by allegations that lobsters are suffering and that lobsters are an endangered species. And a few big corporations have now joined the fray in a public relations move to cater to such reputable values as love for animals and respect for the environment.

Whole Foods, a huge natural food chain, has announced that it is halting the sale of live lobsters for fear that they may not be handled humanely as they go from the ocean floor to the market. Wal-Mart has announced that it intends soon to sell seafood that comes only from certified “sustainable” fisheries.

As for the alleged suffering, biologists at the University of Maine have long debunked the notion that lobsters feel pain. Some consumers claim that they shriek in agony when plunged into boiling water, whereas an occasional squeal actually comes from the escape of expanding air in their flotation sacs.

Wal-Mart’s idea of dealing with only certified fisheries is likewise problematic. Certification is supervised by the London-based Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which describes itself as “an independent global, nonprofit organization which was set up to find a solution to the problem of overfishing.”

It was founded in 1997 by Unilever, the world’s largest buyer of seafood, and the World Wildlife Fund. It says costs of certification could range from $35,000 to as high as $500,000. A Florida State University study warns that the MSC system limits market access, keeps total supply down land drives prices up, benefiting the approved producers.

For a fuller account of these matters, see an article in the July Boston magazine by Trevor Corson, author of “The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean” and one of the best friends of Maine lobsters and Maine lobstermen.

Mr. Corson says people should be wary of the “ethical fiction that we can be close to our food and far away from it at the same time.” It’s hard not to be close to a lobster when you’re dipping it in butter.