February 18, 2014 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources said Tuesday it will close a seven-square-mile area at the mouth of the Penobscot River to the harvesting of lobsters and crabs because “mercury contamination” has been found in lobsters there.
The closure will last a minimum of two years, according to a news release issued by Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher.
Keliher said the closure will take effect Saturday and will extend from Wilson Point, just north of Castine Village, across to Fort Point in Stockton Springs and north into the Penobscot River.
“This closure is being taken as a precautionary measure in response to information the Department of Marine Resources recently received about mercury contamination in muscle tissue from lobsters found in this area,” Keliher said in a statement.
The Department of Marine Resources said it became aware of the mercury levels in lobsters in November after it examined findings from a federal court-ordered study. State Toxicologist Andrew Smith was asked to do the analysis.
The Department of Marine Resources said it historically has relied on data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Coastal Condition Assessment, which did its last study of Maine lobsters in 2010. That study did not detect mercury levels that exceeded safe consumption standards.
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