Sweden doubles down on proposed lobster ban

Courtesy / Tom Thai, Flickr Despite questions about the scientific basis behind a proposed ban on the import of live lobsters, Swedish officials are standing behind the ban.

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Maine’s congressional delegation says that it will make an appeal to the World Trade Organization if the European Union sides with Sweden’s proposed ban on the import of live lobsters into the EU.

The Associated Press reported that Sweden's Agency for Marine and Water Management is doubling down on the ban, despite claims by the U.S. government that the reasoning behind the proposed ban isn’t backed by science.

Swedish officials said that part of the ban is based around protecting native lobster species from a trio of diseases: epizootic shell disease, gaffkemia or "red-tail" and white spot syndrome. The possibility of those diseases affecting European lobsters is very unlikely, Robert Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute, told the Portland Press Herald in April.

According to the AP, Sweden's Agency for Marine and Water Management said that the ban is necessary as a precautionary measure because although American lobsters haven’t overtaken native lobster species there is “no guarantee that the same species will not be successfully invasive in another place or time." The agency also said that more research must be done about the impact of cross-breeding American and European lobsters.

The European Union's Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species is expected to announce its opinion about the proposed ban on Aug. 31, according to the AP.

Photo: Tom Thai, Flickr

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