Free Republic

BOSTON - A baffling disease that makes lobsters ugly, but not inedible, has crept northward from the Buzzards Bay hotspot where it's afflicted lobsters for several years. The numbers of infected lobsters are far too tiny to cause panic, but the disease's progress is being eyed warily by regional researchers and lobstermen. The disease doesn't affect the meat, but a lobster with a corroded, blackened shell is a tough sell. "You go and spend $8 for a lobster, you want a good-looking lobster," said Edward Heaphy, a lobsterman of 50 years from Dover, N.H. In 1998, diseased lobsters began filling...

KEY WEST -- A herpeslike virus has infected up to 10 percent of baby lobsters in the Florida Keys, causing some fisheries experts to wonder whether the disease explains dips in lobster catches in recent years. Biologists doubt that the disease can be transferred to humans but have alerted the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just in case. In all but two cases, the virus has been detected only in lobsters that are less than 6 months old, not yet at reproduction age, and smaller than 3 inches, the minimum length at which they can legally be caught....

<p>CANANDAIGUA NY— Joel Freedman grew upset at seeing lobsters, with rubber bands on their claws, piled atop one another in a supermarket tank. The animal-rights advocate figured it was time to make his anger known.</p> <p>Freedman bought a pound of scallops and, before anyone could intervene, lifted the tank lid and dumped them in.</p>