PENOBSCOT BAY — Noting more extensive mercury contamination of the Penobscot River and its outlet to the bay, the Maine Department of Marine Resources has extended its lobster and crab closure area near Cape Jellison in Stockton Springs to Perkins Point, in Castine.

The DMR announced its decision today, June 21, in response to data gathered during 2014. The closure area will be added through rulemaking that takes effect today.

In February 2014, the department closed an area in the river that extends from Wilson Point across to Fort Point and north into the river after receiving information from a federal court-ordered study, the Penobscot River Mercury Study (PRMS). The PRMS, as part of a federal lawsuit (Maine People’s Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council v. Mallinckrodt, Inc.), evaluated mercury levels in water, soil, sediment, and biota in the Penobscot River from 2006 through 2012. 

The May 2016 document, Penobscot River Estuary Lobster and Rock Crab Mercury Study, resulted from concern over contaminants leaching into the river from the the Mallinckrodt facility, formerly known as the HoltraChem Manufacturing Company. The facility sits on 235 acres on the banks of the Penobscot River in Orrington. The plant operated under several owners from 1967 through 2000. The facility manufactured chlorine, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach), hydrochloric acid and chloropicrin (a pesticide). See site information for more.

The area within the 2014 closure where lobster harvesting had occurred is approximately 7 square miles. The Gulf of Maine is 14,000 square miles in size. The additional area adds nearly 5.5 square miles to the closure, bringing total closure area to more than 12 square miles.

Data from DMR monitoring work done in 2014 are from areas inside the original closure, including Odom Ledge, South Verona, and Fort Point, and three areas outside the closure, including Cape Jellison, Turner Point, and Sears Island. All areas had been previously sampled except Cape Jellison. Results from the PRMS and 2014 DMR sampling were similar in that mercury concentrations in lobster tail and claw tissue decreased geographically from north to south.

Levels in lobsters sampled from the Cape Jellison shore, an area immediately adjacent to the closure, and the shore adjacent to Turner Point, were lower than most of the other areas sampled in 2014 yet elevated enough to warrant including in the closure, the DMR said, in a June 21 news release.

On average, tails in 40 legal size lobsters harvested for testing during 2014 along the south eastern shore of Cape Jellison contained 292.7 nanograms (a billionth of a gram) of mercury per gram of tissue (ng/g) while claws contained much less, at 139.2 ng/g. 

In addition to lobsters, crabs were also included in the original closure and evaluated in the on-going monitoring work. "Despite insufficient data on crabs in the PRMS study, we wanted to include them in the initial closure as a precaution," said Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, in a news release. "While the 2014 study does not show levels of concern for crabs, the closure will continue to include crabs because of enforcement challenges and to provide time to continue to analyze the data.

The department will host a public meeting to discuss the closure at the Bucksport Area Performing Arts Center at the Bucksport Middle School at 100 Miles Lane in Bucksport on Tuesday, June 28, at 5:30 p.m.

A Frequently Asked Question document and a copy of the report titled "Penobscot River Estuary Lobster and Rock Crab Mercury Study" can be found at http://1.usa.gov/28KT7xo.