NOAA fisheries, Connecticut, New York Sea Grant Programs announce research grants: $3.5 million in sound research to address lobster die-offs

WASHINGTON D.C. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and National Sea Grant College Program have announced the awarding of $3.5 million in federal research grants to 14 science research teams in seven states to determine the causes behind the 1999-2000 winter dye-off of the Long Island Sound lobster fishery.

The research is jointly-funded under the Long Island Sound Lobster Initiative, an endeavor of Sea Grant programs in Connecticut and New York along with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and NMFS's Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

The Long Island Sound Lobster Initiative was formed after a July, 2000 Congressional allocation of $6.6 million in federal funds to NOAA to research the scientific and economic impacts of the die off. Congress directed that approximately $3.5 million of those federal funds be dedicated for research investigating potential causes.

An additional $3.1 million in federal research funds have been allocated to the States of Connecticut and New York for lobster resource monitoring and assessment. NMFS and Connecticut State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are sponsoring three additional research projects each. The NMFS projects are funded with approximately $900,000 of the federal money, and the DEP's projects are supported by one million dollars from the State of Connecticut's Long Island Sound Research Fund.

Connecticut and New York Sea Grant both received $165,000 each in federal funding to facilitate communication of the research findings to lobster fishers, resource managers, and the public. Additional portions of the federal money will be used to help mitigate the economic impacts on affected lobster fishermen. Other collaborators include representatives of Long Island Sound lobster fishing organizations and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The awards resulted from a national competition of research projects to investigate the causes of mortality and shell disease in Long Island Sound lobsters. The funded research will investigate many different factors on an ecosystem-wide basis. These include disease-causing organisms, pesticides, pollution, lobster crowding, water quality conditions including elevated temperatures and changes in salinity, and environmental conditions such as storm events.

"The lobster resource in Long Island Sound supports a multi-million dollar bi-state fishery," said Bill Hogarth, Acting Administrator for NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. "Until 1999 the Sound was the nation's number three lobster market, with an estimated annual haul of 11 million pounds that generated approximately $45 million in revenue. This is one of the reasons NOAA is so pleased to be able to help fund this important research."

In New York, lobsters are the most economically important marine species harvested, while in Connecticut, lobsters are second only to bivalve shellfish. Catches fell in the fall of 1999 by as much as 90 percent, forcing many of the Sound's more than 300 lobstermen into dry dock. There has been some improvement since then, but officials still don't know what caused the die off.

Responding to requests from the governors of both Connecticut and New York, then Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley declared the lobster resource in Long Island Sound a commercial fishing failure using the "resource disaster" clauses of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act on January 26, 2000.

Lobsters, seawater, and sediments were tested for toxins, but nothing unusual was found. Then, pathologists from the University of Connecticut conducting necropsies on sick lobsters discovered parasitic paramoebae in their nervous tissues. It was unclear, however, whether the paramoeba was the primary cause of the lobster deaths, or whether other stressors were also involved.

"These research projects represent the best of a national peer-reviewed competition to address an issue of fundamental concern to our nation's ability to ensure sustainable management of one of our most valuable fisheries," said NOAA's National Sea Grant Program Director, Ronald Baird. The selections were finalized by the Long Island Sound Lobster Research Steering Committee, a group composed of scientists, fishery managers, federal and state regulators, and representatives from the lobster fishing industry.

"It has proved a formidable task to energize the research communities of Connecticut, New York, and the nation on short notice to address the several puzzling aspects of the recent lobster fisheries disaster in Long Island Sound," Edward C. Monahan, Director of Connecticut Sea Grant said. "But, it is one our program, working in conjunction with these other agencies, has succeeded in carrying out. We are pleased to have the resources necessary to investigate the question of what is killing the lobsters."

"This effort promises to be an excellent example of federal-state collaborations," says Jack Mattice, Director of New York's Sea Grant Program. "Our hope is that the initiative's research projects will provide evidence to select among the many potential causes of the 1999-2000 lobster mortalities."

Both the Connecticut and New York Sea Grant programs will sponsor efforts to keep the lobster fishermen, resource managers and the public informed about how the research is progressing. New York Sea Grant lobster outreach specialist Antoinette Clemetson will team with Connecticut Sea Grant Extension Leader Nancy Balcom and the communication staffs of the two Sea Grant programs to keep the lines of communications open between the scientists and the stakeholders through a series of newsletter updates, websites, briefings, and workshops coordinated between the two state Sea Grant programs.

