Lobstermen Applaud Bipartisan Effort to Keep Pesticides Out of Long Island Sound

On Monday afternoon State Rep. John Shaban (R-135) and the few remaining members of an endangered species, Connecticut lobstermen, gathered at the Darien Seafood Market to raise awareness of a blight that has all but destroyed that industry.

In the 1990’s there were about 1,200 Connecticut lobstermen, says Darien Seafood Market owner Roger Frate, a lobsterman himself and President of the West End Long Island Sound Lobster Association. Today there are perhaps 15-20 lobstermen left.

The lobster population in Long Island Sound has decreased dramatically over the last decade, corresponding with the introduction of new pesticides, methoprene and resmethrin, into waters along Long Island Sound.

The fishermen were joined by a bipartisan group of state legislators, including State Rep. Craig Miner (R-Litchfield) and State Senators Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), Clark Chapin (R-New Milford) and Carlo Leone (D-Stamford), who all worked together this year to pass legislation that will curtail the use of these pesticides.

"For several years we have listened to the experts who told us that these pesticides could not harm the lobster population – last year, however, we learned that the experts may have been wrong,” said Rep. Shaban, Ranking Member of the Environment Committee.  "This measure will give the benefit of the doubt to the people who have been working these waters for their entire lives, and will help restore a lucrative local industry.”

The lobster population in the Sound is currently at an all-time low. According to the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), lobster landings (i.e. lobsters caught by fishermen) in Long Island Sound have declined from 3.7 million pounds in 1998 to just 142,000 pounds in 2011. The central and western Sound, where landings have fallen by 99% since 1998, has seen the greatest decline in lobster abundance.

Local lobstermen have long laid the blame for this decline on the introduction of new pesticides into the coastal areas near Long Island Sound, in particular the chemicals methoprene and resmethrin. Methoprene is a larvicide introduced into still water to combat mosquito larvae. Resmethrin is a broad-spectrum insecticide with many uses, including controlling adult mosquitoes.

“Ever since methoprene and resmethrin started being used against mosquitoes, we’ve seen lobsters dying off in the Sound. It happens every year, particularly after the first big rain of the summer, when the pesticides that are sprayed along the shore get washed out to sea,” said Roger Frate. “They use these chemicals against the West Nile virus, but there are safer chemicals like BTI that work just as well, and that don’t kill lobsters.”

In 2011 the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection discovered small amounts of the pesticides methoprene and resmethrin in the tissue of lobsters taken from the catch of a lobsterman in the middle of the Sound, south of Norwalk.  A larger study of the problem by the DEEP is currently underway, and expected to be completed by late July.

In the meantime, House Bill 6441 will require the DEEP to establish a plan by September of this year to restrict the use or application of methoprene or resmethrin in the state's coastal boundary. The plan would still allow use of methoprene or resmethrin if the DEEP commissioner recommends it to prevent a threat of mosquito-borne illness, such as West Nile.

The legislation passed the House of Representatives on May 30th in a 140 to 1 vote, and then unanimously in the State Senate on June 4th.  It now awaits approval by Governor Malloy.