The lobstermen and environmentalist allies cite what they call evidence that secondary treatment in Lynn Harbor and elsewhere has annihilated lobstering areas. But Bruce Estrella, the official in charge of tracking lobster harvests for the state Division of Marine Fisheries, and Kari Lavalli, a postdoctoral researcher at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole who heads the Maine-based Lobster Conservancy, this week strongly disputed a link between cleaner water and falling lobster catches. That's a ludicrous conclusion . . . It's a lot more complex than to say this one thing is causing it. Lobstering areas not far from North Shore bodies of water where he thinks secondary treatment outfalls have harmed the crustaceans continue to be productive, Adler said.
Lobsters move in and move out.
Adler said, noting that not only lobsters but crabs and other species have vanished from parts of Lynn Harbor and waters off Deer Island where better-treated sewage effluent now flows. EPA officials plan to issue their outfall pipe license in July, which will require the MWRA to conduct intensive tests of its impacts on fisheries and aquatic life, and are closely reviewing lobstermen's concerns. But, Estrella said cleaner water is not going to harm lobsters. Our agency feels that the new outfall and the predicted effluent profile will not present a problem to the coastal lobster resource. Lavalli said coastal development is the biggest threat to shallow waters where lobsters develop.