Notes Clemetson, "Research is a dynamic and collaborative effort and the program's success depends on the lobster fishing community's willingness to cooperate with the scientists and vice versa."

Both programs have jointly developed background material on the lobster issues, creating a special informational website which can be accessed at:

www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/LILobsters/LILobsters.htm

RESEARCH PROJECT SUMMARY CAPSULES/CONTACT INFORMATION:
The funded projects address areas of shellfish disease, environmental stressors including water quality and pesticides, lobster biology, technological tools for scientific research and management assessments

New York Sea Grant Administered Projects:

Title: "Relationship Between American Lobster Mortality in LIS and Prevailing Water Column Conditions" 2-Yr. Funding Totals: $135,835 (Sea Grant); $48,965 (Matching)
Robert E. Wilson, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-8689; E-mail: [email protected]
R. Lawrence Swanson, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-8704; E-mail: [email protected]
Duane E. Waliser, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-8647; E-mail: [email protected]

Wilson, Swanson and Waliser will examine water quality factors such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and pollutants with respect to the lobster mortalities. The lobsters are vulnerable to stress and sometimes mortality when exposed to unfavorable environmental conditions, especially during the molt cycle. Environmental factors can act singularly or in combination to cause sub-lethal stress that increases sensitivity to events that would normally be tolerated. The apparently elevated salinities during the 1999 mortality events would lead us to focus primarily on co-variations in temperature and dissolved oxygen.

Title: "Effects of Temperature and Body Size on Metabolic Stress in LIS Lobsters"
2-Yr. Funding Totals: $189,514 (Sea Grant); $68,002 (Matching)
Glenn Lopez, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-8660; E-mail: [email protected]
Robert M. Cerrato, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-8666; E-mail: [email protected]

Lopez and Cerrato will try to determine to what extent high summer temperatures in Long Island Sound's bottom waters have negative impacts on lobsters and if larger lobsters are more susceptible to temperature stress than smaller ones. The results of their lab studies may be used to predict the effects of long term changes in summer temperatures on the health of the LIS lobster population. The study will shed light on normal patterns of lobster stress and mortality as well as the extraordinary mortality event of fall 1999.

Title: "Effects of Pesticides of Lobster Health: Trace Level Measurements and Toxicological Assessment at Environmentally Realistic Concentrations"
2-Yr. Funding Totals: $200,031 (Sea Grant); $69,436 (Matching)
Anne E. McElroy, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-8488; E-mail: [email protected]
Bruce J. Brownawell, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-8658; E-mail: [email protected]

McElroy and Brownawell will address the potential link between pesticide use and lobster mortality. They will measure mortality and immune response in larval and juvenile lobsters exposed to environmentally realistic levels of pesticides Malathion, Methoprene, and selected pyrethroids such as Anvil and Scourge. The team will also develop ways to measure levels of these pesticides and their breakdown products in seawater, sediment, and possibly lobster tissues. They are particularly interested in sampling water after storm events when concentrations may be highest. The results of this study should provide a strong indication whether or not pesticide use is likely to contribute to degraded lobster health in Long Island Sound. This study will also shed light on the effects of temperature on the immune response of young lobsters.

Title: "Development of an Assay for Phagocytic Activity in the Immune System of Lobsters"
2-Yr. Funding Totals: $156,968 (Sea Grant); $91,609 (Matching)
Jan Factor, Division of Natural Sciences, SUNY Purchase
Phone: 914-251-6659; E-mail: [email protected]

Factor will look at how lobsters defend themselves against infection and disease. He will seek to develop methods that will allow the assessment of cellular defenses against infection and disease after sub-lethal exposure to environmental stresses and toxic substances. Research may lead to an explanation of the recent mortalities by enabling assessment of impacts on the immune system that may lead to lethal infections.

Title: "Immunological Health of Lobsters: Assays and Applications"
2-Yr. Funding Totals: $215,614 (SeaGrant); $100,585 (Matching)
Robert S. Anderson, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Center for Environmental Sciences, University of Maryland
Phone: 410-326-7247; E-mail: [email protected]

Anderson will use biotechnology tools to measure the blood cell-related defense system of the lobster against disease. This research will lay the groundwork for discerning changes in immune response due to toxicity or other environmental stressors.

