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Saving a New England Icon

Postdoctoral investigator Tim Verslycke works in a WHOI biology lab to understand a shell disease that is contributing to the decline of the American lobster, Homarus americanus, in New England. Researchers first started to notice little black spots on lobster shells in the 1980s; recently, they have been uncovering shells that are fully infected and rotting. Thirty percent of lobsters in coastal New England and Long Island Sound are now affected by shell disease. Verslycke, a marine toxicologist with a specific interest in how marine crustaceans are affected by environmental changes, is a contributor to the New England Lobster Research Initiative. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)