Lobstermen work the bay's East Passage.

When female lobsters laden with eggs shed their shell before the juvenile lobsters hatch, lobsterman Patrick Heaney says that something unnatural is the cause.

"It's like they're aborting," said Mr. Heaney, a Newport inshore lobsterman for 16 years. "When you see that, you know there's something drastic happening. Nature doesn't do that."

Lobstermen blame an insecticide called methoprene which is applied inside catch basins to kill larval mosquitoes. They believe that chemical then washes out through storm drains into Narragansett Bay and other estuaries.

The R.I. Lobstermen's Association, which Mr. Heaney represents, and the Ocean State Fishermen's Association have banded together to get towns and cities throughout Rhode Island to stop applying methoprene as a precautionary measure.

So far, Little Compton, Newport, Jamestown and Narragansett have adopted resolutions to not use the insecticide. Bristol did the same but added a provision to revisit the issue in one year. State Rep. Raymond E. Gallison Jr. also submitted a bill to ban the use of methoprene, which he says has harmful effects on lobsters.

The R.I. Department of Environmental Management supplies methoprene (brand name Altosid) through a voluntary program. Methoprene, which looks like rabbit pellets, stops the growth of mosquitoes during the pupa stage so they do not emerge from the casing as an adult.

At around the time the state began using methoprene in 2000 to prevent the spread of West Nile Virus, Mr. Heaney said he observed a decrease in the health of lobsters, which in the 1990s he said had provided a very robust fishing industry. Despite a program that introduced more female lobsters to the bay, Mr. Heaney said there's been a "flatline" in the juvenile lobster population. He's seen many lobsters with a shell disease that he describes as a pitting or "shell rot." The lobsters he catches are often soft, indicating they have recently shed, which he said they will do to get rid of the shell rot.

"Even in the dead of winter, they are still soft," Mr. Heaney said. "This is environmental poisoning that's taking place and it's got to stop."

There are some similarities between insects and lobsters, Mr. Heaney said. In fact, some long-time lobstermen call lobsters "bugs."

Alternative proposed

The state supplies almost 2,000 pounds of methoprene each year to municipalities, according to Alan Gettman, who leads DEM's mosquito abatement program.

The department of public works applies one-quarter teaspoon, or about 24 pellets, of methoprene to each catch basin. Dr. Gettman said there are varying levels of participation across the state, but he figures that a large percentage of the state's catch basins are treated.

When the program began in the summer of 2000, the University of Rhode Island tested whether a rainstorm would flush out the methoprene pellets, which are supposed to sink to the bottom, not float, as well as the dilution rate of the insecticide.

Dr. Gettman said DEM concluded through these studies that any methoprene that made it into the bay would be diluted to harmless levels.

"We have always contended that there is a dilution factor of Narragansett Bay so that when the products get washed out to the bay in a rainstorm, the dilution is so great such that lobsters are extremely unlikely to get levels that are harmful to them," he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency says methoprene "show(s) some toxicity to certain fish and aquatic invertebrates in laboratory tests. However, none of the four active ingredients is expected to have harmful effects on wildlife, humans, or the environment when used as specified on the product labels."

Mr. Heaney suspects that methoprene's toxicity has built up in the bay over the years.

"They don't really know at what point this stuff remains in the water," Mr. Heaney said. "We're seeing cumulative effects — it's eight years into it."

Last month, Dr. Gettman said DEM began offering an alternative to methoprene: Bacillus sphaericus, a bacterium that acts as a larvicide. Dr. Gettman said this is a less reliable insecticide that flushes out of the basins when it rains.

Mr. Heaney said the R.I. Lobstermen's Association supports the Bacillus sphaericus insecticide.

"What we don't want to see is no treatment and then an outbreak (of West Nile)," Mr. Heaney said.

Mr. Heaney spoke to the Portsmouth Town Council a second time on Monday night, after councilors had had a chance to look into the issue.

"You occupy a very prominent position in the health of the bay," Mr. Heaney said to councilors, and threw his support behind using the bacterium insecticide.

Councilor William West said that with Newport's decision to stop using methoprene and an alternative presented by DEM, it was worth trying a different method. Middletown's opinion is pending another discussion.

"I think we have a chance to do something and see if it works," Mr. West said.

The Portsmouth council did not adopt the resolution to ban methoprene but approved the use of the bacterium insecticide. Councilors requested that Mr. Heaney return in a year to report on the health of lobsters.

By Jill Rodrigues

jrodrigues@eastbaynewspapers.com