ORONO – With help from a federal grant, the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute has plans to create a coalition of scientists and industry representatives in the Northeast and in Atlantic Canada to help monitor the health of Atlantic lobster populations.

According to a statement released by the institute, it has received $178,421 in funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help with the effort.

In the release, Robert Bayer, executive director of the institute, noted that last year Maine fishermen landed roughly 56 million pounds of lobster worth about $248 million, which is about 80 percent of the landings in the entire U.S. The annual national economic impact of the fishery, he indicated, is estimated at $700 million to $1.2 billion.

“The lobster fishery’s continued success is particularly dependent on the long-term health of the lobster and its habitat,” Bayer wrote in the release. “We must be proactive in sustaining both the lobster resource and the lobster industry, which employs thousands of citizens, many in economically depressed areas.”

The Lobster Health Coalition, which will be part of the institute’s conservation, outreach, research and education, or CORE, initiative, will work to collect baseline lobster health data and will encourage coordinated research to address lobster health issues.

Deborah Bouchard, manager of UMaine’s Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory, said a 2007 project that tested samples from wild lobster populations will be used as a model for regional sampling by the coalition.

“We intend to develop a regionwide lobster health program focusing on pathogenbiolog and disease epidemiology, with strategies for prevalence testing, disease diagnostics and health management,” Bouchard said in the release.

The Lobster Institute can be contacted at 581-2751 for more information.