Who Cares About the Link Between Pesticides and Lobsters? Let's Just Stop Using Pesticides

For years lobster fishermen have been complaining about how pesticides were killing Long Island Sound’s lobsters and putting the lobstermen out of business, and for years reporters have been gullibly reporting the lobstermen’s complaints, and for years I’ve been complaining that the link between pesticides and the Sound’s lobster die-off is a myth.

But lately I’ve come to another conclusion: It doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter because what the lobstermen want is for communities near the Sound to stop using pesticides to kill mosquitoes.

I want that too. There are plenty of good reasons to stop putting poisons into the environment, and few downsides to stopping.

So my new position is that I agree with the lobstermen. I still think they are wrong about the link between pesticides and dead lobsters but it doesn’t matter. Let’s stop using pesticides to kill mosquitoes and we’ll probably find out soon enough if they are right or wrong.

Either way, something good will result: we will be reducing the amount of pesticides in the environment.

Fox News Promotes the Myth that Pesticides are Killing the Sound's Lobsters

I never watch Fox News and I don't know who the people are on this news piece about the lobster die-off in Long Island Sound, but I do know that the piece is irrational to the point of being idiotic.

It gives prominent play to lobstermen who think pesticides are responsible for the Sound's lobster die-off. The piece starts with the lobstermen and ends with the lobstermen.

And then in the middle it manages to squeeze in the opinion of someone else. Who? An actual scientist who has studied the problem and is familiar with the actual scientist. Her reality-based scientific opinion gets about one-tenth the space as the lobstermen who blame pesticides and whose reasoning is really nothing than more than, "It is because I say it is."

Silly. Although in truth I think it's harmless except perhaps to the lobstermen who continue to have their delusions enabled by news people who are misinterpreting the situation on purpose.

Legal Lobster Size to Increase

Big lobsters -- including those caught in Long Island Sound, assuming there are any big lobsters in Long Island Sound -- will be staying in the sea rather than heading for the lobster pot. New rules will increase the minimum size of a keeper. A Five-pound female produces 100,000 eggs at a time. But, as this story asserts, were pesticides the cause of the Sound's lobster die-off in 1999? We know better.