Plastic in the ocean hurts lobster

By Abbie Mitchell

New studies are showing that compounds from plastics are being found in the bloodstream of lobster and scientists are linking this to lobster shell disease.

As consumers begin purchasing more and more plastic because of low-cost and durability, it is critical that people take responsibility for the waste being generated and dispose of all garbage properly. If not, there can be harmful effects on marine species, humans, and specifically the lobster economy.

At this time in our region, lobsters are the most crucial species to coastal communities. Whole communities are based around the lobster economy. Wharves are full of lobster boats, traps, and buoys. You cannot drive far across the Atlantic coast before stumbling upon a small fishing community, whether it be the actual fishing of lobster, or a community selling lobster, tending lobster in a pound, cooking or packing lobster, and finally, shipping it to countries all across the world.

Any harm to these animals or their populations will have a very negative effect on coastal communities.

Hans Laufer, a professor at the University of Connecticut, and his team of researchers, are studying the effects of plastic debris on lobsters. They have identified four different chemicals – from the breakdowns of plastics – in the bloodstreams of lobsters, and are linking this to lobster shell disease. The four chemicals found in the lobster’s bloodstream are alkylphenols used in the making of plastic and rubber polymer.

Plastics are made from small plastic pellets, which are not biodegradable; therefore, these pellets remain on the ocean’s floor for long periods of time.

Lobsters are scavengers. They either eat the plastic pellets directly thinking they are food – which can give them a false sense of being full and lead to starvation – or they eat other marine species contaminated by plastic chemicals from pellets they have eaten. Either way, the chemicals that make up plastic, upon entering the lobster, can remain there for their entire lifetime. (Abbie Mitchell, a student intern with the Fundy North Fishermen’s Association, has researched recent findings on lobster health and the impacts of marine debris and plastics. The following articles were written by Mitchell on behalf of the Fundy North Fishermen’s Association and the HADD program (Harmful Alternation Disruption and Destruction of Fish Habitat). Fundy North’s marine debris awareness program is funded by the New Brunswick Department of Transportation to compensate for damage to ocean habitat resulting from the construction of the new Grand Manan ferry wharf at Wallace Cove, Blacks Harbour.)