Title: "Bacterial Assemblages Involved in the Development and Progression of Shell Disease in the American Lobster, Homarus americanus"
2-Yr. Funding Totals: $238,117 (SeaGrant); $100,903 (Matching)
Andrei Chistoserdov, Marine Sciences Research Center, Stony Brook University
Phone: 631-632-9233; E-mail:
[email protected]
Roxanna Smolowitz, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA
Phone: 508-289-7400; E-mail: [email protected]

By comparing shell disease in lobsters from Eastern Long Island Sound with those from Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, Chistoserdov and Smolowitz will seek to identify the kinds of bacteria that cause lobster shell disease. The team will also design a set of specific probes that will be used to test for such pathogens.

Connecticut Sea Grant Administered Projects:

Title: Stress Indicators in Lobsters: Hormones and Heat Shock Proteins
2-Yr. Funding Totals: $170,115 (SeaGrant); Matching Funds: $155,197
Ernest S. Chang, Bodega Marine Laboratory, Univ. California Davis
Phone: 707-875-2061; E-mail: [email protected]

Chang will investigate the relative impacts of stresses from environmental factors like temperature and salinity), biological factors including bacteria and protozoa), and human-caused stresses pesticides). Lobsters exposed to these stresses will be examined for changes in stress proteins and steroid molting hormones.

Title: Development of assays for the evaluation of immune functions of the American Lobster Homarus americanus) as a tool for health assessment
2-Yr. Funding Totals: $198,271 (SeaGrant), Matching Funds: $67,734
Sylvain DeGuise, and Co-investigators Richard A. French and Salvatore Frasca, Jr., The Dept. of Pathobiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Phone: 860-486-0850; E-mail: [email protected]

The UConn Pathobiology team will develop new tools to use in evaluating how immune systems work in both sick and healthy lobsters. They will expose lobsters to various chemicals and other stressors and measure the response of the immune system in each case.

Title: Determination of the toxicity and sublethal effects of selected pesticides on the American Lobster Homarus Americanus)
2-Yr. Funding: $140,000 (SeaGrant), Matching Funds: $70,201
Sylvain De Guise, Richard A. French, Christopher Perkins, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Phone: 860-486-0850; E-mail: [email protected]

The research team will expose lobsters to malathion, resmethrin, and methoprene, three pesticides used in the region to control mosquitoes after West Nile virus was found. The subtle effects of low levels of pesticides on the lobster immune system will be measured, in addition to high level exposures, to determine toxicity.

Title: Phenotypic and Molecular Identification of Environmental Specimens of the Genus Paramoeba Associated with Lobster Mortality Events
2-Yr. Funding: $299,761 (SeaGrant), Matching Funds: $100,477
Patrick M. Gillevet, George Mason University, Fairfax VA
Phone: 703-993-1057, E-mail: [email protected]
Charles J. O'Kelly, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, West Boothbay Harbor, ME
Phone: 207-633-9616, E-mail: [email protected]
Thomas A. Nerad, American Type Culture Collection, Mannassas, VA
Phone: 703-365-2722, E-mail: [email protected]
Thomas K. Sawyer, Rescon Associates, Inc. Turtle Cove. Royal Oak, MD
410-745-5669, E-mail: [email protected]

Gillevet will use a combination of methods to isolate and characterize the paramoeba that has been identified in Long Island Sound lobsters. Gillevet and O'Kelley hope to develop a sensitive "fingerprinting" tool that will detect this paramoeba in the environment.

Title: Acute Effects of Methoprene on Survival, Cuticular Morphogenesis and Shell Biosynthesis in the American Lobster, Homarus americanus
2-Yr Funding: $230,000 (Sea Grant) Matching Funds: $100,000
Michael N. Horst, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon GA
Phone: 478-301-2558 E-mail: [email protected]

Co-investigators:
Anna N. Walker, Department of Pathology, Mercer University, Macon, GA
Phone: 478-301-4067, E-mail: [email protected]
Thomas G. Wilson, Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
Phone: 970-491-2542, E-mail: [email protected]

Parshall B. Bush, Agricultural and Environmental Services Laboratories, University of Georgia, Athens
Phone: TBA E-mail: [email protected]
Timothy E. Miller, Darling Marine Center, University of Maine, Bristol, ME
Phone: 207-563-3146 ext. 218, E-mail: TBA
Ernest S. Chang, Professor, Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California
Phone: 707-875-2061, E-mail: [email protected]
Timothy E. Miller, Laboratory Manager, Darling Marine Center, University of Maine, Bristol, ME
Phone: 207-563-3146 x218, E-mail: [email protected]
Robert L. Vogel, Department of Community Medicine, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, GA
Phone: 912-784-3581, E-Mail: [email protected]

Horst has hypothesized that methoprene could kill lobsters and cause biochemical changes in juvenile and adult lobsters. His team will study the effects a range of doses have on nerve, skin, and pancreatic cells, shell formation.

