Dead Lobster
I spent some time in the Florida Keys last week-- which was near the beginning of the area's lobster season. But, from our boat, lobsters were few and far between. We did see a few pieces of floating trash here and there, though, and now scientists suggest that the Keys lobsters' northeast cousins may be suffering due to long term effects of trash in the ocean. Researcher Hans Laufer has produced evidence suggesting that concentrations of alkyphenols--formed when hard plastics break down-- might cause weaknesses in lobsters' shell producing abilities. The problem comes when the lobsters shed one shell and their skin begins to harden, forming the next shell. Laufer suggests that because these alkyphenols closely resemble the amino acid tyrosine, which is used in shell hardening, the plastic derivative may block the usual tyrosine-assisted hardening process. This weakened shell leaves the lobster susceptible to infections and diseases that have drastically affected northeast lobster populations in recent years.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-19-2008 @ 9:44PM
Leslie Wolcott said...
Thanks for the comments, PZ, and I'm glad you've enjoyed reading. I didn't mean to suggest that our observations were at all scientific; in fact some friends there the same week as us must have seen nearly a hundred lobster (they bagged several dozen). I was just using my anecdotal experience as a lead-in to a discussion of actual scientific research about another type of lobster. Thanks for reading and for keeping me in line! :)
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8-19-2008 @ 10:42PM
PZ said...
Hello,
I have been enjoying your blog for several months now. But I have to write in to say that I disagree with your observation in your "Dead Lobster" article.
You can't use a study of a lobster shell disease in Long Island Sound and southern New England to try to explain why you didn't see many Florida spiny lobsters 2 weeks into lobster season.
If you're going to do a population study, you should certainly do it BEFORE lobster season starts. In fact, there is a 2 day "mini" season the week before the main season starts. So you should really have been out counting lobsters a whole month ago.
I was in the Florida Keys when lobster season opened. And in just one day of diving, 5 of us bagged a total of 18 legal lobsters, not to mention 2 or 3 times that many we saw that were too small or females with eggs (and you cannot take those), and we didn't see any dead lobsters.
Your sample size was too small: some observers on a boat? that leads me to think of many more questions... how many places did you stop? how big of an area did you cover? were you diving down 20 or 60 feet and looking under rock ledges (which is where they live)? or were you just looking over the side of the boat?
Now, I agree 100% that we should use less, throw away less, and recycle as much as possible.
What I disagree with is that you have presented an article which implies that there are no more Florida spiny lobsters left, and that is not the case.
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