He said the human health risks of West Nile have been overblown since the only people who died were old or sick already. At the same time, he said, environmental officials, have refused to look into whether the pesticides used to kill mosquitoes killed the lobsters, which are also arthropods and are highly sensitive to chemicals. Still, the eagerness to spray has devastated fishing families around the sound, said Bart Mansi, a Guilford lobsterman who has fished the waters since 1974. He said he knows lobstermen who have sold their boats and homes and are in counseling. Lobstermen in Maine are wary of the potential of spraying to combat West Nile here.
Mosquitoes are here.
You can t eradicate them with a nuclear bomb, said Dave Cousens of South Thomaston, president of the Maine Lobstermen s Association. To stop West Nile it is necessary to kill 99.9 percent of mosquitoes, which would mean spraying the whole state of Maine, Cousens said. Not only would that be prohibitively expensive, but the pesticide would end up in Maine s rivers and streams, and, eventually, the ocean where it would kill lobsters and Maine s lucrative lobster fishery, he said. Representatives of the Department of Marine Resources are included in a state West Nile task force. The opinions of lobstermen and other interested parties will be solicited as the state puts together a plan to deal with the disease, said Hicks of the pesticide board.