Title: Oligonucleotide-based Detection of Pathogenic Paramoeba Species
2-Yr. Funding: $113,587 (Sea Grant) Matching Funds: $37,681
Rebecca J. Gast, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA
Phone: 508-289-3209, E-mail: [email protected]

This research will seek to develop a method to facilitate the detection of paramoeba in animal tissues, water, and sediment samples. Using the new method, the researchers will perform a year-long sampling of Long Island Sound to analyze the paramoeba's fluctuation and distribution.

National Marine Fisheries Service Administered Projects:

Title: Exposure of Lobsters to the Varied Chemical and Biological Environment of Long Island Sound
2-Yr. Funding: $310,000 NOAA/NMFS)
Anthony Paulson, NOAA Fisheries, Howard Laboratory, Sandy Hook, NJ
Phone: 732.872.3012 E-mail: [email protected]
Ashok Deshpande, NOAA Fisheries, Howard Laboratory, Sandy Hook, NJ
Phone: 732.872.3043 E-mail: [email protected]
Andrew Draxler, NOAA Fisheries, Howard Laboratory, Sandy Hook, NJ
Phone: 732.872.3054, E-mail: [email protected]

Paulson, Deshpande, and Draxler will document lobster responses to the chemical and biological conditions of Long Island Sound in an attempt to uncover any direct relationship between lobster health and their environment. The experiment will examine the health of lobsters under ambient Long Island Sound conditions during the time period when lobsters are believed to be most susceptible to these conditions.

Lobsters taken from uncontaminated regions will be evaluated, then placed in cages at six sites around western and central Long Island Sound. The sites will be chosen to span a variety of environmental conditions. For four weeks, scientists will monitor the cages, routinely recover lobsters from each site, and evaluate them for changes attributable to exposure to naturally occurring biogechemicals such as ammonia and sulfide) as well as to contaminants. Lobster health will be assessed by bacterial determinations, and physiological condition. A limited number of the exposed lobsters will also undergo pathological examination.

Title: Effects of Environmental Stressors on Disease Susceptibility in Lobsters: A controlled Laboratory Story
2-Yr. Funding: $301,735 NOAA/NMFS)
Richard Robolm, NOAA Fisheries Laboratory, Milford, CT
Phone: 203.579.7037, E-mail: [email protected]
Andrew Draxler, NOAA Fisheries, Howard Laboratory, Sandy Hook, NJ
Phone: 732.872.3054, E-mail: [email protected]

Robohm and Draxler will investigate the effects of environmental stressors on the susceptibility of lobsters to pathogens. The work will test whether depressed habitat quality may have compromised lobsters' immune systems and contributed to the die-off. This laboratory experiment. The researchers will expose healthy lobsters to two bacterial pathogens in the presence of varying levels of environmentally relevant biogeochemicals such as sulfide and ammonia as well as environmental conditions such as low oxygen and increased temperatures. After the exposures, changes in bacterial numbers and five, lobster, immune-system indices will be measured. The protocol also will allow testing of stressors on the growth of a parasitic amoeba in lobsters, should the amoeba be cultured successfully by other researchers.

A third NOAA Fisheries project will be funded at a later date.

Connecticut Sea Grant Contacts:
Edward Monahan, Director Connecticut Sea Grant, 860-405-9110, E-mail: [email protected]
Nancy Balcom, Extension Program Leader, 860-405-9107, E-mail: [email protected]
Peg Van Patten, Communications Director, 860-405-9141, E-mail: [email protected]

New York Sea Grant Contacts:
Jack Mattice, Director New York Sea Grant Program, 631-632-6905
E-mail: [email protected]
Antoinette Clemetson, New Sea Grant Lobster Outreach Specialist, 631-727-3910, E-mail: [email protected]
Barbara Branca, Communications Director, 631-632-6956, E-mail: [email protected]
Paul C. Focazio, New York Sea Grant Assistant Communicator, 631-632-6910, E-mail: [email protected]

NOAA Sea Grant Contacts:
Ben Sherman, Sea Grant National Media Relations, 202-662-7095, E-mail: [email protected]

NOAA Fisheries Contacts:
Teri Frady, NOAA Fisheries Public Information, NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Phone: 508)495-2239; E-mail: [email protected]
Gordon Helm, NOAA Fisheries Public Affairs, Silver Spring, MD 301-713-2370 E-mail: [email protected]