'Ugly Lobster' Disease

[Hardbopjazz]

How many beers does it take before it starts looking good?

Business - AP

'Ugly Lobster' Disease Creeping North

Thu May 27, 2:37 AM ET Add Business - AP to My Yahoo!

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - A baffling disease that makes lobsters ugly, but not inedible, has crept northward from the Buzzards Bay hotspot where it's afflicted lobsters for several years.

The numbers of infected lobsters are far too tiny to cause panic, but researchers and lobstermen are weary of the disease's progress. The disease doesn't affect the meat, but a lobster with a corroded, blackened shell is a tough sell.

"You go and spend $8 for a lobster, you want a good-looking lobster," said Edward Heaphy, a lobsterman of 50 years from Dover, N.H.

In 1998, diseased lobsters began filling traps in the Buzzards Bay area, off the coast of southeastern Massachusetts. Almost a quarter of all lobsters sampled by the state in the bay that year had the disease, known as shell burn.

In the years since, the diseased lobsters were found in lesser numbers in Cape Cod Bay and Boston Harbor. Last year, according to preliminary numbers, 3 percent of lobsters caught off Salem and Cape Ann had the disease — the first time since sampling began there in 2000 that any infected lobsters were recorded.

"We've seen, year by year, a slow, steady progression northward," said Bob Glenn, a biologist leading the coastal lobster studies at the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

Arthur Sawyer, a second generation Gloucester lobsterman, said he's spotted a couple diseased lobsters in the last year or two, but added, "You're still talking about nothing."

He said the disease is worth watching because of its mobility and unexplained cause.

"To say whether it's going to get worse or not, nobody knows," Sawyer said. "Those guys got creamed down there" in Buzzards Bay.

The state's lobster catch was worth $56.7 million in 2002, the most recent year for which statistics were available.

The shell disease hasn't been tied to any mass die-offs, and lobsters seem to survive it reasonably well, though perhaps in a weakened state, Glenn said.

The disease is caused by the chitinolytic bacteria that eats chitin, a cellulose-like substance in the shells. The disease has been around forever, but the strain that's hit Buzzards Bay could be new and more virulent, Glenn said.

"It's not like livestock where you could inoculate them," Glenn said.

The disease has yet to significantly affect Maine — where fishery officials recorded 44 cases of shell disease among 130,000 lobsters sampled in 2003 — or New Hampshire, where the disease turned up in 43 of 14,308 lobsters.

"Right now, I don't think it's anything to be concerned about," Heaphy said. "We're keeping our fingers crossed."

___

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Small farms are the fastest growing category of agricultural operations in the state, a University of Nebraska farm economist said.

Greg Helmers said data from the 2002 U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) census shows Nebraska has more very large and very small farms but few in between.

The agricultural census defines very small farms as those with annual sales of less than $2,500. A very large farm has annual sales of more than $500,000.

Helmers said very small operations now account for 20 percent of Nebraska's farms, up from 13 percent in 1997.

He said the smallest farm class includes small sweet corn acreages and operations that raise produce for farmers' markets.

Small farms are becoming more popular because more people see them as valid part-time work, Helmers said. He said small farms are particularly common near the state's larger cities.

Very large farms increased to 5.7 percent of Nebraska agricultural operations in 2002, compared with 4.7 percent in 1997.

Farms with annual sales between $100,000 and $500,000 remain most common, comprising about 26 percent of Nebraska's farms, but are down from 29 percent in 1997.

[Jazzmoose]

As much as I enjoy lobster, I have never seen a good looking one. Jeez, they look like giant sea roaches, for crying out loud...

[Man with the Golden Arm]

They are of course bugs of the sea. A half century ago it was not deemed fit for brahman consumption and was the staple of the lesser class. Was it not a law that slave owners were not allowed to feed the slaves lobster more than once a week?

Gimme some fra diavlo anyday! Ugly or not!!!

[WD45]

[Hardbopjazz]

They have to bring back this show.

[WD45]

I watch it every night on The Cartoon Network.

[JSngry]

Crawfish still look nice.

[Jazzmoose]

Crawfish still look nice.

Hmmph. Water crickets as opposed to sea roaches...I dunno....

[Man with the Golden Arm]

...and alkyhaul don't seem to help!

[JSngry]

Crawfish still look nice.

Hmmph. Water crickets as opposed to sea roaches...I dunno....

"Mud Bugs" is the term of choice, thank you, especially when consuming them by the pound.

[couw]

...and alkyhaul don't seem to help!

you look fat in that dress