Multiple factors in marine environments affecting lobster survival, development, and growth, with emphasis on alkylphenols: a perspective

Abstract

A major die-off of the American lobster (Homarus americanus) population in Long Island Sound (LIS) occurred in 1999, involving multiple causes, including increases of temperatures, decreasing oxygen concentrations, and pollutants. Other possible affectors were stress to their immune system, microbial population changes, which may have induced shell disease, water acidification, and insecticides. We examined LIS alkylphenol pollution. Alkylphenols, alkylphenol ethoxylates, and bisphenol A (BPA) are produced in excessive amounts, with BPA estimated at 8 billion pounds per year (1 lb = 0.453 kg). Sixty percent of alkylphenols enter the marine environment and have estrogenic endocrine-disrupting effects on vertebrates. We found multiple effects of alkylphenols on lobsters, on larval survival, molting and postlarval molting, shell hardening, and interference in metamorphosis causing larval–juvenile intermediates. We also found evidence for a basic molecular mechanism of action for alkylphenols through juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysone receptors. Alkylphenols appear to have contributed to the decrease in the LIS lobster population. We recommend remediation, reducing, or eliminating alkylphenols from the marine environment to protect lobsters as well as other organisms.