Spring Break
UConn researchers take a crack at lobster disease
Kate Slomkowski
Issue date: 4/6/05 Section: News
A mysterious shell disease is slowly eating away at New England's lobsters. Afflicted lobsters are being pulled up with rotting exoskeletons that do not so much affect the lobster meat as lower their value on the market.
Lobsters from western and eastern Long Island Sound have been found with signs of the disease, according to Hans Laufer, emeritus professor at UConn in molecular and cell biology.
In 1999, the Lobsterman's Association reported dead and dying lobsters from late summer to early fall, according to a status report put out by Sea Grant's Long Island Sound Lobster Initiative.
The Secretary of Commerce declared Long Island Sound fishery a marine resource disaster on Jan. 26, 2000.
In the summer of 2000, Congress approved $13.9 million in economic assistance and research funds to answer the lobster disaster, according to the Initiative report.
Laufer said he took advantage of the available funding and began to look for causes of the deaths by looking for insecticides or anything related to molting hormones.
Laufer used to study insects and said insects and crustaceans are very closely related. They both share the same molting hormone, called ecdysone. In order to grow, insects and crustaceans must shed their exoskeleton and develop a new one, he said.
Laufer noticed the shell disease causes the lobsters to molt, which relates to the hormones he was interested in investigating in how they regulate the life of the crustacean.
Laufer said the animals studied were collected from western and eastern Long Island Sound. He spent several summers conducting research in Massachusetts at the Marine Biology laboratory.
"What we found were chemicals, called alkylphenols, in the collected animals," Laufer said.
According to the Sea Grant web site, "alkyphenols are used in various manufacturing processes, notably as antioxidants in making plastic and rubber polymer products."
Lobsters from western and eastern Long Island Sound have been found with signs of the disease, according to Hans Laufer, emeritus professor at UConn in molecular and cell biology.
In 1999, the Lobsterman's Association reported dead and dying lobsters from late summer to early fall, according to a status report put out by Sea Grant's Long Island Sound Lobster Initiative.
The Secretary of Commerce declared Long Island Sound fishery a marine resource disaster on Jan. 26, 2000.
In the summer of 2000, Congress approved $13.9 million in economic assistance and research funds to answer the lobster disaster, according to the Initiative report.
Laufer said he took advantage of the available funding and began to look for causes of the deaths by looking for insecticides or anything related to molting hormones.
Laufer used to study insects and said insects and crustaceans are very closely related. They both share the same molting hormone, called ecdysone. In order to grow, insects and crustaceans must shed their exoskeleton and develop a new one, he said.
Laufer noticed the shell disease causes the lobsters to molt, which relates to the hormones he was interested in investigating in how they regulate the life of the crustacean.
Laufer said the animals studied were collected from western and eastern Long Island Sound. He spent several summers conducting research in Massachusetts at the Marine Biology laboratory.
"What we found were chemicals, called alkylphenols, in the collected animals," Laufer said.
According to the Sea Grant web site, "alkyphenols are used in various manufacturing processes, notably as antioxidants in making plastic and rubber polymer products."