Late last summer, lobstermen like Pete Lauda started noticing that their catches were either dead or dying before they even got back to the dock. N.Y. Lauder said that when times were good, he have to make dozens of trips to unload the lobsters, but now his catch doesn't even fill a single tray.
Marine biologists think a disease caused by a parasite is to blame.
I have two children, I've got a mortgage, health insurance, life insurance. It's a disaster. There are about 900 licensees from New York and another 400 in Connecticut who earn a living fishing for lobster. New York ranked behind only Maine and Massachusetts in lobster production last year, with 8.5 million pounds. The problem first was noticed in the western part of the Sound in mid-September, said Carl Lobue of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.