Due to concerns about elevated mercury levels, state marine resources officials have extended an area at the mouth of the Penobscot River that’s closed to the taking of lobsters and crabs. Marine Resources Department spokesman Jeff Nichols says, based on data from a court-ordered study, a seven-square-mile area was closed in 2014. He says, follow-up monitoring conducted by DMR has led to closure of an additional 5.5 square miles to the southwest of the original closure area. The boundary now runs between Squaw Point on Cape Jellison and Perkins Point in Castine. Nichols says mercury levels found in both the original closure area and that shut down today are consistent with what’s found in canned white tuna.
“It’s an elevated level but it’s something that, rather than going to the extent of issuing any sort of consumption advisory and trying to manage that, the commissioner decided to take a more conservative approach and do a very small and targeted closure,” Nichols says. “What we had was new data. you know we chose an additional area to study that had not perviously been studied so that’s why the line got adjusted.”
He says the intent of the closure is to ensure consumers’ confidence in the quality of Maine lobster.
