Fingers pointed at mosquito spray for L.I.'s lobster dieoff

By DAVE SALTONSTALL

August 7, 2000 Web posted at: 3:36 PM EDT (1936 GMT)

In this story: Economic nightmare The microorganism theory Sudden depletion RELATED STORIES

NEW YORK (The New York Daily News) -- Joseph Finke, a Long Island lobsterman for the past 20 years, still recalls the day that death, not lobster, came crawling out of his mesh wire traps.

It was last fall, Sept. 20, four days after Hurricane Floyd dumped more than a foot of rain on Long Island.

"Not in my worst nightmare could I ever have imagined that sight," said Finke, 44, remembering the dead, dying or deformed lobsters that clogged his traps.

"It was just a total wipeout, and a total mystery."

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Now, however, many area lobstermen, and a growing number of scientists, believe that New York City's aerial spraying of pesticides last fall to combat the West Nile virus, along with huge runoffs from Hurricane Floyd, may have combined to trigger the lobster kill. More than 10 million lobsters, or 90% of stock, are thought to have died last fall in the western part of the Long Island Sound, where catches remain one-fifth of what they were last year.

Researchers say the pesticide theory begins with a simple fact: Lobsters are bugs. Like mosquitoes, they are arthropods, or members of the same genealogical family.

Lobsters also are known to be extremely sensitive to insecticides, in many cases, even more susceptible than insects. But research suggests that although pesticides such as malathion may well have played a role in the kill, the story probably is much more complicated.

"There are a tremendous number of factors that play into it," said Dr. Richard French, a University of Connecticut pathologist whose research points to everything from warming waters to sewer runoff to algae blooms. "So what we need to do is dissect out each thing separately."

The federal government has put aside some $6 million to help study the problem, an allocation that became a political issue last week when U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton noted that her opponent, Rep. Rick Lazio (R-Suffolk), voted against the bill.

The Long Island congressman said he cast his negative vote because the bill contained pork-barrel projects.

The studies should begin by October, state officials say. In the meantime, the human and economic toll has been devastating.

Before last fall, lobstering was a $45 million-a-year business in the Long Island Sound, behind only Maine and Massachusetts. Now Finke, who last month had to put his beloved boat, Rebecca-E.B., up for sale, lists the names of his fellow out-of-work lobstermen like a roster of the dead.

Last summer, there were eight lobster boats working out of Glen Cove; now there are none, and everyone is scattered, just trying to survive.

"One guy is landscaping," he said. "I'm digging a few clams. One guy moved down to Carolina, opened up a restaurant. One opened up a charter boat business out of Montauk. And there are an awful lot of traps for sale."

The story is much the same across the sound in Connecticut, where lobstermen such as Gary Olewnik speak of a proud community lost at sea.

"It's like a ghost town out there on the water now," said Olewnik, 45, of Norwalk, where the fleet has dwindled from more than a dozen boats last summer to three today. "Even though it was always highly competitive, you always looked forward to seeing one another or talking on the radio.

"Now," he adds, "your boat better be running perfectly, because there aren't any other lobster boats out there to tow you back in."

It hasn't helped that local lobstermen are getting no more this year than last year for their catches; about $3.50 to $4 per pound. Maine and Massachusetts are more than able to fill the void. At that rate, local lobstermen say they are lucky to clear $350 a day, less than it often costs for fuel, docking fees, insurance, bait and, if they are lucky, their one- or two-man crews.

"I probably lost $50 today," sighed Olewnik as he stood aboard his 36-foot boat, Jennifer-Lynn. "But if I'm not fishing myself, I can't tell what's going on out there."

Along the hardest hit docks in the western sound, no one knows for sure what started the chain of killing. But based on preliminary research by French at the University of Connecticut, a very high percentage of the dead lobsters were infected by a tiny microorganism, or paramoeba.

Like many paramoeba, the organism probably floated harmlessly through the sound for years, researchers surmise. But then something happened last fall to break down the lobsters' immunity to infection, and the paramoeba took hold.

The most plausible scenario seems to combine a series of seemingly unrelated, possibly unique events last summer and fall that, when added together, proved deadly.

For starters, last August was a very hot, dry month. The heat raised water temperatures to record levels in the sound, which already is the southernmost edge for lobsters in the U.S.

Then, in early September, New York City began aerial spraying of malathion to combat a West Nile virus outbreak that eventually would kill seven people. Other communities throughout Westchester County and Connecticut also sprayed and sprinkled pellets of methoprene, another pesticide, into storm drains and lakes to control mosquitoes.

Then on Sept. 16 came Floyd, and millions of gallons of runoff, no doubt laden with higher-than-normal levels of pesticide, ran into Long Island Sound. The amount of runoff was so great that some fishermen recall the color of the sound actually changing, a rarity.

Adding to the environmental woes, several sewage treatment plants in Connecticut overflowed, dumping millions of gallons of putrid water into the sound. Others point to heavy dredging in Mamaroneck Harbor last summer and fall that also stirred the western sound's shallow waters.

Finke's water-stained log still attests to the havoc that followed.

On Sept. 14, he hauled in 244 pounds of lobster, a good catch. Then Floyd struck and within a few days his haul was down to almost nothing. By Oct. 8, he could net only 44 pounds.

The lobstermen by now all have heard this multipronged theory, but they remain suspicious.They say that there always have been hurricanes, algae blooms and sewage in the sound, with little apparent effect.

What was new last year, they argue, was the malathion and other pesticides used against the mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus. They note that the lobster harvest worsened with proximity to New York City, while the eastern end of the sound remained bountiful.

"My theory is that something screwed the lobsters up, and we are all looking at the mosquitoes," said George Doll, a lobsterman for 30 years and an officer of the Long Island Lobsterman's Association, as he unloaded a few small barrels of the crustaceans in Northport last week.

Doll spoke just 30 feet from a small granite memorial that is dedicated "to the men and women of Northport who harvest the bay, for their contribution to our maritime heritage."

Doll's almost defeated voice, combined with the empty barrels aboard his boat, seemed to suggest that his ancient trade may be threatened as never before.

"I could get a job working in McDonald's and make more money," he said.

"I think I am only doing it because that's what I do. Someone has to do it."

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